The annual Oshawa Sports Hall of Fame ceremony is slated for May 28 at the General Motors Centre, and a pair of local products with impressive hockey resumes will be joined by a ball player, a dog-sledder and a lacrosse player.

Longtime hockey scout Frank Jay will go into the hall alongside Jerry Welsh, Scott Mann, Bruce Langmaid and the late J.L. Kelly Degray.

Jay, who received the call from Gary Minacs, notifying him of his induction, looks back on his career, which is ongoing as part of the Montreal Canadiens' scouting staff, with great fondness.

But it's the more recent encounters with former players and protege's that bring back the best of memories for the Oshawa resident.

"When you get old like me, you almost become a mentor, which is a compliment," he said recently. "I have a lot of young guys today coming to me and asking how to handle certain things. Those are the things I remember."

Meanwhile, Mann, who has lived in Indianapolis for some 20 years now, returning home, to where it all started, is a huge thrill.

"That's my favourite part when I come back. To see all my friends, buddies that I went to high school with. It's been like 25 years now and we all still keep in touch."

Though Mann was once a member of the Montreal Expos' organization, it was his experience with the Canadian national program that he holds in highest regard.

"I was 18 and the youngest guy on the team," he recalls. "I thought I was just going out to try out for the junior team, but I was doing so well that the senior coaches that were there moved me up to the senior team, so I got to play with the big guys right off the bat."

Mann now runs a brick and drywall supply house in Indianapolis.

As for Langmaid, a star in a sport that would hardly be considered mainstream, he struggled to come to grips with being hall of fame bound.

"It's really a surprise because I had no inclining that someone was going to nominate me," he says. "For the number of people that have been nominated over the years it was really hard in my mind to justify that I was worthy of being inducted."

While Langmaid made his living patrolling the ice and rough terrain outdoors, Jerry Welsh was carving out his niche on the pad at Ohio State University, where he stared as a player, before moving behind the bench to coach the Buckeyes.

The graduate of the Oshawa Minor Hockey Association is looking very much forward to being in town 12 days from now for the ceremony.

"It's always great to be back, and I am sure the ceremony is going to be a great one for all of us," he said.