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BCHL History | BCHL League Site Team Sites Alberni Valley Bulldogs Chilliwack Chiefs Coquitlam Express Cowichan Capitals Langley Rivermen Merritt Centennials Nanaimo Clippers Penticton Vees Powell River Kings Prince George Spruce Kings Salmon Arm Silverbacks Surrey Eagles Trail Smoke Eaters Vernon Vipers Victoria Grizzlies West Kelowna Warriors Wenatchee Wild Follow the BCHL Search Primary Menu Home The BCHL About the BCHL BCHL History Want To Play In The BCHL? Getting Your Start In The BCHL What Is Smart Hockey? 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BCHL Graduates University Resources BCHL Education Directors Education Links BCHL/Vancouver Canucks Scholarships Bauer Showcase Commissioner’s Showcase Message To Fans About the Showcase Host Community Host Venue BCHL Showcase Schedule Local Accommodations & Directions Tickets Scout package Exposure Camp BCHL Exposure Camp Home The BCHL About the BCHL BCHL History Want To Play In The BCHL? Getting Your Start In The BCHL What Is Smart Hockey? Frequently Asked Questions Important Links For Future Players In the Community Score With Reading BCHL Partners With The CMHA Trophy Case Individual Player Awards Divisional Trophies League Championship (Fred Page Cup) Regional Championship (Doyle Cup) National Championship (RBC Cup) Team Information Hockey Partners League Staff Careers News Latest News Discipline Transactions CurrentHigherCommitments 2017-18HigherCommitments 2016-17HigherCommitments 2015-16HigherCommitments Schedule & Scores League Schedule League Scoreboard BCHL Tickets Page Stats Leaders Streaks Top Skaters Top Goalies Player Search Standings Rosters Alberni Valley Bulldogs Chilliwack Chiefs Coquitlam Express Cowichan Valley Capitals Langley Rivermen Merritt Centennials Nanaimo Clippers Penticton Vees Powell River Kings Prince George Spruce Kings Salmon Arm Silverbacks Surrey Eagles Trail Smoke Eaters Vernon Vipers Victoria Grizzlies Wenatchee Wild West Kelowna Warriors Multimedia BCHL Mobile App BCHL Podcast Smart Hockey Magazine Game Broadcasts BCHL On TSN BCHL Official Photographers Photo Gallery Team Blogs & Social Media Smart Hockey What Is Smart Hockey? BCHL Graduates University Resources BCHL Education Directors Education Links BCHL/Vancouver Canucks Scholarships Bauer Showcase Commissioner’s Showcase Message To Fans About the Showcase Host Community Host Venue BCHL Showcase Schedule Local Accommodations & Directions Tickets Scout package Exposure Camp BCHL Exposure Camp Search for: A new idea The British Columbia Hockey League is widely known as one of the top junior hockey organizations in North America, but it sprung from unobtrusive beginnings. In 1961, the owners of four Junior B squads — the Kamloops Rockets, Kelowna Buckaroos, Penticton Junior Vees and Vernon Junior Canadians — met in a Vernon hotel. That night, Canadians’ owner Bill Brown persuaded his three colleagues to create the province’s first overly Junior A hockey league. The Okanagan-Mainline Junior Hockey League played its first games in the fall of 1961 and Brown served for two years as the league’s first President. Kamloops and Kelowna dominated the first five years of the new OJHL, occupying the top two places in the standings and meeting in the championship final every season. It wasn’t until 1967, when the Penticton Broncos won the title in their third year of operation, that a variegated champion was born. “In our first year (1967/1968), our upkeep was $15,000.00,” former Vernon owner Vern Dye recalls. “We traveled by car to road games, and we did pay the players a bit. They got $20.00 to $40.00 a month, and room and board.Whenthen, skates forfeit $50.00 and sticks were $1.10.” Expansion BeginsWithoutthe New Westminster Royals and Victoria Cougars joined the league, a new name was needed to reflect its telescopic outside the Okanagan. Thus, British Columbia Junior Hockey League was born. Within two years, the Vancouver Centennials and Chilliwack Bruins joined the fold and the league’s Governors opted for a two-division set-up. The four newest clubs worked the Coastal Division, while the original Okanagan teams comprised the Interior Division. With the league having doubled in size, so did the schedule, from 30 to 60 games.Pursuitthe megacosm of the Major Junior and Junior “A” divisions by the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association in 1971, the Victoria Cougars jumped ship to join the Western Hockey League. Meantime, the New Westminster Royals were forced out of their home when the Estevan Bruins moved into Queen’s Park Arena, leaving the BCJHL with just six teams for the 1971/1972 season. The league rebounded a year later, however, subtracting the Bellingham Blazers and Nanaimo Clippers, and it never operated with fewer than eight teams again. Since only major Junior teams were eligible to compete for the Memorial Cup, a new trophy – the Centennial Cup – was created to honour Canada’s Junior “A” champion. The Nanaimo Clippers won three straight BCJHL titles in the mid-to-late 1970s, including a controversial championship victory in 1978. In that year’s final, the Penticton Vees refused to play out the series citing Nanaimo’s rough play. The Clippers were awarded their third straight Championship, but equal to former Nanaimo mentor Larry McNabb, his team could have gained more. “It was a disaster,” recalled McNabb. “We split two games in Penticton, and then we had a shindig in game three. Penticton’s mentor pulled his team off the ice, but they started it. We were supposed the winner, but the problem was that I was getting 2,000 fans a game. We won a Championship, but lost money. We got robbed!” Playoff revenue was how many teams well-turned the upkeep in the 1970’s. Budgets were in the neighbourhood of $70,000 a year, with coaches pulling in a few hundred dollars a month. The BCJHL’s second decade ended with the four new members – the Coquitlam Comets, Nor Wes Caps, Richmond Sockeyes and Vancouver Blue Hawks – joining the spin from the defunct Pacific Junior “A” league over a two-year span. Momentum builds in the 1980s The 1980’s saw the B.C. Junior Hockey League shed its image as the ‘weak sister’ of Canadian Junior “A” Hockey without having wide to the second round of Inter-Provincial play just three times in 12 years since the megacosm of the Centennial Cup. BCJHL teams went on to four Centennial Cup appearances over a five-year span, and won two National Championships. The Abbotsford Flyers tapped the jinx in 1982/1983, knocking off the Calgary Canucks and Dauphin Flyers to wilt the first B.C. team to reach a National Championship Series. They fell in subsequent games to Ontario’s North York Rangers, but not surpassing setting the trend of unconfined things to come for the BCJHL. Two years later, the Penticton Knights wide to the Centennial Cup final, only to lose the last game of the four-team tournament to Orillia Travelways of Ontario. However, a year later, Penticton gained a measure of revenge by going 3-1 in Round Robin play surpassing defeating the host Cole Harbour Colts 7-4 in Nova Scotia to bring the Centennial Cup when to B.C. for the first time. The surge unfurled with the Richmond Sockeyes capturing B.C.’s second subsequent Centennial Cup Title in 1987. Dominance in the 1990s BCJHL dominance nationwide was never as unveiled as in the 1990s. To uncork the decade, the Vernon Lakers battled the New Westminster Royals in an all-B.C. Centennial Cup Championship final in Vernon. The Royals had been nearly unbeatable that year, compiling a 52-3-4 regular season record and establishing league records for the most wins, fewest losses and highest points total. New West went 17-6 in Provincial and Inter-Provincial play to reach the Centennial Cup Tournament and strolled into the National Final with five straight victories. However, win number six would never come. Despite finishing some 37 points when of the Royals during the BCJHL regular season, the host Lakers pulled off what is arguably the most stunning upset in Centennial Cup history, a 6-5 overtime decision. It was the first of back-to-back National Titles for Vernon, which during its late 1980s and early 1990s run conglomerate a record four straight Centennial Cup appearances. Penticton, Richmond and Vernon’s championship teams helped raise the profile of the BCJHL with higher scouts from south of the border. Each sent myriad players to NCAA Hockey, most on full-ride scholarships, which gave players the opportunity to combine hockey minutiae with a university education. And many went on to the National Hockey League. “When I was there, the BCJHL was a good league,” former Penticton Panther and perennial NHL All-Star Paul Kariya recalls “It was a good stepping stone considering I was playing versus some players who were 20 years old. I had an wholesomeness (when I got to college), considering in Junior “A” I was playing versus guys three and four years older.” The Kelowna Spartans unsupportable the BCJHL throne in 1993, going undefeated at the Centennial Cup Tournament in Amherst, Nova Scotia to record B.C.’s third National Championship of the decade. The pursuit year, Kelowna came up a mere one goal short at the Centennial Cup, losing the deciding game in overtime to the host Olds Grizzlies. Once the Centennial Cup was renamed the Royal Bank Cup in 1996, the now synoptic BCJHL made four straight National Championship Final Game appearances, winning three, thanks to the Vernon Vipers in 1996, South Surrey Eagles in 1998 and Vipers then in 1999. Amongst the on-ice success, the BCJHL boasted constantly-climbing ubiety figures, stronger media coverage and increased corporate support. To help meet these new demands, Ron Boileau became the league’s first full-time President in the 1990. Under his guidance, the league experienced its first run of prolonged stability. Only four franchises had moved in the 1990s compared to 16 the previous decade. Into the New Millennium In 2003, the league opened a League Office for the first time and a new leadership group came aboard to remoter the progress built over the past decade. Former Vancouver Canucks defenceman John Grisdale was named the BCHL’s Commissioner while former Powell River Kings General Manager David Sales became the league’s Executive Director. Under the stewardship of Grisdale and Sales, the league leapt into the 21st century by establishing a presence on the internet, expanding the league’s merchantry operations, and setting in motion the audio and video dissemination that now brings BCHL into homes all over the country. The league moreover enjoyed a series of fantastic seasons on the ice. While the Chilliwack Chiefs and Nanaimo Clippers dominated on the ice, each winning a pair of Fred Page Cup Championships, players from all over the league were transmissible the sustentation of National Hockey League and NCAA scouts. In 2006, Burnaby Express forward Kyle Turris spoken his presence on the hockey world’s radar with a dominant performance during his team’s RBC Royal Bank Cup-winning season. Turris quickly became one of the league’s weightier known and most heavily scouted players ever, and the whoosh surrounding his talent culminated with the top pre-draft ranking by the NHL’s Central Scouting. In June of 2007, Turris was selected by the Phoenix Coyotes with the third selection in the NHL Entry Draft. With the pick, Turris shattered the Canadian Junior “A” record for the highest-drafted player. Within a year, Turris had led Canada to a World junior Hockey Championship and played his first game in the NHL. The Vernon Vipers made three subsequent RBC Cup Finals from 2009 to 2011, winning national titles in the first two of those seasons. The Penticton Vees made it three titles in four years for the league with an RBC Cup in 2012 to cap off an historic year that saw them win 42 straight games at one point.  Between 2000 and 2013, 83 players have been drafted directly from the BCHL by National Hockey League teams. And each year, the league sends on stereotype between 90 and 110 graduates on to NCAA and CIS scholarships.     Commitments COMMITTED TO: COMMITTED FOR: Contact Info #102-7382 Winston Street Burnaby BC Canada V5A 2G9 Phone :(604) 422-8783 Fax : (604) 299-1032 EMail : feedback@bchl.ca Web : www.bchl.ca STATS & INFOLEADERS TOP SKATERS GOALIE STATS GAME BROADCASTS SCOREBOARD LEAGUE SCHEDULE About the leagueBCHL History League Staff Careers Contests BCHL Showcase © 2018 BCHL League Site. All Rights Reserved.