After 37 years of helping keep Brock University student-athletes healthy, Joe Kenny (MEd ’85) is retiring.

Hired on Sept. 14, 1981, Kenny has been a familiar face around Brock Sports and has been played a key role as head athletic therapist for some of the Badgers’ most significant athletic accomplishments.

“Being in the corner of the mat when the Brock men’s team clinched its first-ever national wrestling championship and then a few weeks later when our men’s basketball team won the CIS national championship was electrifying,” Kenny said. “Who will ever forget the fans wearing the buckets on their heads at our home games that year?”

Joe Kenny, Brock’s Head Athletic Therapist, has helped many student-athletes with various injuries during his more than 30 years with the University.

He also points out Brock’s OUA Championship in women’s basketball under the leadership of Pat Woodburn and Chris Critelli in 1982-83 and the men’s soccer team winning a national title in 2002 as being some of his career highlights.

“That championship soccer game in Ottawa was one of the closest, most tension-filled games I’ve ever seen,” he said.

But more important than witnessing the championships was the work he did with the athletes.

“Caring for them on a daily basis and helping them perform to their very best has been one of the most satisfying aspects of my position as the head athletic therapist,” he said.

In 1984, Brock’s first sports doctor, Don Lorimer, along with Al Gold and Kenny launched the Brock Sports Injury Clinic, which has served thousands of Brock student-athletes, high school athletes and community members over the years.

“It filled a real void in the area of sports injury care,” he said. “I felt very good about Brock’s presence in the sport and health community.”

Kenny also taught clinical therapy and field courses in the Faculty of Applied Health Sciences, watching many students go on to careers in health care and with professional sports teams including the Toronto Raptors, Toronto Maple Leafs,  Ottawa Senators, Toronto Blue Jays , Toronto Argonauts , Hamilton Ticats and many junior hockey teams.

In more recent memory, Kenny said watching the Steel Blade Classic hockey game grow into a sold-out event at the Meridian Centre and become an anchor event for students and alumni has been a big highlight, along with the growth of the basketball games being held in the downtown arena.
As for what comes next, Kenny said he’s looking forward to continuing to teach clinical and field therapy courses and mentoring young students.

“I will miss the excitement and rituals associated with game days, but I won’t miss the bus rides, late nights and weekend work,” he said with a laugh. “I intend to still be on the sidelines cheering the Badgers on, just in a different capacity.”

Kenny, who was honoured Friday at a retirement party alongside retiring Assistant Athletic Director Chris Critelli, will be honoured again Sept. 22  during the Alumni Recognition Reception when he and his wife Karen McAllister-Kenny (MEd ’97) receive the Distinguished Alumni Award by the Brock University Alumni Association.