CLIPPED FROMThe Ottawa CitizenOttawa, Ontario, Canada29 Dec 1996, Sun • Page 31
There can’t be too many people, athletes or otherwise, who match Frank Cosentino’s career pattern. The former CFL quarterback he played in the league for a decade and was on two Grey Cup-winning teams subsequently coached college football teams, and now teaches physical education at York University. Along the way he acquired four university degrees, including a PhD. Additionally, he’s a prolific author of sports books. His latest, the eleventh, is Almonte’s Brothers of the Wind: R. Tait McKenzie and James Naismith (General Store; 206 pages with illustrations; $18.95). Naismith, the inventor of basketball, and McKenzie, the physician-turned-sculptor whose work is enshrined at Mill of Kintail at Almonte, were boyhood friends whose subsequent careers made them pioneers in the developing field of physical education and fitness.
Naismith, an orphaned child and the elder by almost six years, was mentor and hero to “Rob” McKenzie, son of a minister of the Free Church of Scotland, born the year of Confederation. After some hard farming years, Naismith, a school dropout, went to McGill to study for the Presbyterian ministry and became attracted to the developing “Muscular Christianity” of the recently formed Young Men’s Christian Association, and others. He became a star football and lacrosse player at McGill, and while continuing his theological studies he became the first Canadian-born director of physical education at the university McKenzie arrived at McGill three years after Naismith and roomed with his friend.
When Naismith took over as director of gymnastics and physical training at McGill, he recruited McKenzie as his assistant. The smaller and slighter of these two over-achievers, McKenzie pushed himself to excel at gymnastics and track and field. Because of his interest in fitness, he went on to become a doctor, studying the human body and its functions. That led naturally to sculpting the body in different sporting activities.
Naismith, for his part, had departed for Springfield College in Massachusetts, and it was there in 1891 that he hit upon basketball as an indoor game that could replace outdoor activities during the long winter months. It proved an instant success, even though the soccer ball used initially had to be poked out of the peach baskets after each score. Cosentino does an especially good job of detailing the events leading up to Naismith’s invention and the ideas about fitness that underlay it. Both Naismith and McKenzie had long and successful careers, despite personal and professional setbacks. Their careers diverged in later life. Naismith remained in the United States and in his last years became a U.S. citizen.
McKenzie, after flirting with career opportunities in the U.S., returned to Canada and fame as a sculptor. Cosentino does justice to both. There’s a Horatio Alger quality to this book, although I doubt the author intended it. That is, it’s about a couple of smalltown boys who overcame many personal disadvantages on the road to fame and success, inspired by their faith and the pursuit of high ideals.
Jim Robb LOCAL BOOKS 1996
Naismith
Dr. James Naismith 101 —- Sarah More
Unseen James Naismith Photos and his Real Birthplace
James Naismith 101 – Plaque 1965 — Part 2 – Sarah More
Unseen James Naismith Photos and his Real Birthplace
Dr. Avison of Almonte
James Mackintosh Bell — The Buchanan Scrapbooks
Harold Reynolds Says
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