• Key player on the U of A women's basketball team (1944-46), which won the Western Conference Championship in 1945.
• The first woman to be awarded a U of A executive gold ring for her contributions to women's intramurals and the Women's Athletic Association.
• Served as president of the Alberta Women's Golf Association.
• Through her high-school teaching and coaching, Sylvia improved opportunities for girls and women in sport.

Sylvia (Callaway) Grant was born in Donnelly Heights, Alberta and later attended school in Edmonton. Her early attraction to dance, gymnastics and other sports led to an outstanding sports career in basketball, volleyball and track at Victoria High School. It was here that she earned high academic honours which enabled her to acquire a three-year bursary from the IODE (Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire) to attend the University of Alberta. This award was especially meaningful since her brother Richard had won a similar award in 1939. Subsequently he enlisted in the Canadian Army and in 1944 gave his life at Ortona, Italy. Sylvia remained active for almost 50 years as an executive member in the IODE whose focus is helping the disadvantaged, furthering education, encouraging the arts and preserving Canada's heritage. In 1977, she was honoured by the award of a Life Membership.

At the University of Alberta she took a B.Ed. (1946) focused on History, English, and French adding extra courses in French, as well as physical education. During the last of her three seasons in university basketball, she was a member and president of the first team to be called "Pandas," a team which also won the Race Trophy as Western university champions. In 1945, she received her White Blazer, the major athletic award for women. Her important contributions to student affairs included directing women's intramural sport, serving as a women's sports editor on the Gateway and heading the Women's Athletic Association, all of which earned her the first executive gold ring awarded to a woman.

Following graduation, Sylvia taught high school in Red Deer for four years where she coached both boys and girls teams in basketball, volleyball and track. A two-year appointment at McCauley school in Edmonton ended when she left teaching and moved to Calgary with her husband David to raise their young family of three. Aside from coaching, her own athletic career was continued over these years playing senior basketball, golf and in competitive curling.

In Calgary, she continued her work with the IODE, the Church and in the community and turned her attention to her own curling and golf pursuits. In particular, Sylvia took a special interest in the state of women's golf. She rose through the ranks to the presidency of the Alberta Branch of the Canadian Women's Golf Association and a seat on the national executive. Her work in golf has contributed vastly to improved opportunities for development and competition for girls and women in that sport.