A native of Toronto, Canada,  was the first captain of the Clinton Comets in 1960. He played 12 years with the Comets - eight of them as their captain - and helped Clinton win four Eastern Hockey League (EHL) championships and seven division titles.

A highly-skilled puck handler, Kane centered a legendary line with Greater Utica Sports Hall of Famer Borden Smith (Class of 2000) and Bill Bannerman that was the most explosive in the history of the league. He began his junior career with Barrie in 1953 and he later played 820 EHL games from 1960-1972, ending his career as the all-time regular-season scoring leader with 333 goals, 639 assists and 972 points.

Kane also played briefly for the Mohawk Valley  Comets in the North American Hockey League and with the semi-pro Copper City Chiefs of Rome. He made Clinton, honored several years ago as "Hockeyville USA", his home, and he coached in the Clinton Youth Hockey program for six years. His 1973 Squirt team won a state championship and placed third in the national tournament. 

Kane also coached the Clinton Central School varsity from 1985-1991, and the 1988 team won a Division II title and reached the finals of the Section III tournament.

The Utica Comets called Kane "Forever Our Captain" on a Facebook post shortly after his death, and one of the many commenting on the impact Kane had on hockey in the Mohawk Valley referred to him as "our Gordie Howe."

"Everyone in our area who has put on skates and taken to the ice, from Learn-to-Skate to the several who have skated in the NHL, owes a tip of the hat to Jack Kane and his Clinton teammates," wrote Tom Coyne, the former long-time public address announcer for the Utica Comets. "They lit the fire and kept it going for decades. A great man and a great loss."

Added Jon Gillespie: "He lit the torch. All we did was carry it."

Kane passed away just over a month after his son, Danny Kane, joined him in the Greater Utica Sports Hall of Fame - along with Al and Scott Knapp, the second father and son pair to be inducted.

Danny, a former Clinton Central star and the leading scorer on a Bowling Green State University hockey team that won an NCAA Division I championship, college basketball coach Bob Montana, sports writer Ron Moshier, and the Little Falls High School baseball team that won a state title in 1982 made up the Greater Utica Sports Hall of Fame's Class of 2025.