The History Of BCHL Hockey
There have been Junior teams within Canada for many years and Junior A hockey teams date back more than 40 years. But British Columbia was different as there was no junior hockey league established there. That is until 4 men got involved and the rest is the history of BCHL hockey.
Four men from different areas in the interior of British Columbia got together in Vernon back in 1961 where Bill Brown the owner of the Vernon Jr. Canadians convinced three other B team owners to convert their teams to A teams so that BC could have the first Junior A Hockey circuit.
Brown’s reasoning for this idea was because he felt that British Columbia had the potential to be the center of the Junior A Hockey League in all of Canada. However because BC didn’t have a Junior A league all the good players were taken by other provinces.
Thanks to the other owners having the same beliefs as Brown the Okanagan Junior A Hockey League was infact born for the 1961/62 season, and it was made up by the Kelowna Buckaroos, Kamloops Rockets, Vernon Junior Canadians, and the Penticton Jr. Vees.
For the first 5 years the Kamloops and Kelowna teams dominated the standings but the third year saw Penticton become the champs bringing to an end the long Kelowna and Kamloops run.
Soon the league began to expand outside the Okanagan. That created the dilemma that it could not longer be called the Okanagan Junior A Hockey League so the name was changed to the British Columbia Junior Hockey League. The Victoria Cougars and the New Westminster Royals were the next to join the league.
One year later the Vancouver Centennial joined the A league and a year after that the Chilliwack Bruins came on board. By this time the league governors decided that a two division set up would best suit the teams.
The new division was called the Coastal division which included the newer teams that had joined from outside the Okanagan area. The original Okanagan teams became part of the Interior division.
By this time the league had doubled in size so the number of games played also grew from 30 games per season up to a whopping 60 games.
The BCHL stated its 10th year with the loss of a couple of teams but by the end of the year they had grown to a whopping 13 teams. There were lots of changes that occurred during this period from expansions to teams that actually folded.
BY the 1971 – 1972 season the British Columbia Junior Hockey League was down to 6 teams. It didn’t take long for things to turn around though. A year later the Nanaimo Clippers and the Bellingham Blazers came on board and the league never again dropped below 8 teams.
After the designation between Major Juniors and Junior A’s the BCJHL teams weren’t eligible for the Memorial Cup so the Centennial Cup was created for the Junior A’s.
Their second decade saw the league grow on Vancouver Island because of the expansion of the Cowichan Valley Capitals. Again there was plenty of shuffling going on but at the end of the day players had two choices. They could join Major Junior or College Hockey.
Finally during the 1980s the BC Junior Hockey was able to loose the image that it was a weaker Canadian Junior A Hockey. The winning of 2 Canadian Championships changed how the juniors where looked at.
Never had BCJHL dominance ever been so obvious as during the 1990s. It seems there were win after win and the early 1990s saw 4 years of Centennial Cups make it back to British Columbia.
In 1996 the Centennial Cup was renamed the Royal Bank Cup. Game attendance continued to grow, the media was providing excellent coverage, and there was an increase in corporate sponsorships. As well Ron Boileau became the full time president of the league. The BCHL became known as an excellent stepping stone for ones hockey career.
In its 42 years of existence the BCHL has come an incredibly long way. One can only wonder what the future holds for this vibrant and determined league.
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