Irwin (Rocky) Sankoff.Supplied
Irwin (Rocky) Sankoff. Father. Teacher. Sports fan. Traveller. Born June 9, 1935, in Montreal, died Sept. 16, 2025, in Stouffville, Ont., of natural causes; aged 90.
In Irwin Sankoff’s final summer, baseball games were almost always playing on the TV beside him. He obsessively tracked stats with his son, Jay, and turned the channel only to watch a baseball movie with his daughters, Irene and Adrienne. During commercial breaks, he contemplated adding chapters to his memoir: How I Played the Game.
Irwin grew up in Montreal, the oldest child of Ab and Sara Sankoff and older brother to David and Rose Anne. Education – especially in science – was prized at home and Irwin earned a BSc in geology and an MSc in biochemistry at McGill. His love for sports pulled at him and he became a sportswriter and editor of the student newspaper, eventually contributing to the Montreal Gazette’s sport department after graduation.
In a different competitive arena, Irwin dominated Montreal’s early game show circuit, too. He appeared on programs such as It’s a Match, where a young Monty Hall was earning his stripes. Irwin was eventually “retired” from competition for winning too often – he had an uncanny ability to read an “unreadable” spinning wheel.
Geology work took him to northern B.C. and throughout Quebec. He earned the nickname “Rocky” for his encyclopedic knowledge of stones – and, frankly, of almost everything. He worked as a geologist just long enough to decide he’d prefer to be a teacher.
He earned his teacher’s certification after graduation and eventually landed work in Toronto, settling in the city just before the Blue Jays came into existence. For 35 years, Rocky taught biology at Forest Hill Collegiate. Famously gruff, he was also well respected. He coached Reach for the Top teams with the intensity of a playoff run. He once got into an argument with a young Alex Trebek about the definition of a type of cement. He tolerated no fools, but his students remember his humour flying with the precision of a perfectly thrown curveball.
In 1962, Irwin Sankoff trained with the Montreal Alouettes for a column in The Montreal Gazette.Supplied
Rocky’s most important team, however, was his family. With his first wife, Marie, he raised three all-star children, each encouraged to make the most of every at-bat. He teased his son for relentlessly pursuing physical challenges such as securing ice time to play hockey at 2 a.m. Despite having no use for dance, he helped his eldest daughter change high schools so she could attend a ballet program. When forced to watch musicals with his youngest daughter, he fast-forwarded through the dance numbers. But when she began writing musicals, he supported her. He always proudly wore Come From Away merchandise (and insisted it be mentioned in his obituary, so he could keep supporting the show).
He loved outsmarting his family with a joke, or being outsmarted by his grandkids, which he considered the greater victory.
He loved time with family at the cottage and at every celebration he handed out money, believing this was his duty as the patriarch. This could be frustrating on Father’s Day and his birthday. Through it all, he remained headstrong and blunt, but would never hesitate to go all out to help those in whom he saw potential.
Both home and away mattered to Rocky. He meticulously planned family vacations to Disney World and Daytona, Fla., stopping at every battlefield to maximize educational value. Along the way, nothing was denied his children, except for drinks at restaurants (Rocky hated the markup on pop). Once Rocky rode the same flume ride 47 times in a row, laughing off how wet the family was and joyously agreeing when his kids asked for one more round.
Later in life, Rocky began seeing Shirley Gover; they met at work, where she was the school secretary. They explored the world together, touring by cruise and coach, documenting every detail.
In retirement, Rocky and Shirley moved to the hamlet of Ballantrae, Ont. Rocky still couldn’t resist competition. He won medals at Ballantrae’s Summer Olympics community event.
In his 90th year, his body weakened but his mind stayed razor-sharp. He paid attention when the Jays kept winning in 2025. As a sportswriter, he knew the stats. As a game-show champion, he understood the odds. As a teacher, father and grandfather, he recognized growth. And as a long-suffering fan, he had enough humour to know the Jays could go all the way – even if he might not be around to see it.
But life isn’t about avoiding loss. It’s about how you play the game. And like the Jays, Rocky knocked it out of the park.
Irene Sankoff and David Hein are Irwin Sankoff’s daughter and son-in-law.
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Lives Lived celebrates the everyday, extraordinary, unheralded lives of Canadians who have recently passed. To learn how to share the story of a family member or friend, go to tgam.ca/livesguide.
