OTTAWA, ON – On Wednesday, May 27th at Lansdowne Park’s Horticulture Building, the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame will induct the Class of 2026 into our local sports shrine. Each week leading up to the ceremony, the Sport Hall will share an article on our upcoming inductees. Today’s feature is a profile on Keith Brown.

2026 SPORT HALL INDUCTEE – KEITH BROWN

Through more than seven decades of extensive volunteerism in sport and community initiatives, Keith Brown has left an indelible mark on generations of local athletes, families, and volunteers.

Now 96, the man known as the “Mayor of Mechanicsville” was born and raised at his Uncle Tom’s place – two doors down from where he eventually settled, across the street from Laroche Park.

His grandmother was the neighbourhood’s second resident in what was then the far west end of Ottawa (Parkdale Avenue was the city limit at the time). Brown’s mother raised nine children, and Brown never met his father, who died before he was born.

It certainly wasn’t always an easy upbringing, but Brown vividly recalls skating on the Laroche Park rink in 1935 after he got his first hockey jersey, toque and stockings for Christmas.

“I never expected to get anything like that,” Brown reflected in a 2010 Ottawa This Week feature by Dan Plouffe. “We were all working-class families. Nobody had very much. We were lucky to have a hockey stick. We didn’t have the equipment – I’d use Life magazines as shinpads.”

As an adult, Brown played in the Eastern Ontario hockey league for the right to compete for the famed Allan Cup. He remembers playing in Smiths Falls where fans would throw their empty whisky mickeys at the opposing players.

Mechanicsville certainly carried a strong rough-and-tumble reputation of its own. But Brown loved his community, he loved the people in his community, and he’d always stick up for them. Sport, he found, kept youth keep on track and had a special way of bringing people together.

“There were so many kids out there who needed somebody they could look up to,” Brown recounted in a recent interview with Alan Neal of CBC Listen’s All in a Day.

Brown organized local youth leagues in many sports – soccer clinics, baseball and ball hockey leagues at Laroche Park, among them. He founded and was president of the Laroche Park Minor Hockey Association for over 40 years, he served as an administrator with the Ottawa District Hockey Association, he organized tournaments and he was constantly coaching youth hockey teams, always emphasizing personal growth.

“It helped thousands of kids stay out of trouble,” underlined Jeff Fennessy, one of the many people Brown impacted during his thousands of hours of volunteer work. “They had a place to go. They had the park here, now it’s a beautiful place with all the renovations, they had the arena to play.”

Brown was a driving force behind the construction of Tom Brown Arena in 1978, advocating for the facility and working closely with the City of Ottawa to make it a reality.

He managed the arena’s concession for close to 30 years. When players he once coached would bring their kids to the rink, Brown would quip to the younger ones: “I hope you’re a better hockey player than your dad was.”

Brown’s personality allowed him to easily connect with players, and his dedication inspired them, Fennessy added. He always treated everybody the same, whether they were the team’s star player or the weakest.

“Everybody was equal,” Fennessy explained. “He went out of his way to pick people up that needed to get picked up because maybe they didn’t have a family vehicle, or he’d help out with finances or the equipment or whatever the case may be. He always gave back to every player he came across. And everybody loves him for it.”

Some of Brown’s fondest memories come from friendship exchanges he arranged with hockey teams from the U.S., the Netherlands and Russia. And he of course holds close the many lasting friendships forged through sport locally.

“I felt like I was a part of the community,” Brown said of his motivation to volunteer relentlessly. “I really enjoyed working with people and working with the kids. It gave me the feeling that I was doing something useful with my life, and I enjoyed it very much.”

Sport was always a central theme of Brown’s community work, including community sports programs and fitness initiatives for adults as well. He helped setup homework clubs and he was behind many charitable events and initiatives, including fundraising for school breakfast programs and a splash pad at Laroche Park.

He also spearheaded summer and winter festivals with the Mechanicsville Community Association, where he remains a leader alongside his family.

Brown’s wife, Marguerite, put in plenty of volunteer time too while her husband put in regular work hours in his career that spanned the printing industry, Air Force, government and property management.

“I couldn’t do it without her, especially having three boys in hockey,” Brown told Plouffe. “My wife would say, ‘You’re never home.’ And I’d say, ‘Well, maybe that’s why we’ve been married so long.’”

Of course, Brown often wasn’t more than a hop, skip and a jump away, diligently shovelling, maintaining and flooding the outdoor rink across the street in frigid temperatures.

“You’re out there, dressed up nice and warm and it’s about minus-40 with a wind chill of minus-50,” Brown recalled while somehow smiling, describing how foot-long cones of ice would form at the end of his hose on the coldest days. “But I enjoy it. I get great satisfaction when I see the kids out there playing hockey.”

A member of the 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame, Brown continued to play hockey himself with the Old Buzzards team as a quadragenarian, and he helped take care of the rink at Laroche Park into his 90s.

“I guess that is what keeps me young,” Brown said of the endeavour in a 2019 Kitchissippi Times feature.

With over half-a-century of devotion, Brown is the longest-serving volunteer ever in the City of Ottawa’s Outdoor Rink Program. His son and grandson are now the lead maintenance men at Laroche.

“Think about that for a moment. Five decades of showing up for young people, coaching hockey, mentoring generations of kids, and helping build a strong sense of community through sport,” Mayor Mark Sutcliffe wrote in a recent social media post honouring Brown. “His impact reaches far beyond the rink boards. It lives on in the confidence, friendships, and life lessons he helped shape for so many young people.”

For his volunteer work, Brown has received numerous recognitions from all levels of government over the years, as well as the Ottawa Sports Awards and the Royal Canadian Legion, for whom he remains Sergeant at Arms with its Westboro branch.

In 2023, the Keith Brown Community Building was officially opened at Laroche Park to again illustrate his impact on Ottawa’s sports landscape, which is both profound and enduring.

“Very proud, but I feel I really don’t deserve all that,” Brown told Neal shortly after his nomination to the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame was confirmed. “It’s very emotional. Very Emotional. It’s hard for me to keep the tears from coming down.”

MAY 27 OTTAWA SPORT HALL OF FAME INDUCTION EVENING

The Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame will be welcoming four new athletes, a builder and a team as part of its Class of 2026, plus eight more historic honourees in the Legacy Category.

Tickets for the Wednesday, May 27th Induction Ceremony at Lansdowne Park’s Horticulture Building are available at https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/2026-ottawa-sport-hall-of-fame-induction-evening-tickets-1980458186749.

More details and full features on all the upcoming inductees and Legacy members will be shared in the weeks leading up to the 2026 banquet on the Hall’s website at OttawaSportHall.ca and through the Ottawa Sports Pages.

Sponsorship opportunities are available. See OttawaSportHall.ca/Sponsorship for more details.

About the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame:

The Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization, which documents, curates and celebrates outstanding achievement in local sport heritage. The Sport Hall is overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors to maintain and preserve our rich sporting legacies. Each year, the Hall of Fame Board receives nominations from the public and selects new inductees to be honoured in the Hall.