Founded | 1929 |
---|---|
Based in | Windsor Ontario, Canada |
Home field | St. Clair College Sports Park |
Head coach | Mike LaChance |
Owner(s) | Saints Student Athletic Association Inc. |
League | Canadian Junior Football League |
Division | Ontario Football Conference |
Colours | Green, Gold, and White |
Nickname(s) | Frat, AKO |
League titles | 3 (1952, 1954, 1999) |
Website | saintsathletics.ca |
The St. Clair Saints are a Canadian football team based in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. The team has played in the Canadian Junior Football League's Ontario Football Conference since the 1940s and won national titles in 1952, 1954, and 1999. The team was known as the Windsor AKO Fratmen until 2020 when the team was purchased by St. Clair College's Student Athletic Association. [1]
The team was sponsored by the AKO Fraternity and dates back to 1929, making it the longest-running community organization providing a junior football program in Canada without interruption. The AKO Fraternity is a non-profit, fraternal organization dedicated to supporting and sponsoring youth in amateur sports. [2] [3] The Fratmen played at Fratmen Field at Windsor Stadium from 1953 to 2014. The team later played their home games at Ecole E.J. Lajeunesse and at Alumni Field at the University of Windsor. [4]
On January 22, 2014, AKO Fraternity announced it had sold the Team to Mike Morencie, a former player, Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator. In May of the same year, St Clair College and the Fratmen announced a partnership which will help college-bound students the opportunity to play in the CJFL. The Fratmen had hoped to call St Clair College their home field pending a planned domed stadium being built on the Windsor Campus.
Morencie sold the team to the St. Clair College Student Athletic Association in February, 2020 in a deal whereby Morencie, head coach Mike Lachance and other Fratmen staff retain control of football operations while the Student Athletic Association take on the business side and game-day operations. [5]
Joseph "King" Krol was a Canadian football quarterback, running back, defensive back, and placekicker/punter from 1942 to 1953 and 1955. Considered as possibly the most versatile player in Canadian football history as a triple-threat to pass, run, and kick, he was one of Canada's greatest athletes and also famously known as a "Gold Dust Twin" for his teamwork with Royal Copeland. Joe Krol was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. After suffering from a fall in his apartment, Krol died in a Toronto hospital on December 16, 2008.
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