From an illustrious 14 years of professional hockey to his role as an academic leader at Algonquin, Jim Kyte, has had a career path like no other.
Though the 50-year-old was born hearing impaired, it wasn’t until Kyte was three years old that doctors discovered he was legally deaf. It was a huge disadvantage throughout his hockey career, but Kyte only ever focused on how to contend with those who can hear just fine.
“I don’t know what I’m missing because I wasn’t born with perfect hearing,” said Kyte, dean of hospitality and tourism. “All I know is what I’ve had to do to compete with people that could hear.”
Through hand signals on the ice with his goaltender, various systems and close communication with the coach, Kyte survived and flourished at every level of hockey he played. He even had a couple of tactics that were downright ingenious.
“In Major Junior A and up they clean the glass before every game,” explained Kyte. So when you go back for the puck, you don’t look through the glass into the stands, you look at the glass and get a mirror-like reflection. You can see the player behind you forechecking.”
After climbing over countless obstacles, his perseverance and determination finally paid off just after his play at the Junior A level.
Drafted 12th overall by the Winnipeg Jets, Kyte played his first game in the NHL in the 1982-83 season, becoming the first ever legally deaf player in the league.
During his career, Kyte was able to help with youth who were also hearing impaired. He co-founded the Canadian Hearing Impaired Hockey Association in 1986 and a year later started the Jim Kyte Hockey School for the Hearing Impaired.
“It cost about $100,000 to put the school on and we flew the kids in across Canada and put them up,” said Kyte. “No one got paid. It was all about covering the expenses for (the camp).”
In 1997, Kyte’s playing career ended when he was the victim of a car accident.
“I woke up to the firemen breaking me out of the car,” said Kyte. “Didn’t break anything, but I had severe post-concussion symptoms, so I spent about two years on the couch recuperating.”
As part of his recuperation, Kyte found work in writing.
“The Ottawa Citizen found out that I was writing for a blog called The Sport Faculty and they asked me if I’d write for them. So I wrote a column for four years called ‘The Point Man,” said Kyte.
While writing for the Citizen and also doing numerous public speaking events, Kyte was approached with a new and different opportunity.
“Kent MacDonald, the former president (of Algonquin), who had seen me speak at an event, said he had a new idea for a sport management program,” said Kyte. “(He) asked me if I would put an advisory committee together and I did.”
Kyte was a professor in the sport business management program that he helped build from 2001 to 2007. Immediately after that he took on the role of academic chair for the School of Business, but as of late, things are changing once again.
In May of 2014, Kyte left the School of Business and became dean of the School of Hospitality and Tourism.
“I’ve been blessed to inherit a faculty in the School of Hospitality and Tourism that’s very dedicated and committed to their students,” said Kyte.
When asked if there might be another career change in his future, Kyte said that he was more than satisfied at Algonquin.
“I get here at seven in the morning and I’m going home at nine at night. I think ‘why am I doing this?’ It’s because I love my job. I’m excited to come to work. The day I’m not excited to come to work, that’s the day I think that maybe I should be doing something else,” said Kyte.