If you had the pleasure to meet Jack Kane you knew he was a Maritimer. Welcoming, friendly and very hospitable. Many are aware that Jack was the father of LPGA player and Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member Lori Kane. However, back in the 90s Jack was one of the driving forces and the face of golf on Prince Edward Island.
I had the pleasure to know Jack and played a number of games with him and Lori at the start of the Crowbush Cove development. Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s Prince Edward Island was facing a tourism problem and needed to find a way to get “more bums in beds and have people stay longer,” said Kane. The answer was golf and the PEI government was fully invested and committed.
Jack was the GM of the newly opened Links at Crowbush Cove and he had a vision. Through his network of contacts and influencers in golf he knew that developing a tourism platform with strong marketing programs will pay dividends for tourism in P.E.I. To this day, P.E.I and the development of golf was one of the best examples of golf marketing.
I have many fond memories of Jack and one I still recall is a game at Mill River. After the round he introduced us to PEI Moonshine. I remember his laugh and telling me it was only grapefruit juice. We did not play the next day!
Jack was a proud islander and had a passion for all sports especially golf. He loved the lifestyle that P.E.I. provided for he and wife Marilyn and four daughters – Mary Lynn, Lori, Allyson and Jackie. To his daughters he was “the coach”
Jack was born and raised in Charlottetown and considered it a privilege to work and give back to the province he loved. Over the course of his career, Jack worked as an educator in the public school system, a coach at Saint Dunstan’s University/ University of Prince Edward Island, a public servant with the provincial government including CEO for the Host Society of the 1991 Canada Winter Games, manager at Brookvale Ski Park and of the Island’s provincial golf courses. Jack loved the people he worked with and coached, forming lifelong friendships from these relationships.
Jack was an avid and gifted athlete. He excelled in any sport he chose to play and loved all sports. He had a passion for golf and hockey. Jack’s passion for golf and hockey led him to become a coach and builder of each. Jack was living his best life when he could play a round of golf, have dinner with Marilyn and go to the rink to watch a hockey game all in one day.
Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017, along with other Saint Dunstan’s University (SDU) hockey icons including his father, Jack Kane Sr. (posthumously) Jack Kane Jr. was an avid and gifted athlete who loved his family, friends, and those he coached, taught, and worked with.
Jack’s name is, as is his father’s, synonymous with several sports, all of which he played at a high level: hockey, football, track and field, basketball, baseball, and, of course, golf.
My condolences to his family.
RIP my friend.
