“We do this for Joan” – kinesiology students and faculty team up for 23rd annual Heimbecker Memorial Cup

Matt Renwick apologizes for running a few minutes late – he’s been collecting donations from local businesses that are sponsoring this year’s Heimbecker Memorial Cup.

He’s also been working out last minute details with the city and the municipal rink that’s hosting the 23^rd annual hockey game between kinesiology undergrads and a team of grad students and faculty on March 27.

Renwick’s played the past two years, centering a line with his supervisor Martin Gibala on right wing. The kinesiology professor holds the record for most games played yet has a long way to go to claim the all-time scoring title. “Marty grinds it out in the corners and plays hard in front of the net,” says Renwick when asked about his veteran linemate.

A few weeks after starting at Mac as a PhD student, a lab mate asked Renwick if he played hockey. Renwick was ready then and there to lace up his skates. “I’m always up for a game.” This is when he first learned about the memorial cup and heard Joan Heimbecker’s story. Once you hear her story, you don’t forget it, says Renwick.

He’s playing again this year while shouldering some added responsibilities – stepping up is the default setting for students, faculty and staff in kinesiology. It meant getting out of the lab and trying his hand at event management and fundraising. And like everyone in Kin, Renwick is quick to credit the team he’s been working with for months to organize the game.

Renwick took on the added work while juggling his responsibilities as a PhD student because he knows this is about much more than a hockey game. “We do this for Joan.”

Heimbecker was a beloved kinesiology grad student and a star student and athlete. “While I only knew Joan for about seven months, we were part of a very close-knit group of about a dozen students who became fast friends,” Gibala wrote in a 2011 op-ed in the Hamilton Spectator.

On March 30, 1994, Heimbecker was murdered in her dorm room by an ex-boyfriend. She was 25 years old.

Her death devastated the department. The Joan Heimbecker Memorial Scholarship was established. The first scholarship was awarded to Jim Lyons, another of Heimbecker’s friends who’s now a retired McMaster kinesiology professor and former department chair. He calls the scholarship the most meaningful honour he’s received in his career.

The Heimbecker Memorial Bursary was added in 2002. A year later, the Kinesiology Graduate Student Association dropped the puck on the first Heimbecker Memorial Cup. Proceeds from the annual game help fund the scholarship and bursary and support a local women’s shelter. Association president Gianni Parise – who’s now McMaster’s Vice President of Research – enshrined the game in the association’s constitution, making it an annual tradition.

Matthew Badour, a fourth-year PhD student with Maureen MacDonald’s Vascular Dynamics Lab, received a 2025 Heimbecker Memorial Bursary. “It’s not just an award – it’s something built and sustained by the McMaster Kinesiology community and it’s a reflection of our department’s culture.”

Badour, who like Renwick has played in the past two cups, has talked with faculty who knew Heimbecker. “Receiving an award in Joan’s name is both an honour and a responsibility. It motivates me to contribute to the department and carry forward her values in my own way.”

Faith Adams also feels the same responsibility to continue Heimbecker’s legacy. The PhD student in Aimee Nelson‘s Neurophysiology and Imaging Lab was awarded the 2025 Heimbecker Scholarship. “This award encourages me to reflect on how I can continue to contribute meaningfully to the Hamilton and McMaster community and lead a life of engagement, leadership, and positivity. Receiving this award is both an honour and a reminder of the environment we are all helping to create here in the Department of Kinesiology, one that Joan would’ve been proud of.”

There’s one other person that students, faculty and staff want to make proud and honour this year. Heimbecker’s friend and roommate Nicola Hodges will be attending her first memorial cup.  Hodges is a University of British Columbia professor and a renowned neuromechanics and motor learning researcher. The game’s always been held while Hodges teaches her final classes of the winter semester at UBC – it’s not easy getting away even for a few days.

“I keep in touch with friends from Mac every year on the anniversary of Joan’s death and Marty (Gibala) fills us in on the Heimbecker Cup,” says Hodges. “Jim (Lyons), one of my good friends from that time, has already retired. Although I don’t know when Marty is planning to retire, I wanted to come back to McMaster whilst he’s still there. I’m definitely excited to be at the game.”

Hodges will also be delivering the department’s March seminar the day before the game, talking about her journeys in motor behavior research and remembering Heimbecker. She has mixed emotions about the seminar. “I feel very fortunate to be able to do it. It’s a way to pay tribute to my friend – despite the angst that comes with revisiting what happened.”

Elizabeth Baker will be at both the seminar and the game. The 4^th year kin student is president of the McMaster Kinesiology Society. The society has the Heimbecker Trophy displayed in their office after the undergrads won last year’s game in a blowout. So many pucks were going in the net that the refs stopped keeping count, says Baker.

Like Renwick, she was told Heimbecker’s story soon after arriving at Mac.

“Knowing Joan’s story raises awareness about domestic violence, that it can happen to anyone and we need to be there to support others. It’s an issue that needs to be talked about – it shouldn’t be a taboo topic. Honoring Joan keeps that conversation going.”

The undergrad society is heavily involved in the memorial cup through recruiting players, fundraising throughout the year and assembling an all-star team of volunteers to help out at the rink on game day.

Baker says it’s far and away her favourite event of the year in kinesiology. “Everyone turns out – undergrads, grad students, faculty and their families – and we’re all there supporting such a great cause. It reinforces our sense of community in Kin.”

Both Baker and Renwick agree Heimbecker’s presence and impact on the department extends beyond the scholarship, bursary, the annual hockey game and her portrait that hangs in the lobby of the Ivor Wynne Centre.

Everyone in kinesiology adheres to the department’s zero tolerance policy when it comes to sexual harassment and violence in any form.

There’s mandatory training for everyone in a supervisory role and it’s why doors remain open during faculty office hours. “Kin is always rolling out initiatives and adopting best practices when it comes to safe spaces,” says Renwick. “You can never do enough to look out, and look after, each other.”

Kinesiology’s always felt like a safe environment during her four years at McMaster, says Baker. “There’s mutual respect among students, faculty and staff. It’s a shared responsibility that we all uphold.”

Return to Mac(K): Journeys in Motor Behavior and a Tribute to Joan Heimbecker with guest speaker Dr. Nicola Hodges will be held Thursday, March 26 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. in TSH B128. The seminar is open to all kinesiology students and the McMaster community.

The 23^rd annual Heimbecker Memorial Cup will be held at the J.L. Grightmire Market Street Arena in Dundas on Friday, March 27 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Click here to order tickets or to make a donation to the Heimbecker Memorial Scholarship and Bursary.