He is unquestionably the most decorated athlete in the rich 55-year history of the All Native Basketball Tournament and in 2015 Sid Edenshaw will be the lone inductee into the All native Basketball Tournament Hall of Fame.
"He is, in our minds, the greatest player to ever compete in the tournament and this is something that is long overdue," said All Native basketball Tournament president Peter Haugan, who added the decision to induct Edenshaw alone was unanimous among the board.
The induction comes 30 years after Edenshaw won his first Most Valuable Player award and he has been a dominant force in the game ever since. The statistics truly speak for themselves: Edenshaw has been a part of approximately 20 championship teams over in four different decades and he has been named MVP a record seven times in three different divisions, being named Intermediate MVP in 1984, Senior MVP in 1985, 1988, 1989, 1994 and 1998 and taking the honour in the Masters Division in 2005.
If there were any question about whether or not he could still be a force in the game this late in his career, Edenshaw put them to rest when he helped Hydaburg defend its Senior Division title 2010 after capturing the Masters Division title in 2009.
In past years the tournament has inducted a mix of players, coaches and tournament builders into the Hall of Fame during a ceremony at the tournament. But Haugan said Edenshaw deserves a class of his own.
"His going on his own is our way of showing we feel he is the best player ever," he said, noting Edenshaw hasn't been inducted in the past because the committee only recently took to inducting active players.