One of the biggest annual events in Buffalo will have a CHS graduate leading the way this year.

Liam Knott '03 is the grand marshal for Sunday's Buffalo St. Patrick's Day Parade.

Thousands will be downtown for the parade, which starts at 2 p.m. Sunday at Niagara Square, running north on Delaware Avenue until North Street, just a mile south of CHS.

Knott, a general and bariatric surgeon with UBMD, was elected grand marshal by the United Irish American Association, taking on an honored role that is has a tradition in his family: Liam's grandfather (Thomas V. Courtney) was the grand marshal in 1962, his mother (Brigid) had the honor in 1981, and an uncle (John P. Courtney) led the way in 2002.

“I knew that I was always going to be a part of the parade because it had been such a huge part of my life, my grandparents' life and my mom's life,” Knott told NBC affiliate WGRZ-TV. “It's been just a yearly tradition that I'm able to experience with my family and all of our friends on the committee. Do I ever think that I was going to be here doing this? I don't think so, but here we are."

Knott, a Town of Tonawanda native, lettered in three seasons in golf, track and hockey at CHS, winning the Coach’s Award in golf his senior season. He was team captain in track in 2002 and 2003, team captain in hockey in 2003 and Rookie of the Year in hockey in 2001. He played Division I golf at Canisius University, where he majored in biology, before attending the University at Buffalo's Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences.

Knott started assisting with the parade as a teenager, working in the lineup area; he was elected to the Executive Committee of the UIAA in 2008.

He has tapped brother Michael Knott and his sister Breda Knott to be his deputy marshals. A contingent of family and friends will be marching led by Liam’s dad, Timothy Knott, and his sister-in-law, Carleen (McCarthy) Knott.

The 2024 Saint Patrick’s Day Parade is dedicated to the memory of Michael W. Roberts, a hard-working, longtime member of the UIAA Executive Committee and Grand Marshal in 1995 who also came from a family very active in the parade.

Parade day begins with 10:30 a.m. Mass at Saint Joseph’s Cathedral – which will be celebrated by another CHS graduate, UIAA chaplain Fr. David Richards ’90, and Bishop Michael Fisher – and prior to the lineup around the McKinley Monument in Niagara Square.

Watch the WGRZ story on Knott here.

Photo: Buffalo Irish Center.

Students and families interested in the academic, athletic and artistic excellence only found in a Jesuit education at Canisius can learn more at canisiushigh.org or by joining us at our Spring Open House on Sunday, April 28. This place is special. Let us show you why.