If there is one person synonymous with lacrosse in Kingston – it’s Bob Joseph. In the 1970’s Joseph was a tireless worker on the Kingston lacrosse scene, as a coach, manager, sponsor, and organizer of minor and junior lacrosse teams.

Joseph, who died in 2007, is an honoured member of both the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame and the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

His son, Rad Joseph, a former goalie for the Kingston Go Go (Pizza) Kings junior team, has blazed his own trail in lacrosse – making a major contribution to the sport over the decades.

Rad will proudly join his father in the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame when induction ceremonies are held in St. Catharines in November.

Ontario Lacrosse is recognizing Rad for his “decades long impact at the minor, provincial and national levels of the sport.”

“Coaching, mentoring, managing teams and helping cultivate talent and opportunities for young players.” It also lauded Joseph for his significant role in preserving and honouring the  history of the sport.

Rad says when he learned the news of his pending induction he was, “pleasantly surprised and honoured,” to be joining his father in the Hall of Fame.

“It is a big deal for my three adult kids to see me go into the Hall of Fame and to join their grandfather. It makes it extra special for the entire family.”

Bob Joseph cast a big shadow when he first got involved with Kingston Minor Lacrosse in the early 1970’s. Joseph built a Juvenile team that won the Ontario championship in 1972 – coached by Queen’s hockey coach Bob Carnegie.

In 1973, Joseph started a junior team for Kingston that he also coached. The Kingston Go Go Kings regularly filled the Cook’s Arena – on their way to winning the Ontario Junior ‘C’ lacrosse championship.

Even if you didn’t play lacrosse, most Kingston teens from that era knew Joseph as the owner of a couple of Kingston arcades, including one at Division and Princess Streets. Joseph had other business interests in vending machines and a used bookstore.

The Joseph family lived in a working-class midtown Kingston neighborhood on North Bartlett Street in the 1960’s. Rad remembers spending his winters always playing ‘boot’ hockey (no skates) with neighbourhood kids on a frozen backyard rink.

Rad never skated or played organized hockey; but he did become a very good goaltender on many successful Kingston lacrosse teams.

When Kingston Minor Lacrosse got started in 1969 – Joseph took up the sport and his father got involved a year or two later.

Matt Bernhardt and Garnet Esford were two of the key organizers that got the league off the ground in Kingston.  

Rad remembers his father as a very busy small business owner, “working seventy-hour weeks, he never wore a watch, and had no sense of time.”

“But he made time to give back to the community through lacrosse.”

After playing minor lacrosse Rad made the jump to the Kingston Junior team in 1974.

Joseph has fond memories of those days and he puts Fern DeSousa and Bryan Alexander at the top of the list as Kingston’s best players from that era. Both players starred on the ‘73 championship team.

Small in stature, DeSousa was tough, fearless and a real warrior, playing with a ton of grit and could also score.

Alexander had played briefly for the first year Kingston Canadians hockey team in 1973, but in lacrosse he was a real star. Joseph says “Bryan was the whole package, skilled, courageous and a very smart lacrosse player.”

“He could have played pro.”

In 1975, Alexander led the Kings with 31 goals and 109 points.

Nicknamed ‘Loon’, not because of his temperament, but because he did a ‘loon’ call during a game when he wanted the ball.

Alexander earned a hockey scholarship to Lake Superior State and today he lives in Omaha, Nebraska.

Hugh McDermid also stands out from that era. McDermid was a big man, and Joseph says he could have played Junior ‘A’.

McDermid scored 49 goals for the ’73 Kingston championship team, but had a falling out with coach Bob Joseph and left to play in Brockville, taking his brother, Sandy, with him.

Kingston played Brockville in the playoffs the next season and Joseph predicted “a three-game Kingston sweep.” Brockville surprised Kingston and took the first two games of the best of five series, but Kingston bounced back to win the last three games.

Afterwards, Joseph chuckled. “I didn’t say what three games we would sweep.” Kingston would go on to lose their semi-final playdown series against Nepean.

In 1975 the Kings went to the league final against the league leading Cornwall Rams. Kingston pushed it to a fifth and deciding game before losing the championship series.

The following year the Interprovincial League was moved up from Junior C to Junior B status. The Kings struggled, enduring a long, difficult losing season in front of dwindling crowds and missed the playoffs.

The Ontario Lacrosse Association (OLA) decided to add two more Jr A teams in 1977 and Kingston applied for a franchise. Joseph saw how successful Junior A hockey was for the Kingston Canadians and he felt a Jr A lacrosse franchise would attract greater interest and bring better players to Kingston.

The OLA turned down the Kingston bid, travel was a factor with no other Jr A teams in Eastern Ontario, and they didn’t feel Kingston had enough local players to compete at the Jr A level.

Joseph made the difficult decision to suspend operations for one year after his application was rejected. He would focus on building up the house league teams in the hopes of developing more players locally.

Ultimately the decision for the Kings not to play the ‘77 season would be the death knell for junior lacrosse in Kingston.

Rad Joseph and other Kingston junior players had to find a place to play. Joseph headed to Whitby on a tryout with the Jr ‘A’ Warriors. Whitby, Oshawa & Peterborough has long been a hotbed for lacrosse with very strong teams.

Joseph was cut by Whitby after only playing part of one exhibition game. Rad’s disappointment was short-lived, the next day he was signed by the Oshawa Jr. ‘A’ Green Gaels.

The Green Gaels had quite a pedigree, having won seven straight Minto Cups in the 1960’s. They also had legendary coach Jim Bishop.

Described as the “Bobby Knight of lacrosse coaches,” a real taskmaster – both revered and despised by his players. Although Joseph barely played that first season, Bishop was impressed with his work ethic and dedication to the game. Joseph saw more playing time in his final year in Oshawa.

After finishing his competitive lacrosse career in 1978, Joseph returned to Kingston and spent two years at Queen’s University. He took a year off and then finished his education at Ottawa University, married his wife Helen and settled in Ottawa while raising three kids.

They both had careers as civil servants, Rad as an analyst for Statistics Canada for 30 years, and Helen worked in Fisheries & Oceans.

In the late 1990’s Rad got involved with minor lacrosse in Nepean, where he would spend 18-years as a coach and manager with Nepean Minor Lacrosse.

In that era there was no Junior ‘A’ lacrosse teams east of Oshawa. One of Joseph’s proudest accomplishments was helping bring Jr ‘A’ lacrosse to the Nation’s Capital. Joseph helped launch the Ottawa Jr. ‘A’ Titans in 2005 and was named team President.

The Titans hired Peter Vipond as coach, another lacrosse legend – and Vipond gave the team instant credibility. The Titans won their first two league games on the road in St. Catharines and Orillia, beating powerhouse teams.

As a first-year expansion team they made the playoffs. But traveling costs were high, it was hard to find players willing to make the commitment and the team only lasted a couple of years.

Rad retired in 2015 and they decided to leave the city for North Glengarry – moving to a country home between Alexandria and Hawkesbury. Helen had grown up on a dairy farm and she has three siblings living within five kilometers.

For a couple of years Rad stayed involved on the coaching side, helping out a Junior ‘C’ lacrosse team in Cornwall.

Today, Joseph still closely follows the sport and has seasons tickets for the new pro lacrosse team in Ottawa – the Black Bears. He also writes a regular blog highlighting the history of lacrosse in Canada and many of its greatest players and coaches.

For many years Rad has served at the executive level with both the Ontario and Eastern Canada lacrosse associations.

When asked what stands out in his lacrosse career Rad simply says, ‘it’s the relationships you build. I remain in close touch with many former teammates and like most sports it’s a relationship business.”

Rad’s kids like to joke when you go to a lacrosse game with Dad, he can’t walk more than ten steps without stopping to chat to someone he knows.

Joseph recalls how his own father always kept track of his former players. Young men who were just teenagers when they played for Bob, starting their careers and having a family of their own.   

It will be a real family affair for the Joseph’s at the Hall of Fame ceremonies in St. Catharines on November 08. The entire family will gather in a rented house to celebrate Rad’s induction and to reflect on Bob Joseph’s life and his many contributions to lacrosse.

Rad’s daughter, Kate, a recreational lacrosse player in Calgary, will be joined by her brothers Greg and David. Both boys played lacrosse, David five years of Junior A, while Greg has found a new passion playing the bag pipes.

It will be a proud moment when Greg pipes in his Dad – and the rest of the 2025 inductees at the Hall of Fame ceremonies.

Rad Joseph joins his father as a second-generation member of the Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame. 

It’s a great honour for the Joseph’s  – a Kingston family that has given so much back to the game of lacrosse.

Mark Potter is an honoured member of the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame and a longtime Kingston broadcaster. Mark co-authored ‘Hockey’s Hub – Three Centuries of Hockey In Kingston’ with J.W. (Bill) Fitsell.