Twenty year old Icelandic native Gunnhildur Baldursson -tragically lost her life in a car accident on November 26, 1987. Gunn was a third-year pre-med ‘ A ‘ student at Acadia on a McLeod scholarship, an accomplished violinist and an exceptionally gifted soccer performer.
Having come to Canada during the summer of ’84, she was a member of KCA’s graduating class of June ’85 -being appreciated by both students and staff for her various abilities and warmth of personality.
During her initial year on the Acadia campus, she was a key performer on the club-designated soccer team that seriously challenged for Conference honours. On that occasion, she, Judy. Farrell and Coach Laura Sanders gained all-star distinction as the team dropped a 1-0 decision to Dalhousie in semi-final play. Significantly, that season the highly respected Gunn established a Conference record by scoring eleven goals.
During the ’86- ’87 academic year, Gunn continued to excel in both her studies and athletics. Academically, she was on the Dean’s List and in soccer was the top scorer in the AUAA. For her sterling performances she represented Acadia on the national women’s soccer team.
By the fall of ’87 women’s soccer had been sanctioned as a CIAU sport and the Laura Sanders- directed team had drawn national attention. Losing only twice in fifteen games, posting eleven shutouts and a forty-one to two goals for and against record, Acadia repeated as Conference champions.
Individually, Gunn again was the conference’s leading scorer. In CIAU action that fall the Acadia club fell to McMaster in semi-final play, while personally Gunn was honoured as first-team A1I-Canadian.
On November 30th she was scheduled to travel to British Columbia for another tryout with the national team and to possibly play in Taiwan in mid-December. Following her death this gifted student-athlete was accorded many tributes to honour her memory.
Among such distinctions was the Acadia University-organized annual Gunn Baldursson Soccer Tournament which continues to attract for competition, many teams from across Atlantic Canada.
What an honour it is to induct posthumously to the Acadia Sports Hall of Fame Gunn Baldursson, one of Acadia’s best athletes, the University’s ’87-’88 female athlete-of-the-year and an exemplary human being
