For more than four decades, Father George Kehoe has been in the mainstream of sport in Nova Scotia, in the course of which he has won distinction as player, coach and administrator.

It is in the category of builder that the Nova Scotia Sport Heritage Hall of Fame honors him particularly on this occasion, while aware that his credentials in other areas are no less impressive.

As a youthful athlete at Sydney Academy, this splendidly built student drew attention to his very considerable athletic capabilities. His native modesty and his unassuming manner belied a flaming competitive spirit which was quick to assert itself when he found himself in action. At Sydney Academy, the proving ground of so many future athletic stars, he became prominent in rugby, basketball and hockey. In the Fall of 1948 he came to St. F.X. University where he soon won recognition as a member of the varsity basketball, rugby and hockey teams. Although he played basketball only one year, it was a memorable one, for St. F.X. won the Maritime Intercollegiate and Canadian Intermediate championships in that ’48-’49 season.

His natural skills, as well as his versatility, were amply demonstrated in rugby where he was an important factor in the success of St. F.X. teams from 1948 to 1951, which captured Maritime Intercollegiate and Senior titles as well as the McTier Cup in a stirring contest against McGill University.

“Porgy”, as he was familiarly known, reserved some of his best talents for hockey as a stalwart defenseman on Xaverian teams of exceptional quality which won not only Maritime Intercollegiate and Maritime Senior titles, but which advanced to the Allan Cup quarter finals. George was captain of the varsity squad in 1951-52.

On his return to St. F.X. he served as hockey coach for a 10-year period and in 1967 he was named Director of Athletics, a position he still occupies.

He has had an enormous influence, not only on the student personnel in his own university, but across the entire Maritime Intercollegiate scene where he has helped to bring sport to the high level it now occupies. He has demonstrated wise counsel as past vice-president of the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (CIAU) and he is currently in his second term as President of the Atlantic Universities Athletic Association (AUAA). He is a member of the    St. F.X. Sports Hall of Fame.

Not content with having his university represented on intercollegiate teams in hockey, football, basketball, rugby, field hockey, volleyball, cross-country and soccer — with women’s teams in the last six mentioned categories as well — 87 per cent of the student population at his university take part in a carefully structured intramural program. “One of our objectives,” he explains, “is to come as close as possible to full, active participation by the students in sports activities.”

Bio Courtesy of Cecil MacLean