single into a triple, when he sprinted to third base. He stood, breathing heavily and then collapsed face-first from having been hit in the head with a pitch in an earlier inning. One of the other MPs was a doctor who tried to assist him, but there was little that could be done for Conacher and within twenty minutes he was pronounced dead. The next day Conacher was supposed to attend his daughter's graduation from the University of Toronto. A big funeral was held, and his brother Charlie flew in from England to be there. He was buried at St. Johns York Mills Anglican Church Cemetery in Toronto. Awards He was named Canada's Greatest Male Athlete of the Half-Century (1950). In 1981 the Pro Football Researchers Association called Conacher "Canada's Answer to Jim Thorpe". He is a member of the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame (1955), the Canadian Football Hall of Fame (1963), the Canadian Lacrosse Hall of Fame (1966), and Hockey Hall of Fame (1994). The award for the Canadian Press Canadian male athlete of the year is called the Lionel Conacher Award. Family Conacher's younger brothers, Charlie Conacher, and Roy Conacher, were also Hall of Fame hockey players. His namesake, Lionel Jr., was a first round draft pick in 1960 and played a season with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. His son Brian Conacher represented Canada at the 1964 Winter Olympics and played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, winning a Stanley Cup with them in 1966–67 NHL season. Pete Conacher, Lionel's nephew and the son of Charlie, also played in the NHL, as did another nephew of Lionel's, Murray Henderson, who was the son of Lionel's sister Catherine. Former NHL player Cory Conacher is also a distant relative of Lionel's. Career statistics Ice hockey * Stanley Cup Champion. NHL coaching record See also List of Canadian sports personalities References Citations Bibliography External links History by the Minute Video Lionel Conacher, Greatest Sporting Moments, Virtual Museum of Canada Exhibit 1900 births 1954 deaths Baseball people from Ontario Canadian baseball players Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees Canadian football punters Canadian football running backs Canadian ice hockey coaches Canadian ice hockey defencemen Canadian lacrosse players Canadian people of Scottish descent Canadian male boxers Canadian male sport wrestlers Canadian sportsperson-politicians Chicago Blackhawks players Duquesne Dukes football players Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Ice hockey people from Ontario Ice