Coach Kane was a ‘killer’ on the court, a loving friend off it

On July 10, approximately 100 graduates of the former Sacred Heart High School on Canal Street gathered for funeral Mass at St. Angela Merici Church to remember their beloved PE teacher and coach, Florence Kane, who died April 5 at age 93.


Competitors gave Coach Kane the nickname “Killer” Kane but noted how her friendship and help after games would be assured.

“She was out to get you on the court, but when the game was over – no matter who won or lost – she was your friend,” long-time Mount Carmel Academy coach Ruth McDonald said. “She was a lovely lady. She was always willing to help other coaches, too, whether you were doing a tournament or were new.” 


“She tried to make the school always be on top and look good,” said Joan Kertz Serpas, Sacred Heart class of 1965, who as the “blue-and-gold” team sports manager received a letter sweater. “You could talk to her, and if you asked her what she thought about something, she would tell you. She was never negative about anything. She would encourage you to do your best, and our teams were always competitive.”

Kane taught at Sacred Heart even after a merger and name change to Seton High School. While she retired in 1989, her students never forgot her and often wrote letters about her influence over their lives.

One letter from a former athlete attributed her success to her, mentioning Kane’s success in taming a wild streak and pushing her in the right direction in high school.


Another student, Debbie Ursin, class of 1965, played on a CYO team Kane coached and married the game’s umpire 55 years ago.

“Every time I think of Miss Kane, if she wouldn’t have coached me, I would never have met him, married him, had my kids and grandkids,” Ursin said.

Athletics in her blood
Kane played ball as a student at Sacred Heart Elementary School and High School (class of 1945) and became a certified teacher, beginning with a part-time teaching job at St. Joseph Academy on Tulane Avenue.

“But she didn’t stay at St. Joseph,” friend Lynn Latapie Gerding said. “After about a year and a half, a full-time job opened at her alma mater and she moved to Sacred Heart and taught P.E. to elementary and high school students.”

She loved people, but it was sports – any sport – that drove her.

Her favorites seemed to be volleyball, basketball and baseball, but she coached, watched and participated in them all, including bowling. Students remembered how Kane used to coach intramurals after school, CYO teams in the parish and playground teams near her family’s shotgun home on Telemachus Street in New Orleans.

“Everybody, in those days, played ball at the neighborhood playground,” Gerding said. “There was nothing else to do. We didn’t have television, so we went to the playground. One of the stories she told me – she would coach at the playgrounds and the fathers used to come and watch, including her own dad, who was a fireman.”

She lived with her parents until they died. She was engaged once – until her fiance attended a playground game she was coaching and told her, “It’s good you’re getting this out of your system, because when we are married, you’re not going to do all this.”

Her love of sports caused her to break the engagement. She never married, but considered her students extended family.

“She knew everything that went on,” Gerding said. “She was like their mother. She knew who they were dating. She knew all about it. And they would remember that.”

Students said she had a winning record in all sports. Her indoorball team in 1973 was CSAL city champion. A March 1964 issue of the Clarion Herald documented a CYO girls’ basketball city championship: “Sacred Heart’s defending senior champions posted their second straight win with a 38-26 decision over Mater Dolorosa. Frani Sulfstede tallied 17 points and Karen Plaisance scored 13 to lead coach Florence Kane’s Sacred Heart team to victory.”

Stayed active
Kane was not one to sit still, as evidenced by her answering machine message: “This is Flo, I’m on the go. Leave me a message, and I’ll call you back.”

Even with health setbacks, including poor eyesight, hearing, cancer, heart problems and diabetes, she frequented dollar stores, groceries, restaurants and casinos with her walker – healthcare assistants and students in tow – and often bumped into former students.

“You couldn’t go anywhere with Flo when somebody wouldn’t yell across the aisle, ‘Hey Miss Kane.’ And she would know who they were and know who their mother was,” Gerding said.

Kane is credited with helping organize the Sacred Heart Alumni Association in 1979 and serving on the board for many years.

“She always looked forward to attending our Homecoming Mass and reception (at St. Anthony of Padua Church near Sacred Heart on Canal Street) each year,” Kathy Dempsey Delgrande said. The next one is planned for October. Meetings were often held at Whitney Place where Kane lived. Friends remembered how she quickly adapted and took charge at Whitney Place.

“When she moved in, she took over,” Gerding said. “She ran a football pool there until a year before she died. That was Flo.”

1958 Sacred Heart High graduate Loretta Thomas Keane eulogized her at the St. Angela Mass.

“There are no words to express our love for you Miss Kane,” Keane wrote. “You will always be remembered by all your former students. For some, you were a perfect mother, and for others a great friend. Whenever we sing the alma mater or it is whispered on our lips, you, Miss Kane, will always be remembered.”

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