The George Leach Centre remains rooted as a state-of-the art fitness centre for the Algoma University community and the general public.
It opened in 1992 and includes the Sault’s only indoor tennis court, a weight room, fitness centre, public change rooms with saunas and meeting rooms.
Its indoor tennis court sits alongside other courts used for basketball, volleyball and pickleball and is surrounded by an indoor walking and jogging track.
Originally 39,000 square feet in size, a 10,000 square feet expansion took place in 2015 that saw the addition of a new weight room, aerobics studios and aerobics equipment. Outdoor facilities were opened in 2016 and include regulation size tennis courts and basketball nets.
The GLC is the home of the Algoma University Thunderbirds and hosts regional, provincial, and national varsity sports competitions. Algoma’s athletes compete in men’s and women’s basketball, cross-country running, men’s and women’s curling, men’s and women’s soccer, Nordic skiing and wrestling.
The GLC is impressive, but equally impressive is the facility’s growth from humble beginnings.
Many younger users of the fitness facility probably don’t realize the GLC at one time consisted of a small brown wooden portable on Algoma University property that housed little more than a weight set.
Many modern-day GLC members are probably unaware of the dedication of the man in whose honour the centre is named.
George Leach became Algoma University’s first athletics director in 1972 when the institution was known as Algoma University College (AUC), affiliated with Sudbury’s Laurentian University.
The institution became the fully independent Algoma University in 2008.
“George was such a great guy. I met him after high school,” said Mark Kontulainen, Algoma University Student-Athlete and Varsity Services officer.
Kontulainen was hired by Leach to be a fitness coordinator at AUC in 1985.
“He did a lot of innovative things for the athletics department. He obtained government grants, and I’m pretty sure he used some of his own funds for some of the projects,” Kontulainen told SooToday.
AUC already had hockey and basketball teams for its students in the late 1960s, playing in local leagues while the school was housed in portables located on Sault College property. Sault College was then known as Sudbury’s Cambrian College Sault campus.
It was due to Leach’s efforts that AUC’s athletics program began to grow with the support of Ian Brown, AUC’s first principal and history professor, and Lawrence Brown, AUC’s board of directors chair.
In its early days, AUC’s athletics program included hockey, basketball, curling, volleyball, badminton and skiing.
By the end of the 1972-1973 academic year, there had been tournament wins for AUC’s hockey team and playoff appearances for the men’s hockey and basketball teams and the women’s basketball team. Three AUC skiers were chosen as candidates for the Canadian University Ski Team.
The Algoma College Shingwauks hockey team played in a ‘Brotherhood Hockey League,’ competing against teams from the ACR, St. Joseph Island and Sault College, playing in out-of-town tournaments against Laurentian University, Lake Superior State College (now Lake Superior State University, or LSSU) and other U.S. teams.
AUC faced considerable financial constraints in those early days, the athletics department unable to offer ‘home and home’ hockey series against other universities. Leach, through written correspondence, was able to arrange travel for the team at the expense of its hosts and the Algoma team was always well received.
The team playing its home games at local rinks, Leach arranged for an outdoor rink to be erected at the rear of AUC’s Shingwauk Hall for team practices. The rink also became a favourite spot for the public to use, Leach believing it was a good drawing card for potential AUC students.
Under Leach’s leadership, an AUC fitness trail was built in the woodlands immediately east of Shingwauk Hall along with a baseball field to the west where Algoma University residences now stand. The trail and baseball field no longer exist.
As funding became available, a dream came true for Leach in 1984 with the establishment of the AUC Resource Centre for Fitness and Athletics, located in a small brown portable behind Shingwauk Hall. It included a universal gym, free weights and stationary exercise machines. Fitness testing and counselling were also offered.
Born in 1925, Ottawa native George Leach studied General Arts at the University of Toronto where he also played football and hockey.
After flying with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in the Second World War, Leach went on to work at Sudbury’s Adult Education Centre.
He later moved to Sault Ste. Marie to work as an English teacher for Cambrian College’s Sault campus and what was then known as the federal government’s Manpower department now known as Employment and Social Development Canada.
Algoma students from the early days remember Leach’s office door was always open, Leach acting as a coach, counsellor, friend and recruiter for AUC.
Leach would have been proud of the development of Algoma University athletics and the fitness centre which bears his name.
However, Leach did not live to see the establishment of the centre.
After Leach expressed his wish to slow down and spend more time for family, fishing and travelling, AUC formally approved his retirement May 22, 1986.
The AUC baseball team held a practice at 7 p.m. that same day, Leach taking part.
After a time of laughter with friends, Leach suddenly collapsed.
Despite the best efforts of Mark Kontulainen and Dick McCutcheon (then AUC registrar) to revive him with CPR, Leach was pronounced dead at hospital shortly after 8 p.m. having suffered a severe heart attack.
He was 60.
“He couldn’t be revived. It was really sad. That was devastating,” Kontulainen said.
Flags flew at half mast at AUC for several days after his death.
Leach’s portrait hangs in the lobby of the centre which bears his name.
A plaque below the portrait is inscribed with his favourite quote, made by 19th century American missionary Stephen Grellet:
“I expect to pass through this world but once, and any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now, let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.”
Leach always carried a written copy of the quote in his wallet.
“George would be really, really pleased to see where we are now,” Kontulainen said.
More information on the George Leach Centre can be found on the facility's website.
- with files from Mark Morgenstern, former AUC student