BREAKING GROUND

MLSE CHAIRMAN LARRY TANENBAUM DONATES $20-MILLION TO KICK-START NEW SPORTS-SCIENCE INSTITUTE AT UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

This story was originally published in the Globe and Mail published on May 21, 2022.

If Larry Tanenbaum has his way, the new institute of sport science at the University of Toronto bearing his name will produce research of global importance that could improve the performance of professional and amateur athletes, and spur scientific discoveries in health and wellness for everyone. But perhaps most important for fans of his pro teams, which include the Toronto Maple Leafs, he is convinced the institute’s work might even offer an edge that could lead to a Stanley Cup.

“There’s not even a question about it,” Tanenbaum, the chairman of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE), said in an interview with the Globe and Mail “This will help us win championships.”

In May 2022, the University of Toronto and Sinai Health hospital network unveiled the Tanenbaum Institute for Science in Sport, a global centre of excellence for high performance sport science and sports medicine kick-started by a $20-million gift from the Larry and Judy Tanenbaum Family Foundation. U of T and Sinai Health will contribute an additional $21.5 million.

The funds will endow a number of positions in rapidly evolving fields, including a chair of musculoskeletal regenerative medicine, a chair in sport science and data modelling, and a professorship in orthopaedic sports medicine. It will also back a research-acceleration fund focused on discoveries across a number of disciplines, from concussions to biomechanics, wearable technologies, nutrition, parasport, orthopaedics, and regenerative medicine.

Tanenbaum said that as an owner of professional sports teams for more than two decades, he has considered the issue of athlete training and injuries. “Are we the best prepared, from a physical point of view, from a training point of view, to win championships?” He added that “championships in some cases rise and fall on whether your one or two or three key players are injured. So, if we can speed recovery by a week, by a month – if we can cut the injury time in half, that gets the player back.”

Ira Jacobs, the interim director of the institute, who stepped down last fall as dean of U of T’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, said that it has been challenging to finance sports medicine research in Canada. “To go through a granting agency, and say that you’re going to be focusing only on high performance athletes, is not a good recipe for success.”

“This gives us resources to recruit and hire great people,” said Jacobs, who noted there is funding for post-doctoral students, fellowships, and trainees in the field. “That’s a dream,” he said. “We have really big expectations of what this will do.”

He noted that the institute will be able to draw on large data, including the approximately 1,000 athletes that comprise U of T’s varsity teams, as well as patients in the Sinai Health system, which includes two hospitals and a research centre.

Alex McKechnie, the vice-president of player health and performance for the Toronto Raptors, who provided input into the development of the institute on behalf of Tanenbaum, said that, as an example, the youth soccer program run by Toronto FC could capture large amounts of health data on athletes as they develop. “You can be tracking these kids through growth states, growth spurts, all of these different areas that are quite interesting: how certain training levels can affect joints, for example.”

– Larry Tanenbaum, chairman of MLSE

He also noted that research that emerges could help teams such as the Raptors size up prospects.

“When we draft a player, we certainly do our due diligence,” he said. If the Raptors are considering signing a player beset by nagging injuries, the team could tap into a deep well of data, compiled by the university, on similar injuries, to be able to offer prognoses and treatments that have worked for players of similar body types.

Kia Nurse, the Canadian-born basketball star who plays for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA, noted that wearable technologies are helping her recover from a torn ACL she suffered last October during a playoff game.

“I wear ankle bracelets every single time that I go to do a workout,” she said. “It tells me how much force I’m putting through both my feet, so you can tell if I’m leaning off of my ACL leg and giving my other leg a little bit too much pressure. I can tell if I’m running equally on both feet.”

She also noted that the institute’s work would benefit diverse populations, including para-athletes.

And Tanenbaum noted that the knowledge that emerges will not just be applicable to professionals. “The information that’s going to come out of this institute is going to benefit all athletes everywhere.”

For the foreseeable future, the institute will exist in a purely virtual form. There is no grand building planned with the Tanenbaum name on it. “That’s not the reason I’m doing this,” Tanenbaum said. “All the money is really directed programmatically. It’s building this program that I truly believe is going to be a globally recognized institute within a short period of time.”

While the institute is not a for-profit undertaking, it may develop intellectual property that can be commercialized and sold to pro sports teams. Still, asked by a reporter how the institute might offer an advantage to the teams of MLSE if its research is designed to be shared with the global sports community, Tanenbaum joked: “Maybe I won’t release it for a year, so we can have the Leafs, the Raptors, and TFC get a head start on it.”

Family ties

As Tom Babits prepared to retire after 28 years at Upper Canada College, he knew he wanted to offer his new-found time and support to important organizations. When he was asked to consider becoming the KPE Alumni Association president, it was a role he couldn’t refuse.

“I have a very strong connection to the University of Toronto. I’ve benefited greatly from it,” he said.

So have three generations of his family, particularly from the KPE program. Babits met his wife Trish when they were both enrolled in the Bachelor of Kinesiology program. When he graduated in 1991, he went on to earn a Master’s in Physiology from U of T before getting a Master of Education and beginning his teaching career.

Their son Paul graduated from the KPE program in 2022 and is currently earning a Master of Science in Kinesiology, specializing in muscle physiology with Associate Professor Daniel Moore from the Iovate Lab in the Goldring Centre for High Performance Sport. Their youngest son John is finishing his fourth year of the undergraduate program at KPE and aspires to be a strength and conditioning coach.

But that’s not where the connection ends. “My parents came to Canada from Hungary as refugees after the 1956 Revolution. My dad ended up coming to Canada and Toronto because of a joint sponsorship between the federal government and U of T,” says Babits.

“I wouldn’t be here without U of T. Now that my sons are graduating, it just feels like it’s the place to be.”

He’s excited about Dean Gretchen Kerr’s vision for the future of the KPE program and is eager to support it. In addition, one of his retirement goals is to find meaningful opportunities to contribute to systemic change in education writ large, sustainability and social justice issues, particularly truth and reconciliation.

“These are all things the KPE Faculty is concerned about working towards. I’m excited and energized by the opportunity to be part of U of T’s efforts on these matters,” he says.

As alumni president, he hopes to find ways to reconnect all KPE alumni. “When I was in the program there was a strong sense of community. It was smaller then – there were fewer than 100 people in my graduating class – and a lot of us have stayed in touch.

“There are thousands of alumni out there, and I think it would be really interesting to have a better sense of the kinds of things people are doing or have done.” —

Heather Hudson

When Kyla Crocker talks about her job, she radiates passion and energy.

As the program director of MOVE by GoodLife Kids, she puts into practice what she learned in U of T’s Master of Professional Kinesiology (MPK) program, especially the Sensory Motor Instructional Leadership Experience (SMILE) component.

Crocker was introduced to SMILE as an undergrad in kinesiology at Acadia University. She was immediately taken with the concept of providing youth with varying disabilities unique physical activity experiences to improve their development as individuals.

“SMILE is a magical program. When I got involved with it at Acadia, it changed the direction of my career. I always planned to be a physiotherapist, but I learned that working with children and youth with disabilities is my true passion,” she says.

After volunteering in Acadia’s SMILE program for five years, a professor told her about U of T’s new MPK program. “I was attracted to MPK because it would include SMILE. I wanted to be one of the first to be part of the grassroots program at U of T,” Crocker says.

Moving to the “Harvard of Canada” from a tiny town in Nova Scotia – her parents