Larry Keenan
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Larry
was born in 1945, the eldest son of Ed and Clara Keenan and grew up around
the corner from Memorial Arena. Larry even started his family across the
street from the arena with daughters Shelley and Stephanie.
Larry has been involved with hockey in Chatham his entire life. He grew up playing hockey in the Minor Hockey system and in high school. Later, Larry officiated and then took on the challenge of coaching at the Bantam and Midget level. He won 4 league championships during his 6 years. At the age of 20, he assumed the chairmanship of the Minor Hockey Jaycee Novice League.
During all of his playing, officiating and coaching, Larry faithfully followed the Senior Maroons. At age 14 when he delivered The Chatham Daily News, he befriended many of the players and often walked with them to the arena. It was through this association that Larry was offered the job of stick boy with the Allan Cup champions. As time progressed, he became head trainer with the Sr. then Jr. Maroons. Larry developed life-long friendships with many of the players. One in particular was George Aitken. Larry and George teamed up and for the next 14 years where they worked together to develop Jr. Hockey in Chatham.
Shortly after his retirement from Siemens after 35 years of service, a good friend Jim Torrie passed away. The Torrie family asked Larry to help in turning around the Jr. ‘B’ Maroons that Jim had just purchased. It was a great honour for him to volunteer his services once again to the new Maroons organization.
Early in the development of the Torrie reign, it became clear that there was need to preserve the heritage of the game in Chatham. Thus the idea of forming an Alumni organization was born. With Larry as President, and many dedicated hardworking individuals, the Alumni Association today is one of the strongest in the country.
Finally, the opportunity to become an owner of the Chatham Jr. Maroons became available in the spring of 2004. With the continued support of his entire family, as well as his wife Sandy, his two daughters and grandson Braydon, Larry leads the ownership group consisting of Marc Swayze, Dave Easter, Max Fantuz and Dave Torrie.
As he embarks on the ownership stage of his career the cycle of hockey in Larry’s life is now complete.