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By: THE CANADIAN PRESS

PORT COLBORNE, Ont. - Ted (Teeder) Kennedy, a former Toronto Maple Leafs captain and Hockey Hall of Famer, has died.

He was 83.

His son Mark says he died Friday morning of congestive heart failure at a nursing home in his hometown of Port Colborne, Ont.

"It was just a wearing down of the body," said Mark Kennedy. "The last three days, things became pretty serious so it wasn't really a surprise for us. We'd been told maybe a month ago that there wasn't too many more weeks or months left."

A veteran of 14 NHL seasons, Kennedy played his entire career with the Maple Leafs and won five Stanley Cups.

The five-foot-11, 175-pound centre captained the club from 1948 to 1955, when he won the Hart Trophy as league MVP, and is a franchise icon.

Dick Duff, a fellow Hockey Hall of Famer, recalls the honour he felt when Conn Smythe gave him the No. 9 Kennedy had worn.

"At that time, Ted Kennedy was regarded by fans and team ownership as one of, if not, the best player to have ever worn the crest of the Maple Leafs and I was truly humbled by the gesture," Duff said. "I admired him greatly and I wore his number with tremendous pride."

Kennedy was also a five-time all-star and finished his career with 231 goals and 329 assists in 696 games. He added 29 goals and 31 assists in 78 playoff contests, and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1966.

"I don't have any memories of him as a player, I was just a little guy," said Mark Kennedy. "The one thing I do have a memory of, dad was a member of Scarborough Golf and Country Club and in the winter time, they had an outdoor skating rink and it was right beside the train tracks. He would wait for the train to come along and then he'd race the train.

"It's just a neat memory."

Kennedy is survived by his wife Doreen, son Mark, two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.