Come on Teeder...

Come on Teeder... January 5, 2006, 16:23 p.m.
The great Ted Kennedy was hospitalized in St.Catharines this week after a bad fall.
To most fans, Ted Kennedy is a face on the banner, one of the long-retired players whose honoured numbers hang at the Air Canada Centre.
He is, in fact, much, much more.
At 81, Teeder Kennedy is a living link to the most golden days of the Maple. He was the superstar perfectly employed by Hap Day, honoured this year as the mastermind behind five Stanley Cups.
Kennedy was a contemporary and friend of Syl Apps whose stylish play was immortalized coast to coast by Foster Hewitt’s radio broadcasts. The last Leaf to win the Hart Trophy as Most Valuable Player? Ted Kennedy, 1955.
He is, and will always be, the sharpest example of the indomitable will that long defined the franchise.
Ted Kennedy was born in Humberstone, Ontario, a village that became part of Port Colborne in 1952. He was born without a father. Gordon Kennedy was rabbit hunting with a friend. He stuck his rifle against a fence or dropped it, nobody has ever been sure which. Somehow, the gun went off and shot him in the back.
His friend carried Kennedy 300 yards to the car and rushed him to Niagara Falls Hospital. Lead pellets were lodged against his spine. A massive infection swept in and after a fruitless operation, Gordon Kennedy was gone at 35.
Ted‘s mother Margaret needed a second income to feed her family. She got a job at White’s Arena, running the snack bar. Ted Kennedy became a rink rank, literally learning the work ethic that would define him at the feet of his mother.
Never a good skater, he plodded his way into every scrum and back on every break. He was an impresario in the face-off circle. His teammates, with the endorsement of Conn Smythe, chose him as a captain at just 22 and Kennedy quickly became the favoured son of a legion of Leaf fans. One of them was a man named John Arnott. Every night, in the days when games had silent lulls, Arnott would shout out “Come on Teeder.” The cry became a staple of Maple Leaf games. After a while, the two men met for a handshake. Years later, they met again and became friends. When John Arnott died, Ted Kennedy was one of his pallbearers.
Kennedy had managed a Hall of Fame career. He dabbled in coaching and handled the Peterborough Petes for a year, while a young apprentice named Scotty Bowman watched and noted everything Kennedy imparted in the face-off circle. He worked as the director of security at Fort Erie until his retirement and still makes appearances at the Air Canada Centre.
He may be the greatest living Leaf. He is surely one of the club’s greatest men. Here’s hoping a quick return to health.