Aldon Lewis Lenard Aldon Lewis Lenard ( born northern Italy January 6 , 1921 , died Kingston , Ontario , Canada February 23 , 2007 ) was an all - around athlete , university professor , athletics administrator , coach , and referee . He has been called the best all - round athlete to ever be associated with Queen ' s University . Lenard was born in Italy and moved to Canada with his family at age three . They settled in Windsor , Ontario , where Lenard completed high school and excelled in virtually every sport he attempted , including football , basketball , and track and field . He played semi - professional football with the Hamilton Flying Wildcats and the Hamilton Tigers ( today merged into the Hamilton Tiger - Cats of the Canadian Football League ) in the Ontario Rugby Football Union for two seasons , and was a superb quarterback , kicker , and defender . He was a national All - Star for two seasons . He joined the Royal Canadian Navy in 1941 , served for four years during World War II , and won a number of field events at service meets , such as the discus and the javelin , handily beating the best Americans and Britons who were also posted at the same bases . At the war ' s end , Lenard enrolled in the Physical and Health Education ( today the Kinesiology and Health Studies ) program at Queen ' s University . He played football and starred at quarterback , 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 basketball , golf , track and field , swimming , and softball for Queen ' s . Lenard then enrolled in a Master ' s program at the University of Michigan . At that time , it was virtually impossible to do graduate work in his field in Canada . He did his doctorate at the University of Illinois , 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 title in 1968 under head coach Frank Tindall ; Queen ' s also won eight Yates Cup titles during that stretch , out of 17 seasons . There was no true Canadian national university football championship prior to 1965 , but the Old Four league , which comprised Queen ' s , the University of Toronto , McGill University , and the University of Western Ontario , 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 . Lenard ' s coaching blended exceptional skill and knowledge , positive feedback and encouragement , incisive analysis and constructive criticism , guided by a steady hand . He was appointed in 1963 as Athletic Director 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 ( 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 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 ( 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 . A remarkable feature of his all - round abilities was the combination of teaching , coaching , administration , active competition , and national sports leadership , all with great success . 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 . He was shooting his age when in his mid - 70s ; this is one of golf ' s rarest and toughest feats , and he would compete actively against his own golf team ' s members , even while spotting them 40 or more years . Lenard continued to compete very avidly and successfully at golf , bowling , and curling , until suffering a stroke 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 will be 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 .