Amateur sports mourning loss of two local sports legends

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This article was published 01/06/2015 (3763 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba is minus a pair of amateur sport legends with the deaths of Frank McKinnon and George Phillips on the weekend.

McKinnon, a member of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame, Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame and Manitoba High School Sports Hall of Fame and the former commissioner of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League, passed away Saturday just short of his 81st birthday.

Phillips, who was 86, passed away Friday. The founder of the Legion Athletic Camp at the International Peace Garden was a track-and-field icon and also a member of the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and the Manitoba High School Sports Hall of Fame.

McKinnon, born in Wellwood, Man., was a hockey, track-and-field and fastball athlete in the Brandon area as a youngster and in his 32-year career as an educator, also developed a close relationship with the Manitoba hockey community.

The former principal at Carman Colleigate also coached star goalie Eddie Belfour during his time at the high school.

Earlier this year, McKinnon was inducted as a Member of the Order of Canada.

He was one of the founding members of the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association.

McKinnon, who was commissioner of the MJHL from 1992-2002, was a member of the executive of Hockey Manitoba (then the Manitoba Amateur Hockey Association) for two decades and was its president for five years.

On a national and international level, McKinnon helped create the Centennial Cup, which has morphed into the RBC Cup, in 1971. In 1979, he became the first chairman of the board of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, which is now Hockey Canada and served in that post until 1982.

In 1981, he was honoured with the Gordon Juckes Award for his efforts in developing amateur hockey on a national level. In 1983, he was named Hockey Canada’s volunteer of the year and later, in 1991, received Hockey Canada’s Order of Merit.

As a member of the IIHF, he was part of the committee that organized the first IIHF World Junior Championship in 1974.

McKinnon was also a director of the Sports Federation of Canada and spent four years as vice-president of the Canadian Olympic Association.

In 1993, McKinnon was named a Life Member of Hockey Canada.

Phillips, a former principal at Kelvin High School and Hugh John McDonald, was inducted into the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.

His energy and dedication in establishing the Legion Athletic Camp was legendary. He was the camp’s director and head coach for 50 years at a place that hosted a wide variety of sports including basketball, cycling, elementary, equestrian, fishing, gymnastics, football, karate, rhythmic gymnastics, rugby, sailing, soccer, track and field, volleyball and weightlifting.

Nearly 40,000 amateur school-aged athletes have now attended the annual summer camp.

In the early days of his career as an educator and phys-ed instructor, Phillips helped organize mobile track and field clinics during summer months, a concept that became reality in his vision for the Legion Athletic Camp.

Phillips was also instrumental in organizing, and was meet director, for the once-popular Red River Relays indoor track meet, held annually at the old Winnipeg Arena.

Phillips developed co-ed models for sport, including for coaching, in the 1960’s, cutting-edge stuff at the time.

Phillips was recognized by Canada’s Governor General with an amateur-sport award in the 1970’s and was the recipient of the Manitoba High Schools Athletic Association certificate of recognition in the first class, 1980.

He was also inducted into the St. John’s Ravenscourt Sports Hall of Fame in 2010.