Ken Gunn

Builder (2003)

Softball

Ken is a man who has been dedicated to softball in Saskatoon for 28 years, as a player, as a coach or manager with six national medal-winning teams and as vital member of host committees for 12 national or world championship events which came to Saskatoon.

Ken was born in Saskatoon in 1951, grew up in the Caswell Hill and Bedford Road areas and played sandlot baseball, minor hockey and high school soccer.

One of his first teams as a player was The Twisters and he was also with Aberdeen Knights for his first taste of action in a Saskatoon league, and later the Kosmos and the Golden Twisters.

He was given the opportunity to join Bob Stayner's coaching staff with Harmony Centre, who in 1983, were silver medallists at the Canadian senior women's championships and then a year later, fourth-place finishers.

He had another happy association in men's softball, starting with the All-O-Matics, who won Canadian silver medals in 1986, and then six years with the Rempel Brothers, who were perennial contenders. This 1987 team, which he managed, won the Canadian Senior men's championship in a tournament at Calgary. Among his years with the Rempel Brothers, they also won bronze in 1990, and gold again in 1994.

Ken has been a strong influence in developing Saskatoon talent and the decision to build a junior program around Lorne's Lazers in 1993 was important. The 1995 version of the Lazers finished fourth in the Canadian junior women's finals played in Saskatoon. Among a string of teams, which won successive provincial titles, the 2000 Lazers performed extremely well and came home with bronze medals for the Canadian championships at Laval, Quebec. Ken has coached the Lazers since the beginning and was at the helm again during the past season.

Ken has been active in organizational work off the field and he is among those who, in 1995, brought the Canadian junior women's championships to Saskatoon. Among the six other national tournament host committees was the one in 1996 when Saskatoon was front and centre in the promotion of the Canadian senior women's tournament. Probably the biggest single undertaking in Saskatoon softball ever was the 2002 ISF world's women's championships, which brought an outstanding array of international teams. Among the stars on the Canadian team was homegrown shortstop Jacki Nichols. And, mostly, it was an opportunity to see teams, which now qualify at an Olympic level. Best of all, for Ken, was the way Saskatoon reacted with overflow crowds in the parks he has long called his second homes.