Don Rope

Don Rope was born Feb. 2, 1929 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He was an outstanding competitor in hockey, soccer, baseball, lacrosse, tennis, and track and field. He helped his teams win many city and provincial championships.

It was hockey where Rope gained his fame, first with the Winnipeg Monarchs and the St. Michael’s College Junior “A” teams, and then with the Toronto Marlboros – all as a protégée of the Toronto Maple Leaf organization. He played several years with the K-W Dutchmen Hockey Club and a year each with the Soo Greyhounds and the Galt Terriers.

Rope played on two Canadian Senior Allan Cup Hockey championship teams and competed twice with the K-W Dutchmen Hockey Club in the Olympics for Canada, winning a bronze medal in 1956 at Cortina and a silver medal in 1960 at Squaw Valley.

When he came to the Waterloo Region to play hockey he began a career in teaching and coaching at Galt Collegiate Institute and Glenview Park Secondary School, Cambridge and won the Stewart Award for teaching excellence in 1987. In 1976 he received the Ontario Medal for good citizenship.

In 1957, he started the Galt Junior Tennis Programme that produced provincial and national champions – one of which was his daughter, Laurie. With his wife Benita, he formed the highly successful Cambridge Kips Gymnastics Club and helped produce national and Olympic calibre gymnasts. His daughter Patti, was Canada’s Senior Champion in 1976 and later that year, led the Canadian Team at the Montreal Olympics to a strong performance.

Rope was a member of Canada’s elite coaching staff from 1975 to 1982 and won the Cambridge Contributor Award in 1977. Today, this award is named the “Don and Benita Rope Award.”