Frank Halligan was 12 years old when he attended his first Queen’s Golden Gaels football game with his mother in 1964. The weather was horrible, sleet pestering the stands, but Halligan looked out onto the field, saw the athletes playing in the mud, and thought it looked like fun.
Kingston City Hall announced on Jan. 23 that Halligan would be named into the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame for his contributions to the community.
Halligan got his bachelor’s degree from Queen’s with a medial in biology and psychology. He pursued additional schooling and eventually became a high school teacher. He taught at Regiopolis-Notre Dame Catholic High School and Holy Cross Secondary School in his hometown of Kingston.
Halligan started coaching football at the high school level in 1974. During the day, Halligan would teach biology, philosophy, math, and psychology, but when the final bell rang, he would be out on the field.
“I’ve always thought extracurriculars were critical to the life enjoyment sometimes of many kids,” Halligan said. “What’s interesting, of course, is that some of the challenges you can put before kids in the classroom are only so much, depending on the academic capability of the kids.”
“After school, when you’re working with them on the field, or in the gym, or even upon, for example, the drama up on the stage, the students themselves come with a whole different level of motivation of wanting to be successful in what they’re doing.”
Halligan said it wasn’t that students weren’t motivated or successful in their academics, but there was just a different level of enthusiasm at 3 or 4 p.m. on the field than there was in his 10 a.m. class.
Even after his students graduated high school, Halligan often found himself invited to his students’ weddings and other milestone celebrations, not because he was their teacher, but several beneficial relationships through coaching.
“My attitude towards sports has always been, how does it translate into later life experiences, and the belief that working on the team or with the team encouraged one to work well when you have the opportunity with teams in a wider sense of society,” he said.
Halligan coached high school football for 20 years before he got the opportunity to coach for the Queen’s football team through one of his many s in the community.
Right away, Halligan said he met some tremendous people on the team’s staff, and said it was a step beyond coaching at the high school level.
He emphasized the dedication Queen’s football players had for both their sport and academics. If they weren’t focused on the game, they were focused on school, often studying on buses or in hotel rooms before a game.
“One of the most interesting things that people who aren’t on the inside of coaching football or on the team know is how hard these players work,” Halligan said.
Once Halligan’s three sons reached high school age, it made sense for him to return to high school level sports where he coached in football and basketball.
Despite leaving his assistant coaching position, Halligan remains part of a Queen’s football committee, working alongside the athletics management team.
Throughout his career, Halligan attended many coaching clinics. He fostered much ion and found new coaching philosophies that he wanted to be able to bring this experience to other coaches in the Kingston area.
Organizing his own clinics for a variety of sports, he brought together over 3,000 coaches from around the world to both present and learn about coaching, which has created a network of connections within the coaching community.
Halligan said it was an honour to be put into a group of others who have been highly involved in the Kingston area, although he sees his time coaching as part of a greater collaborative effort.
“I’m not one that really enjoys having singular limelight,” he said. “There’s some tremendous community coaches in our midst here [who] give endless time to help kids, or just an opportunity to play, particularly in an age when it’s getting more and more expensive for kids to play.”
“If it encourages people to see the other coach who began as a high school coach has got inducted and it encourages them to be involved, that’s great.”
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