OHL's Kingston Frontenacs to honor The Tragically Hip with special jersey

One of Kingston, Ontario's own will be recognized by the city's junior hockey club later this month.

The Kingston Frontenacs will wear jerseys that pay tribute to Gord Downie and The Tragically Hip when the OHL team plays the Mississauga Steelheads on Jan. 28.

(Courtesy: Kingston Frontenacs)

The jerseys will be auctioned off after the game, with net proceeds going to the Gord Downie Fund for Brain Cancer Research through Sunnybrook Hospital.

The Hip's lead singer revealed in May that he was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, and the band gave its final performance in Kingston back in August.

"Gord's diagnosis touched our entire organization and everyone we spoke with, from hockey fans to music fans, across Kingston, and Canada," Frontenacs executive director of business operations Justin Chenier said.

"As a team, we've talked about honoring The Tragically Hip and when the reality of Gord's diagnosis set in, we knew we could do something special to honor the band and help raise funds to help with the research for brain cancer."

Chenier explained that the club, along with Ontario-based jersey manufacturer Catstitch, designed the sweaters in the mold of the 1964 Boston Bruins home jerseys to reflect Downie's favorite team and the year he was born.

There's also this terrific deal:

"In the background of the jersey is the name of every album and song recorded and released by the band, from their self-titled 1987 debut to 2016's 'Man Machine Poem,'" Chenier said. "We wanted to include the lyrics of every song they've recorded, but typed in 11-point Arial, the 30,333 words, or 128,380 characters was 45 pages long.”

Kudos to the Frontenacs for this heartfelt and well-thought-out homage.