Our History

From these humble beginnings, the Organization enjoyed steady growth and soon began to serve a leadership role for hockey at the provincial and national levels, a role that continues to the present day. Initially, Senior hockey was the only division under the jurisdiction of the BCAHA, and for over 40 years the assessment of Senior hockey gates would serve as the prime source of revenue for the Association.

During the 1922-23 season, the first Intermediate Playdowns were held, and it was not until the 1926-27 season that the Organization crowned their first Junior Champion. Since travel in the province in the early years was slow, expensive and primarily by train, playdowns in minor hockey were discouraged.

By 1942, minor hockey was the prime concern at the AGM. It was agreed that playdowns would again be held, opening the door for the CAHA to provide another $1,000 to help develop minor hockey. It was also agreed that the Association would take all necessary steps to encourage registration at the minor level.

By 1944, the Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association had begun operations and minor hockey in other parts of the province had begun its rise to prominence, resulting in playdowns between the Lower Mainland, Okanagan Mainline and the East and West Kootenays.

In 1945, as a result of a new agreement between the CAHA and the NHL, the Association received their first payment of funds for a registered BCAHA player turning professional. Alfred “Red” Carr, a Winnipeg native who had played his Senior hockey in Nelson and Nanaimo, was signed by the Toronto Maple Leafs and played one wartime season with the club.

By the late forties, the Association had begun to focus resources in the area of development and the first referee schools were held as a result. The Association was now doing well financially, so much so that the Secretary-Treasurer convinced the Executive that reserves should be set aside for the lean years. As a result, the first reserve fund was set up from general funds (primarily senior assessments).

The decade of the sixties would open with the realization that the popularity of Senior hockey was, in fact, decreasing. The Association showed an operating loss for the first time in 26 years, as the two per cent assessment of Senior gate fees dropped to $1,634 from a high of $5,867 in 1956-57 and $8,909 in 1953-54 when the assessment was three per cent.

But the 108 minor hockey teams now registered with the Association signified that the shift in focus from Senior to minor hockey was gaining momentum. Building on this fact, the Association was successful in having Imperial Oil give Minor Hockey Week considerable coverage on its Hockey Night in Canada.

Leadership by BCAHA at the CAHA level continued, and in 1960 the CAHA adopted BCAHA’s resolution to honour individuals who had served amateur hockey faithfully and made a major contribution to the sport. The first such awards were presented at the CAHA Annual Meeting in Ottawa in 1962.

With the large growth of minor hockey in British Columbia, it was decided in 1963 that there should be a BC Minor Hockey Committee set up and chaired by the Second Vice President with a delegate from each district. The Committee was charged with the responsibility of bringing forward recommendations to the AGM.

By the mid-sixties, the evolution of the game was in full swing, reflected by BCAHA's rule changes implemented to ban the golf shot (known today as the slap shot) and to mandate the wearing of helmets by minor hockey players.

Player registration continued to grow, surpassing the 15,000 mark. The Mutual Aid Fund registration topped 13,000 and would soon grow to include all referees, with BCAHA remaining as the only Branch of the CAHA with their own accident insurance.

A referee organization was formed within the Association with the goal of providing efficient well-qualified officials for the game of hockey, and coach instructional clinics were staged for the first time in 1965 with financial assistance from the Federal Government.

The late sixties and early seventies saw the rise of Junior B hockey in B.C. with the formation of the Kootenay Junior B Hockey League (now KIJHL). The league grew quickly and even included a Spokane, WA entry, the first team from the USA to operate in B.C..

By the mid-1980s, the Association was a full fledged business operation, complete with all the trappings that go along with such ventures. Legal matters became an all too common occurrence, with players challenging the residency regulations at the minor hockey level.

Insurance issues with respect to cost, coverage and administration crept to the forefront, culminating with a decision by Hockey Canada in the mid-1990s to change their “self-insured” mandate in favour of obtaining coverage from third party providers. The safety of participants became a major focus for the Organization, as did the desire for balance between commitment to success and sportsmanship.

Association-run programming continued to grow and develop, and with the rising costs of the services provided to the membership came the corresponding demand for excellence and professionalism in those services.

The Best Ever Program started in the 1985-86 season, replacing a male program first organized in 1979 called the Junior Olympic Program. The Junior Olympic Program started as an event that invited the best U17 athletes in the province to a summer camp to be instructed by the best skill instructors in Western Canada. There were no competitions until 1986 when Best Ever Program funding was used for District Evaluators, District camps and competition.

The first U17 BC Cup was conducted in Kamloops in 1986. The name Best Ever was actually a program established by the government in preparation for the 1988 Olympics in Calgary. BC Hockey received grant funding from the Province of B.C. for programs to identify and train players and personnel capable of representing B.C. and Canada on the national and international stage. Although the true program eventually faded, the name Best Ever was kept by BC Hockey until 1999-00 when the name was changed to the High Performance Program, and recently changed to the Program of Excellence in 2016-17

In 2004, BC Hockey launched the Major Midget League (MML) to provide elite level 15, 16 and 17-year-old males an opportunity to play within their own age group at a high level and be developed for the next level of hockey. To this day, league has produced over 50 National Hockey League (NHL) draft picks and countless other NHL players.

Based on the success of the MML and in response to the membership’s desire to provide an opportunity for elite female hockey players at the AAA level,  to challenge, the Female Midget AAA League (FMAAA) was formed in 2007. Since its inception, the program has had over 100 players move on to post-secondary hockey operations including the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), U Sports, and Alberta College Athletic Association (ACAC) schools.