When the Winnipeg Fury professional soccer team would play home games, team founder and president Ralph Cantafio would be out front of Winnipeg Stadium greeting fans, shaking hands and welcoming everyone as if they were coming to his home. They were, in a way, because anyone who has played , coached, volunteered or watched soccer in Manitoba in the past 50-plus years has shared a piece of Cantafio’s heart.

Ralph Cantafio has volunteered in the sport of soccer since coming to Winnipeg from Italy in 1950, doing everything from cutting grass before a game to playing a key role in the founding and success of the Winnipeg Fury (1987-1993) of the former Canadian Soccer League.

“When you talk about soccer in Winnipeg, one of the first names to come up is Ralph Cantafio,” said Walter McKee. “When I was 16 years old and looking for a place to play, no one else was that interested in me but Ralph brought me onto his team. An Irish kid on the Italian team!” said McKee, who after 1965 went on to play, coach, manage and volunteer alongside Cantafio for 25 years.

Cantafio, born June 22, 1928 in Amato, Calabria in Italy, is a tailor by trade and opened Ralph’s Custom Tailors on Corydon Avenue in 1953 the year after he married his wife Elvira. The couple have three children in daughters May and Caroline and son Ralph Jr., a partner with his father in both soccer and suits. Cantafio and his wife are also the proud grandparents to Ralph Jr.’s children Nicholas, 6, and Julia, 4.

“We are all so proud of dad. He’s always offered a patriarchal guidance and been very steadfast in his vision to constantly try to make soccer better,” said Ralph Jr. “It’s been a lifetime of work on his part that he has loved and one of the foundations has been his integrity and honesty.”

After settling in Winnipeg, Cantafio became the manager of the Italian Canadian Soccer Club which later became Ital-Inter Soccer Club with Cantafio as president. He has served as a volunteer board member of various senior men’s leagues, vice-president of the Manitoba Soccer Association, board member, and chairman of the former Alexander Park and was instrumental in the development and upgrades of the Winnipeg Soccer Complex.

In 1992, Cantafio was the Fury president and chairman when they won the CSL’s Mita Cup Championship by defeating the four-time defending champion Vancouver 86ers.

In 2002-2003, Ralph Cantafio was the president of the Super Soccer Alliance and led the senior men’s league merge with the Manitoba Central Soccer League to form the unified Manitoba Major Soccer League. He served as the co-president and continues to serve as past-president, co-chair of the Premier Division and on the board of Ital-Inter.