Oct
20
By Vince Herlaar
This is the second of a two part series chronicling the history of the James Bay Athletic Association from its beginnings in the 1880s. See part one. This is an edited transcript from a presentation at JBAA's 125th anniversary in 2011. It is available on youtube.
It's rugby that has truly defined the James Bay Athletic Association over the past 127 years.
In rugby, JBAA has built a record unequal in Canadian sporting history.
JBAA has won a record 24 Rounsefell Cup BC titles, including seven in a row in the 70s, an achievement that is likely never to be equalled.
JBAA has also won a record 57 Barnard Cup Island titles, including a run of eleven titles in a row starting in 1972.
JBAA has won the Bays-Vikes Challenge Cup each year since its establishment by Ian Stewart in 2010. JBAA also won the Canadian Club Championships in 2006.
The origin of this legacy of championships stems from a long history of great leaders. And these leaders most definitely did not just serve for a year or two.
Harry Helmsmen, for whom a local street is named, was president for 21 years; John Cameron was in charge for 12 years; and R.F. Taylor was president for 19 years.
But if JBAA were to single out one leader to stand above the rest it would be Tillman Briggs. Tillman coached the Bays to the record seven straight BC championships starting in 1973, and added three more plus the Monterey North American Club Championship tournament before his retirement in 1990.
Some great players had Tillman's back in those years. Guys like Bob Overgaard, Les Underwood, Benj O'Connor, Hans de Goede, Gary Johnson, and Barry Robbins to name but just a few.
Mick Eckardt, Gary Johnson, and JBAA's current coach Pete Rushton have continued the tradition of strong leadership in recent times; over the years they have added another seven Rounsefell Cups to JBAA's record.
JBAA has also lost some great players whose lives were cut too short. Eight JBAA athletes gave their lives during the wars: Scott, Austin, Boggs, Galliher, Pilkington, Rich, Sinclair, and Taylor.
Courtney Walls was murdered in 1997. His memory has lived on in annual rugby games and golf events that bear his name.
In 2005 we lost Courtenay Taaffe, a major blow to women's rugby at JBAA, and across Victoria.
In Chuck Shergold we lost a teammate and friend; we remember Drew Denniston; Jack Patrick died on the field playing the game that he loved; and Nick Mathers was killed by a drunk driver in 2006.
Looking back over the years a national record 46 Bays have taken the field in Canada's colours: starting with Frank Skilling in 1937 and carrying through to the most recent Bay, John Moonlight.
Game by game, season by season, decade by decade, for 127 years, literally thousands of athletes have given their best to create an amazing sporting legacy that is the James Bay Athletic Association.
Club historian Lou Madley summed it up well in the book he wrote for JBAA's 10th anniversary, "It is in clubs like JBAA where young people's characters are developed, a spirit of community is created, and the qualities of amateurism nurtured; these qualities being the very essence of a healthy and viable society."