First lady of the Kansas City Royals hailed from Toronto
Muriel Kauffman, who grew up in Parkdale, went on to co-found the Jays’ current rivals
When she wasn’t pacing the plush blue carpet of her private box suite, entertaining guests over lobster and shrimp cocktails, the first lady of Kansas City baseball would perch near the window overlooking the diamond and hook rugs on her lap. Either that, or she’d boo the umpires. Muriel Irene McBrien Kauffman, who died 20 years ago, co-founded the Kansas City Royals with her husband, pharmaceutical maven Ewing Kauffman, in 1968. Her glamorous life at the centre of the action in that midwestern city is wellremembered, from the stadium that bears her family name to the performing arts centre built after she died.
As the Toronto Blue Jays face elimination at the hands of her beloved Royals, it’s worth noting that the woman who ushered that team into the world was, in fact, a Torontonian. And damn proud of it.
“My mother was a dynamo. Energetic, effervescent. Truthfully, 20 years later people will still tell me how wonderful my mother was,” said Kauffman’s daughter, Julia, her only surviving relative, who chairs the Kauffman charity foundation in Kansas City.
“We’d fly the Canadian flag. Two flagpoles at every house,” Julia continued. “She always loved Toronto. She was proud of being a Canadian and she’d wish the Blue Jays the best of luck.”
Unless, of course, they were playing the Kansas City Royals.
Kauffman, the daughter of Tory MP Fred McBrien, grew up in Parkdale, barely more than a pop fly’s distance from Exhibition Stadium. As a girl she’d skip school to go see baseball there, when there was a team called the Maple Leafs in the International League. She went to Parkdale Collegiate Institute, then graduated to McMaster University and attended Osgoode Hall for law school.
Life changed in 1961, when she met Ewing Kauffman in a swimming pool at a Miami Beach hotel. Julia was a teenager at the time; her mother was a widow and Ewing was a widower. “He popped up and said: ‘I’m Ewing Kauffman, I’m a Southern gentleman and I’d like to buy you a drink,’ ” Julia recounted.
“My mother said, ‘I’m from Toronto, Canada, and I’d love a drink.’ ”
Before she knew it, Julia had a stepfather, who adopted her and gave her his last name.
Ewing Kauffman was rich, having grown the pharmaceutical enterprise that he started in his mother’s basement into a multimillion-dollar business.
Baseball was his wife’s idea. In the late ’60s, a doctor recommended Ewing get a hobby because he was working too hard. With the Athletics having decamped from Kansas City to Oakland, Calif., there was an opening for a major league expansion team. Muriel saw the opportunity.
“I thought it would keep him alive 20 years longer,” she told the Star’s Tim Harper in 1985, after the Royals beat the Blue Jays in the American League Championship Series. “I call baseball the game of the intellect.”
The Kauffmans bought the club for $10 million (U.S.), and baseball became the centre of their lives. They became known as Mr. K and Mrs. K. Their car had a licence plate that said, “Royals1.” Every family celebration — holidays, birthdays, everything — was held in the fancy expanse of their private box at the stadium, which featured white leather couches and ornate dining tables. Mrs. K draped herself in Royals blue at every occasion; she had a blue evening gown with sapphires and Royals necklaces and bracelets.
“She was a super fan. She always wore royal blue. She even had a royal blue mink coat,” said Julia. “I still have it, and it’s gorgeous.”
Julia remembers the tense atmosphere of the World Series of 1985, when the streets were deserted during games. “Truthfully, I could never watch,” she said. “I was sure I was a jinx. So I sat and read during the World Series.”
Back then, Mrs. K had high praise for Toronto and the Blue Jays. She told the Star the team would be “marvellous” for many years. But what would she think about the team in 2015, with Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson and the whole gang with their backs on the ropes?
“She’d think the same thing,” said Julia. “She’d still want us to win, but she’d be thrilled to hear how Toronto has come on.”
She’d maybe even be a Drake fan. Muriel Kauffman, in her trademark mink, with husband Ewing Kauffman in the Kansas City dugout in 1985.