TCHAT Loses a Friend Who Really Made a Difference

A generation of TCHAT students recently lost an important friend and mentor: Syd Himel died recently after a short illness.

Syd coached the TCHAT basketball team in the ‘70s.  Known simply as ‘Coach’ or ‘Doc’, he took a group of kids who knew a lot more about Hebrew than ‘hoops’ and he turned them into a force to be reckoned with on the basketball floor.  Even more important, he taught them about discipline, selflessness, courage, leadership, resilience, and respect –  in short, he turned them into menschen.

His philosophy was that what you learned in team sports worked hand in hand with what you learned in school to create the basis for a successful and good life. 

‘Doc’ knew what he was teaching.  Not only was he still playing ball himself (he was still playing at age 80), in his day, he was one of the best ballplayers in Canada. He played for the YMHA, Harbord Collegiate, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, Tri-Bell and Runnymede Steel, and Canada’s Maccabiah team at the first two postwar games.

He brought TCHAT into the TDCAA, now the Toronto District Colleges Athletic Association, then the Catholic Schools’ Athletic Association.  It was important to him that his players had some competition and as well saw something of the world outside day school.

His influence continues to be a force at TCHAT, as he was the person who infected Aubrey Zimmerman, the current Athletic Director at TCHAT South, with the love of basketball and who taught him how to coach.

Syd Himel was active in the community.  Among other things, he served as president of his shul, Beth Emeth Bais Yehada. 

Syd was tremendously down to earth, folksy and humble. He touched many, many people at TCHAT. Many students who never touched a basketball have fond memories of him. 

The lives he touched most were those of his two sons Martin and Danny who now live in Israel.  That each had a passion for the Jewish people and that each would make a significant contribution was clear to their teachers and their classmates at TCHAT. 
? Martin has been an internationally regarded journalist/correspondent/filmmaker  (with ‘Confrontation at Concordia’ and ‘Jenin: Massacring Truth’ among his many credits)
? Danny is an internationally respected Jewish Educator (with excellent reviews for his book ‘Visions of Jewish Education’ about his work for the Mandel Foundation in Jerusalem – see http://sps.mli.org.il/Visions/Visions+of+Jewish+Education/).

The fact that TCHAT athletics have been so successful for the past few decades is in no small measure due to Coach Himel.

The TCHAT community extends deepest sympathies to Syd’s sons Martin & Danny and to his beloved Hyla – may you find comfort in the mark he made and the generation of TCHAT’s students who are the better for having known him.

Read more about Coach Himel:
? Toronto Star: http://www.thestar.com/News/article/178517
? Canadian Jewish News http://cjnews.com/viewarticle.asp?id=11160&s=1
(republished in the Canadian Maccabiah site: http://www.maccabicanada.com/Maccabi/myweb.php?hls=1000&newsid=215 )