ALEX JESAULENKO - Australian football
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Although 43 years have passed, children still walk past Alex Jesaulenko on the street, catch a glimpse of the now balding and bespectacled AFL legend, and yell at the top of their lungs: ''Jesaulenko, you beauty!''
His ''mark of the century'' for Carlton over Collingwood's Graeme Jenkin in the 1970 grand final is the moment that will forever define his time on a footy field.
But on Friday, as the 68-year-old accepted the accolade as the ACT's Athlete of the Century, he talked more of memories that will define his time on this planet.
Like being a boy, playing on Canberra's Capital Hill, rabbiting and running amok.
''It was my playground,'' he said, before smirking.
''Nobody asked for my permission to build Parliament House there, now it's the playground of politicians.
''I'm a Canberra boy, this is where I was raised, went to school, played all my sport. This is where I was married. Wherever I've gone, I still call Canberra home. I'm very honoured to be chosen for this award.''
It's why Jesaulenko doesn't want this year's ASADA controversy to define another Canberra boy. James Hird.
Hird has been banned from coaching for a year for his role in Essendon's supplements scandal.
The ACT Sports Hall of Fame board will meet next week to decide if Hird should retain his place.
Jesaulenko is defiant that Hird will always remain a champion.
''James Hird was a player I loved watching because whenever the ball was near him the game would go into slow motion. He'd get the ball, there'd be players slowly running past him and then he'd handball and kick it and it would speed up again. It was just incredible and there's not many players that have that ability.
''I'll only remember him as a footballer, not what's going on now.
''He's got family behind him, he's got the club backing him, he'll get through this and always be remembered as a champion player.''
Jesaulenko's career, too, was more than just one screaming mark. He played in six VFL grand finals with Carlton, winning four.
He's still the only Blues player to have kicked 100 goals in a season.
He was selected in the AFL Team of the Century in 1996 and was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 2006. In 2008 he was elevated to AFL legend status.
He doesn't watch much AFL any more, describing it as nothing more than ''a game of keepings-off''.
But Jezza has his memories.
''I don't want to criticise today's game, it's their game and I've had my day. I have great memories of a great game called Australian rules. As long as they don't call AFL Australian rules I'm happy.''
HEATHER McKAY - Squash
While she lost only twice in an international squash career that spanned more than 20 years, Heather McKay still remembers the taste of defeat.
''The first one [in 1960] was to the No.1 seed in the tournament,'' McKay says. ''Then my second loss was my first trip to England [1962] - I lost the final to the then British champion, Fran Marshall. They were good learning curves, I suppose.''
It's the understatement of the century by the ACT's Female Athlete of the Century.
From 1962-81 McKay taught the squash world a lesson.
She grew up in Queanbeyan and first played tennis and then progressed to hockey - and the Australian team.
In an attempt to get fit for hockey, she dabbled in squash.
A year later she was the Australian champion.
McKay won 16 consecutive British Open titles, then regarded as the world championship, between 1962 and 1977.
She took out the inaugural women's world title in 1979.
In 1981, undefeated since 1962, she retired at age 40.
She had been invincible, but never thought of herself that way.
''You've got to be joking, never,'' McKay protested.
''Every time I used to go on the court, I'd play as hard as I could. Never, ever would I have said I'd win a tournament before I played in it.
''I always felt when I got tired, I knew the other girl was tired. That's when I pushed a little bit harder. I'm sure a lot of the time they probably didn't know how close they were to causing an upset.''
Now 72, McKay is again playing tennis, up to three times a week. She won a world seniors title in that, too, in 2000.
''I'm still back on the tennis court after a full knee replacement,'' she said. ''It's such an honour to receive this accolade.''
MIRIAM MANZANO - Figure Skating
As the Winter Olympics approach in February 2014 Miriam Manzano will be reminded of the one regret from 15 years as a representative figure skater for Australia.
A six-time national champion and nine-time representative at the world championships, Manzano never got the chance to skate at an Olympics.
She retired after being controversially overlooked for the 2006 Turin Olympics. She was Australian champion that year, but Ice Skating Australia had selected rival Joanne Carter from a one-off event more than a year out from the Games.
Manzano took her fight to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which criticised the selection criteria but did not overturn the selection.
''That was hard for me to grasp,'' Manzano admits.
''It's hard because it's an athlete's dream to make it to the pinnacle of the sport, and for me that was the Olympics.
''That always plays on my mind a little bit. But as time goes on it gets easier.
''When I finished it was very fresh and you only see the one failure. But when you reflect on the whole journey you think 'I did some cool stuff'.''
Manzano now coaches at the Phillip Ice Rink.
JEREMY PAUL - Rugby union
No sooner had former ACT Brumbies and Australian Wallabies hooker Jeremy Paul been inducted into the ACT Hall of Fame, than he was making his own nomination.
''I get to tell everyone I played with George Smith,'' Paul said, referring to his former Brumbies teammate who made a starring return to the club this season.
Smith's time will come, given Brumbies already inducted into the Hall of Fame include winger Joe Roff and hard-nosed prop Geoff Didier.
Paul was one of the cornerstones during the glory years for the Brumbies, playing 112 Super Rugby matches for the club and representing Australia in 72 Tests.
He can see similarities emerging in the current Brumbies squad, and is excited by their appearance in this year's Super Rugby grand final.
''I look back at 2000 we made that final and lost it. The next year we went one better because players matured and got involved with the Wallabies system. Players came back from the Wallabies with a lot more confidence, I know I did.''
''It's going to come down to their mental capacity, how they react. But there is some really good culture developing at the club again.''
SIOBHAN PATON - Swimming
When swimmer Jacqueline Freney broke Siobhan Paton's Australian record with a haul of eight gold medals at the London Paralympics in 2012, Paton celebrated and sent her a congratulatory message.
Paton was coached by Freney's grandfather, Peter, and has a photo of a young Jacqueline wearing one of the six individual gold medals Paton won at the Sydney 2000 Paralympics.
That was the first and last Paralympics Paton, then only 17, had the chance to contest. The International Paralympic Committee suspended all athletes with intellectual disabilities after the Spanish basketball team's infamous cheating in 2000, using players without a disability.
''They robbed me of opportunities, I had people from the [Australian Paralympic Committee] say if the basketballers didn't do that I would have been one of the most famous Paralympians of all time,'' Paton said.
During her career, Paton broke more than 100 world records in her class. She received a Medal of the Order of Australia.
Paton was delighted that athletes with an intellectual disability were welcomed back to the Paralympics in 2012, but also to be recognised for her achievements in the ACT Hall of Fame.
''This is absolutely wonderful, considering all the events that happened after 2000.''
BRONWYN CALVER - Cricket
Former Australian cricketer Bronwyn Calver was convinced to return to the nets this season, last weekend winning the inaugural ACT indoor cricket title. The prize was the Bronwyn Calver Cup.
Rather sheepishly, the 43-year-old admitted she had also won the Bronwyn Calver Medal as the best ACT Meteors women's cricketer, when she had previously been coaxed out of retirement in 2006, to help prepare the team for the women's national league.
''My friends joke with me about it, but Steve Waugh won the Steve Waugh Medal [for best NSW Cricketer in 2003], so I'm in good company,'' a self-deprecating Calver said.
Calver played three Tests, 34 one-day internationals and competed in two World Cups for Australia. She also played eight seasons for NSW in the national women's league, winning seven titles.
But, having taken up the sport at 11, playing with family rates among her highlights.
''I didn't even know women played cricket,'' Calver said. ''I actually played in the same team as my mum and in one game my grandmother filled in for us, otherwise we would have had to forfeit.
''I also played with my dad in [ACT] grade cricket. I remember him dropping a catch off my bowling … I'll never let him forget it.''
FRANK CLEARY - Racing
Having trained almost 2000 winners in 41 years of racing, Frank Cleary says he felt pressure once.
It was 1992 and his horse Clan O'Sullivan was carrying Canberra's expectations, touted to become the first local horse to win the territory's premier race, the Black Opal.
''My wedding day and when Clan O'Sullivan was the first local horse to win the Black Opal,'' Cleary, 65, said.
''Everyone was saying he's got to win, we're sick of the Black Opal going to Sydney and Melbourne. When he bolted in, I said 'I'm going for a drink'.''
Cleary jokes he hasn't stopped since.
The party after he became the first trainer to win the Black Opal-Golden Slipper double with Catbird in 1999 is infamous. ''It went for about a week, he's still the only horse to have done that double,'' Cleary said, admitting he doesn't have all the silverware to show for it. ''[Raiders legend] Ricky Stuart lost the trophy on me.''
Cleary still trains a small string of horses from his Queanbeyan stables.
''Being inducted to the Hall of Fame is a wonderful thrill,'' he said.
''I honestly thought it was someone taking the mickey out of me.''
ROBERT MOUATT - Orienteering
Pardon the pun, but no one has put orienteering on the map in the ACT quite like Bob Mouatt.
In 2010 he was recognised with a Medal of the Order of Australia for more than three decades as an administrator of the sport.
Recognised in the ACT Hall of Fame for his management, aged 74, he still finds a way to compete ''even though I've had a knee replacement and can only walk … it's brains over brawn'', Mouatt says.
Mouatt began orienteering in 1977 and has held board positions with the ACT and national bodies. He will be one of the administrators when the Australian Championship Carnival is contested in Canberra from September 28.
''[This induction] is an honour for the sport and reflects on the people who've supported me over the years,'' Mouatt said.
''There's no one highlight, just the fact I've been able to introduce so many people to the sport.
''There's no city in the world that has as many venues with as much diversity as here in Canberra.''
