Two LDSS athletic teachers were honoured in the 1980s

By C. Scott Holland

There was plenty of excitement 35 years ago with Los Angeles holding the Summer Olympics.

For LDSS teacher Al Hudec, that emotion was rather subdued. He was going to the Olympics that summer, but not in the role he had envisioned.

Hudec was a part of the Canadian Olympic Modern Pentathlon team but unfortunately they would not be competing. He was the team’s technical director and at the time stated, “The decision that Canada not compete was not justified. The Canadian team did not have a chance to compete to hone their skills.”

The former coach of Czechoslavakia’s Olympic Pentathlon team realized that Canada’s problem was due to not having been in enough qualifying events , which mainly take place in Europe.

Those events need a minimum of four or more countries. Canada held one in Montreal that featured only France, the US and Canada.

As for the pentathlon itself, it is a sport containing five elements: swimming, fencing, pistol shooting, running and horseback riding.

Despite the disappointment, Hudec attended the 1984 Olympics as a delegate for the Modern Pentathlon World Congress.

AL HUDEC

Anyone who attended LDSS from 1957 to 1981 will remember the head of the physical education department, Ken Myers.

But when he first arrived at LDSS, principal James Hume appointed him to the newly created position of department head.

When he retired in 1981, he had spent nearly 30 years as a teacher and 24 of those were at LDSS.

He was born in Leamington and attended LDSS himself, at the previous school across the street from the one he taught at.

After graduating, he served for three years in the RCAF during WWII.

When the war ended, he became a carpenter’s apprentice but that lasted only six months.

KEN MYERS

He decided to further his education and enrolled at Assumption College (Windsor) where he met his future wife, Helena.

He began teaching a few classes at Assumption and decided to make a career of it. He earned a Bachelor of Physical Education at McMaster University.

After teaching for a year at Chatham Vocational School, he applied for an opening at LDSS.

On his first day, it was Hume who told him he was the head of the physical education department, which surprised him, because he had not applied for that position. Nevertheless, Ken Myers would witness dramatic changes at LDSS during his tenure there.

“When I started, there were about 500 students and physical education was basic football, basketball and track and field,” he said. “By the 1970s, enrollment was over 1,700 and phys-ed included a wide range of off campus sports like bowling, golf, curling and even roller skating.”

Myers’ long career came to an end upon his retirement at age 57 in June 1981.