Leslie Kozak was a pretty good hockey player in his younger days.
Although born in Dauphin his family was from Yorkton.
鈥淢y mother returned to Yorkton with my brother, Garry, and me in 1943 when I was about three-years-old. We lived with my grandparents, Alex and Anne Nimeck, and the other six siblings at 156 Myrtle Ave, across from the high school. My grandfather came from the Ukraine alone as a teenager around 1910; my grandmother was born on a farm near Yorkton. I regret that I did not record more of my grandfather鈥檚 journey to Canada.鈥�
As a young hockey player in the city, Kozak had a dream inspired by a local hero of the game.
鈥淚nspired by the achievements of Metro Prystai from the time I was seven-years-old I set a goal to be an NHL player, an ambition that drove my life,鈥� he related. 鈥淚 believe that Metro had a profound influence on shaping my character and career as well as that of many of the youth of Yorkton during our formative years in the 1950s. He provided a model of excellence in sport and goodness and generosity as a member of the community. When he returned to Yorkton after the NHL season was over he would load his car with the neighborhood kids and take us for ice cream.鈥�
That inspiration pushed Kozak to excel at hockey and set him on the path to the pros, a tale he tells in a recent book; 鈥楶lay Up! Play up! And Play the Game鈥�.
鈥淚n the middle of the night of August 15, 1956 when I was 15-years old I left Yorkton by Greyhound Bus to attend St. Michael鈥檚 College School in Toronto on a scholarship,鈥� he told Yorkton This Week. 鈥淚 studied and played hockey at St. Michaels until 1960.聽
鈥淚n 1961 I played professional hockey for less than a year for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Rochester Americans. My hockey career ended in February 1961, when I fractured my skull. I changed the focus of my career goals to scientific research and pursued studies in chemistry and biology at St. John Fisher in Rochester, NY as an under-graduate, Notre Dame where I received my PhD, then post-graduate studies at Michigan State University until 1970 when I accepted a position as assistant professor to study the genetics of brain development at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.
鈥淚 eventually became a full professor at the Jackson Lab where I remained until 1998 when I accepted a professorship at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I remained at Pennington until 2010 when I took a position in Poland to teach PhD students to do research in the field of energy expenditure and obesity.
In 2015 I joined up with my high school sweetheart (Loraine Harvey) and we currently spend six-months in Maine and six on Lake of the Woods, Ontario.鈥�
But, why a book?
鈥淥ne of the gifts of a life in scientific research is the opportunity it provides to travel and meet other scientists from many parts of the world,鈥� said Kozak. 鈥淭his has often led to the formation of deep friendships that have lasted a lifetime. I have also found in my travels that people in general have trouble identifying with scientists. For example, when I am part of a social gathering of non-scientists it is difficult to sustain a conversation talking about my scientific research.
鈥淚n contrast, the realization that I played for the Maple Leafs on a line with Dave Keon elicits a completely different response, 鈥淥h wow you played for the Leafs鈥� from the average reader.
鈥淜nowing this beforehand I thought that bringing the average reader, exemplified by my children, to the book through this unusual coupling, hockey plus science, might entice additional readers to the science.
Also, the realization that I was successful in achieving international recognition in athletics and science suggested that I had a story worth the telling.鈥�
That all said the work was one thinking of family first.
鈥淚f it helps my family know me better, the book was worth the writing,鈥� said Kozak. 鈥淭elling the story of someone who was able to combine science and hockey is somewhat novel and it might interest other young athletes to take the same career path.鈥�
Kozak said the book came from memory.
鈥淚 did not rely on a set of notes, the first part of the book was based on my memory of growing up in Yorkton and St. Michaels, which was very personal, while the second part relied on my memory of the research that went on in my lab over 50 years,鈥� he related. 鈥淚 used published papers to check on the accuracy of what I describe. For the most important research I described, and I was only interested in reporting this research, the research projects frequently took years to complete. Consequently, with such an immersion in this research it was not difficult to remember the details of the work even after decades have elapsed. Unfortunately, over the past three-years I have developed Parkinson Disease, I could not write this book today.鈥�
When asked what was the most challenging aspect of the project? Kozak had a short reply; 鈥渕aking the years in science as interesting as those in hockey.鈥�
The science actually showed itself early in Kozak鈥檚 life too.
鈥淒uring my studies at St. Michael鈥檚 and in college I began to discover that my academic strength lay in the sciences. Hence when I was no longer able to play hockey because of a head injury I changed the focus of my studies to the sciences, but I maintained a devotion being an athlete,鈥� he said.
The St. Michael鈥檚 years were significant for Kozak.
鈥淏ecoming a student athlete at St. Michael鈥檚 College in 1956 with a pass to Maple Leaf Gardens when I had just turned 16-years of age was a remarkable gift and privilege,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 was essentially tutored by a faculty of young priests devoted to the education of young men. Although this was a Catholic school the education was not narrow or dogmatic, but based on the philosophy of Christian humanism, a philosophy of life that begins with Aristotle in the fourth century BC. He was a聽Greek聽philosopher who pioneered systematic, scientific examination in literally every area of human knowledge and was聽known, in his time, as 鈥榯he man who knew everything鈥�.
鈥淎ristotle鈥檚 philosophy was applied to Christian thinking by the Dominican theologian St. Thomas Aquinas whobelieved that people could have both faith and reason and said that both kinds of knowledge came from God so it was alright to have both. Christian Humanism was applied to modern Christian thinking by the French philosopher Jacque Maritain. These ideas, seeking to develop a balanced life of body, mind and soul, caused me to take a year off when I was 19-years of age to see whether I had a vocation to become a Trappist Monk. I didn鈥檛, after 8 months I left the monastery, returned to Toronto and continued with my hockey career.
鈥淲hen I left Yorkton in August, 1956 on that bus ride through Winnipeg, Chicago and Detroit to St. Mikes in Toronto I came under the influence of a brilliant, magnetic young priest, Father David Bauer. He had been a student of St. Michael College and the brother of NHL star Bobby Bauer of the famous Kraut line for Boston in the 1940s. Father Bauer was a terrific hockey player and a key player for the St Michael鈥檚 Junior A team that defeated Moose Jaw for the Memorial Cup in 1945 and in what is a bizarre twist of fate, the Moose Jaw team was led by none other than Metro Prystai of Yorkton. Following his achievements in hockey David Bauer became a priest went on to become a remarkable and inspiring mentor and leader to maintain the amateur status of Olympic hockey. He coached the St. Michael鈥檚 team to the Memorial Cup in 1960. 聽Then in the 1960s and 1970s he led the effort to develop a truly amateur National Canadian hockey team for international competition; he was the coach of the Canadian Olympic Hockey team ... This effort to maintain the Olympic teams as amateurs eventually failed because the Pros did not get on board and support the program.鈥�
It was in school he had the focus that would one day help in writing his book too.
鈥淯ntil I was 21 years old my academic interests were in literature and philosophy -- my major in college was English Literature with a secondary concentration in chemistry,鈥� said Kozak. 鈥淗owever, as long as I could support myself with a salary as an NHL player it allowed me to indulge my interests in the arts. 聽
鈥淗owever, this changed after I fractured my skull and had acquired a young wife and son. I realized that I must get serious about an alternative career. It did not take much thinking to realize that academically my future lay in the sciences. It was a good choice; I found that I had a gift for scientific research and discovery and the competition in a hockey game very much resembled the drive to be the first to make an original scientific discovery.
鈥淪ubsequently over 50 years as a scientist (1965 to 2015) I wrote scientific papers (175 of them) and dozens of grant applications. I have made significant and original contributions describing the role of brown fat to the induction of thermogenesis to reduce obesity and type 2 diabetes.
The book is available online at Friesen Press.
