Aldon Lewis Lenard

Aldon Lewis Lenard (January 6, 1921 in northern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

– February 23, 2007 in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between Toro ...

, Canada) was an

athlete An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...

, university

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

, athletics administrator,

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

, and

referee A referee is an official, in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The official tasked with this job may be known by a variety of other titl ...

. Lenard was born in

and moved to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

with his family at age three. They settled in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the souther ...

, where Lenard completed high school and played a range of sport, including

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

, and

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

. He played semi-professional football with the

Hamilton Flying Wildcats The Hamilton Wildcats were a Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario that played in the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) from 1941 to 1947, and in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) from 1948 to 1949. The team was formed ...

and the

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

Tigers (today merged into the

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Fiel ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

) in the

Ontario Rugby Football Union The Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) was an early amateur Canadian football league comprising teams in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ORFU was founded on Saturday, January 6, 1883 and in 1903 became the first major competition to adopt th ...

for two seasons, and was a

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

, kicker, and defender. He was a national All-Star for two seasons. He joined the

Royal Canadian Navy The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN; french: Marine royale canadienne, ''MRC'') is the Navy, naval force of Canada. The RCN is one of three environmental commands within the Canadian Armed Forces. As of 2021, the RCN operates 12 frigates, four attack s ...

in 1941, served for four years during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, and won a number of field events at service meets, such as the discus and the

javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon, but today predominantly for sport. The javelin is almost always thrown by hand, unlike the sling, bow, and crossbow, which launch projectiles with th ...

. At the war's end, Lenard enrolled in the Physical and Health Education (today the

Kinesiology Kinesiology () is the scientific study of human body movement. Kinesiology addresses physiological, anatomical, biomechanical, pathological, neuropsychological principles and mechanisms of movement. Applications of kinesiology to human health ...

and Health Studies) program at Queen's University. He played

and starred at

, and won the Jenkins Trophy as the outstanding student-athlete in his graduating year, 1950. He was a conference All-Star for two seasons. He was a member of the first-ever class to graduate from Queen's with undergrad degrees in physical and health education. He also played varsity

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

, and

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

for Queen's. Lenard then enrolled in a

Master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

program at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. He did his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, and returned to Queen's in 1954 to join the faculty, teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses. He was eventually appointed as full professor. He became an assistant football coach at Queen's in 1954, and stayed with that until 1970, contributing to Queen's first

Vanier Cup The Vanier Cup (french: Coupe Vanier) is the championship of Canadian university football. It is organized by U Sports football and is currently played between the winners of the Uteck Bowl and the Mitchell Bowl. It is named after Georges Vanier, ...

title in 1968 under head coach Frank Tindall; Queen's also won eight

Yates Cup The Yates Cup (french: La Coupe Yates) is a Canadian sports trophy, presented annually to the winner of the Ontario University Athletics football conference of U Sports. It is the oldest still-existing football trophy in North America, dating back ...

titles during that stretch, out of 17 seasons. There was no true Canadian national university football championship prior to 1965, but the

Old Four The Old Four is a soccer conference composed of four public institutions of higher education in Central Canada. The name is also an appellation for the four universities as a group, consisted of McGill University, Queen's University, Universit ...

league, which comprised Queen's, the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

, and the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...

, was generally respected as the top university football league in the country. Lenard also coached the golf team with success for many years into the 1980s, winning several conference titles. He was appointed in 1963 as

Athletic Director An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and ...

for Queen's, and served in that post for 20 years, until 1983. During that time, from 1972, the Ontario University Athletics Association (OUAA, today

Ontario University Athletics Ontario University Athletics (OUA; french: Sports universitaires de l'Ontario) is a regional membership association for Canadian universities which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providin ...

(OUA)) group unified its operations to include all provincial institutions which wanted to compete, under one league structure; before that, there had been several separate leagues. Lenard led the move to overcome resistance to change. Today, the OUA, with 19 member institutions, is the largest university sports conference in the world. Under Lenard's leadership, Queen's expanded from 19 to 42 varsity teams, the most in the country, and fielded teams in every available varsity sport. Queen's also opened a new and greatly expanded athletics complex in 1971, to meet rising enrollment from

baby-boomers Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the Western demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the mid-20th century baby boom. The ...

who were reaching university age. Lenard was elected President of the National Athletic Director's Association in 1972, and Vice-President of the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU, today

Canadian Interuniversity Sport U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Can ...

(CIS)) in 1973. He served as Chairman of the CIAU Administrative Council from 1973–74, Chairman of the OUAA Administrative Council from 1974–76, and President of the OUAA from 1980-1988. He was also a basketball referee for 12 seasons, and managed the Kingston City Basketball League. Lenard was a recipient of the J.P. Loosemore Award from the OUAA for outstanding service to university athletics. He was inducted into the Queen's University Golden Gaels Football Hall of Fame, the Queen's University Golden Gaels Coaches' Hall of Fame, and the Kingston and District Sports Hall of Fame. Lenard wrote the book ''How to Play Canadian Football''. He had won the inaugural Kingston City Golf Championship in 1957, and many more golf club championships and local events. Lenard continued to compete very avidly and successfully at golf,

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...

, and

curling Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding ...

, until suffering a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

in 2001 at age 80, from which he lost the use of his right side. His final years were quiet, but he lived to see the planning for the Queen's Centre, the next generation Athletics and Student Life Centre for the campus. This new project was the most complex and most expensive (slated for $230 million) ever undertaken at any Canadian university, and had its groundbreaking ceremony on March 2, 2007. Lenard died at age 86 in Kingston on February 23, 2007. His wife Jean, whom he had married in 1946, died ten days later, on March 7, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lenard, Aldon Lewis 1921 births 2007 deaths Canadian military personnel of World War II Hamilton Tiger-Cats players Queen's University at Kingston alumni Queen's Golden Gaels football players University of Michigan alumni University of Illinois alumni Queen's University at Kingston faculty Players of Canadian football from Ontario Canadian non-fiction writers Writers from Kingston, Ontario Writers from Windsor, Ontario Sportspeople from Kingston, Ontario Sportspeople from Windsor, Ontario 20th-century non-fiction writers Italian emigrants to Canada