Growing up in Côte Saint-Luc, where I still live and have served on city council for 19 years, my fondest memories go back to the days when I played in the local sports leagues. Front and center during all of those years, as a volunteer for minor hockey and baseball and a player/coach, was Kenny Saxe.
I have been thinking a lot about Kenny since I learned of his passing last week. Our sympathies go to his family, notably sons Glenn and Gary whom I grew up with.
Kenny was incredibly devoted. In the CSL Slo Pitch Association he managed and played for a team sponsored by the Famous Delly Boys. After most games you would find Kenny and the boys enjoying a smoked meat sandwich.
In what turned out to be my last year as hockey player, I was playing in the local CSL Midget league. My goal was to make it to the higher level squad that played in a league with teams from Hampstead, Montreal West and Ville St. Pierre. One night I got a call at home from Kenny. His team was down a man and he and co-coach, the late Solly Levine, wanted to add me to the roster for one game. I jumped at the opportunity, suiting up as number 17 for the CSL Cougars and setting up the winning goal. After the game Kenny came and told me: “Good game Mike! We want to keep you on the team.”
In my last game I was knocked off balance by a player from Hampstead and hit the ice hard, crushing two vertebrae on my spine. I was taken to the hospital and what followed was a long recovery. The following season I resurfaced as a writer for The Monitor Newspaper, with the assignment to write a weekly column on minor hockey in CSL. Now I was interviewing Kenny and Solly.
“Kenny was a ‘giant’ in the early history and growth of minor hockey and minor baseball in Côte Saint-Luc,” said former Recreation Department sports league guru Harold Cammy. “ He was always known for his humility, warm smile, good humour, and kindness to all. He took great pleasure in his volunteering activities and when he arrived at the arena or the baseball field it was easy to see he was ‘where he belonged.’ I had the good fortune of bumping into (Kenny) at the Montreal eye care clinic a few years ago…thanks to the long wait for the eye doctor we took the opportunity to reminisce about our times in Cote Saint-Luc sports. The smile on his face and the look in his eyes while he spoke of those days clearly told me that when we bumped into each other on that day ‘it was meant to be.’ My condolences (to the family) in knowing how much your dad was so respected and admired!"
Ricky Steinberg, who also worked closely with Kenny as a hockey volunteer, called him “a tireless worker and very dedicated ensuring that our youth had a great minor hockey program. Kenny was a prolific hockey coach and a builder of minor hockey and baseball programs. He was one of the first coaches to take our hockey teams on cultural exchanges and various hockey tournaments. Kenny worked with me in hosting the first Côte St Luc-CBC Baseball Tournament . Besides all the accolades for his numerous community achievements, Kenny was an honest and sincere individual always putting others before himself.”
My old hockey teammate Leon Krantzberg (number 16) says he has fond memories of Kenny coaching him in minor league hockey and then through spending some time at his house. “As my mother didn’t drive and my father had to work, he generously gave us lifts to and from the hockey rink,” Leon recalls.
Rest in peace Kenny!
