Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Remembering Carl Totzke, founder of Waterloo athletics

Carl Totzke, the founding director of the University of Waterloo's athletics department, died on Tuesday, December 29.

A native of Kitchener, Totzke enrolled in Waterloo College (now Wilfrid Laurier University) in 1944 and later attended McGill University. While at school, he played football, basketball, and hockey, and twice won track and field titles.

He played for St. Jerome's College in 1945 when they won the Ontario Junior A basketball title, and also with the K-W Y Blues in 1952 when they won the Canadian Intermediate A Basketball championships. He also played for five years with the K-W Dutchmen football team and twice made the all-star team. He moved from the sports field to the press box, working as a sportswriter for the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, and his winning streak continued with a Western Ontario Newspaper Award in the sportswriting category in 1956. He was also a past president of the K-W Press Club.

He joined Waterloo College as its part-time athletics director and served from 1953 to 1957 before being named the Director of Athletics for the Waterloo College and Associate Faculties. He oversaw a rapid expansion of the fledgling University of Waterloo's athletics and recreation programs.

In addition to his duties as Director of Athletics, Totzke served as the head football coach from 1958 to 1976. He also coached golf.

Totzke served as president of the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union from 1971 to 1973 and from 1984 to 1986, and was president of the Ontario Universities Athletic Association and the Canadian Association of University Athletic Directors.

Totzke was an inaugural member of the University's 25-Year Club in 1982.

After 33 years as Director of Athletics, he retired in October 1989, and as Chris Redmond wryly noted in "Water Under The Bridge", Totzke could claim to have worked for the University longer than anyone else and yet never received a promotion.

In a fitting tribute to Totzke, on September 30, 1989, his final day on the University payroll, the Warriors football team snapped a 33-game losing streak to defeat the York Yeomen 32-9.

All told, Waterloo's varsity teams brought home 74 provincial and national titles during Totzke's tenure.

The Athletics department has had only five directors since its inception, and Totzke's 33-year stint is still greater than that of all his successors combined. 

Totzke served on a number of boards and committees including the Homer Watson Gallery, the KW Art Gallery, the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame, the Westmount Golf and Country Club, the UW Faculty Club and Christ Lutheran Church. He was inducted into the halls of fame of Waterloo Region, Wilfrid Laurier University, and the University of Waterloo. He was also the founder of Camp Catchacoma, a summer camp for boys and girls aged 6 to 16 near Peterborough.

His interests included camping and sailing, and he was fond of showing off his collection of mugs from institutions where Waterloo teams had played games.

"Carl was a true pioneer of our institution and of intercollegiate sport in Canada," said current athletics director Roly Webster in a tribute posted on the Athletics website. "Carl built a foundation and philosophy that impacted so many, and that will continue to impact our future. Carl will be deeply missed, but we are committed to celebrating and carrying on his legacy that will enrich the student-athlete experience and while impacting a vibrant student experience for all of our Waterloo students."

Working group to study business education at Waterloo

As part of the work related to the Outstanding Academic Programming theme of the University’s strategic plan, Professor Emeritus Bruce Mitchell and Professor Steven B. Young have been recruited to lead a major study on business education at Waterloo. They will lead a working group that will consider the breadth and impact of business studies at Waterloo from multiple perspectives, including the financial importance of these programs to the institution as well as opportunities for branding Waterloo as an alternative approach to business education beyond the obvious connection to co-operative education and entrepreneurship.

While the University of Waterloo has strong academic programs in all six of its Faculties, the conspicuous absence of a business school at Waterloo often leads to the conclusion that Waterloo does not provide its students with a business education; however, the evidence indicates otherwise. Over 6,000 University of Waterloo students are enrolled in undergraduate programs with a significant business component. This includes a wide mix of programs ranging from a minor in management studies to programs in accounting and finance. Enrolments have grown substantially in the past decade.

“Business at Waterloo is dispersed widely and deeply throughout the institution and judging by the number of students enrolled in business programs, Waterloo has an impressively large ‘business school’,” says Associate Vice-President, Academic Mario Coniglio. “Business at Waterloo is bolstered by its School of Accounting and Finance, its numerous co-op programs, as well as by the infusion of entrepreneurship throughout its curricular and co-curricular offerings, expressed in various ways – for example, the Conrad Centre; Enterprise Co-op and Velocity. Professors across each of the six faculties engage in business scholarship and publish in management journals.”

The working group has representation from all six faculties, Co-operative Education, the Registrar’s Office and Institutional Analysis and Planning. Regular meeting are planned throughout 2016 and the final report to the Vice President, Academic & Provost is expected at the year’s end.

Tuesday's notes

New term, new digs: students may have had to get up early to attend a 8:30 a.m. biology lecture yesterday morning, but at least they can say they were the first students to sit in the Science Teaching Complex's 425-seat lecture theatre, located in STC1012. Professor Mungo Marsden delivered the inaugural lecture.

The Waterloo Centre for the Advancement of Co-operative Education (WatCACE) is inviting members of the campus community to hear from co-op students Colleen Nevison adn Lauren Cormier as they share recent WatCACE research in a presentation entitled "Looking Back: WatCACE Research in 2015." Attendees will hear about how reflection contributes to career clarity for students and how the subjective well-being of first work term students is affected through the employment search. The session will take place on Monday, January 11 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in TC 2218. The event is also being offered as a live webinar on the WatCACE site. Please contact Judene Pretti at tjpretti@uwaterloo.ca for more information. 

On December 31, 2015, Barb Rae-Schneider retired as administrative officer at the School of Pharmacy. Friends and colleagues are invited to celebrate with her on Tuesday, January 19 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on the 7th floor of the School of Pharmacy, located at 10A Victoria Street South in Kitchener.

Barb has been an employee at the University of Waterloo since 1974. She worked in Engineering for a number of years before joining the Faculty of Science, first in the Department of Biology and later the School of Pharmacy, where she has worked since 2005. Remarks will begin at 3:30 p.m. and refreshments will be served. If you would like to attend, please RSVP by Friday, January 15.