Category Archives: History

UBCOB Ravens logo

UBCOB Ravens – June 2025 Updates

Posted on by

UBCOB Ravens Announce Women’s Team for 2025-26 Season with Jake Thiel as Head Coach

The UBCOB Ravens announced they will be re-establishing a women’s team for the 2025-26 season with Jake Thiel as head coach. The media release is below. We also dug into the archives to look at the history of women’s rugby at Jericho with some excerpts from the research of Doug Sturrock and Dave Pearcey. The Jericho Old Girls were one of three Vancouver women’s teams in 1978 and can claim to be the first champions of the West Coast Women’s Rugby Association (WCWRA) which was started in 1981 with 1982 being the first season played. The team coaches were well known UBCOB players Doug Carr, Rick Bourne, and Garth Henrikson. It doesn’t appear the team continued into the 90s and I’m not sure if there were more recent revivals since then, we’ll update the article if we find more information.

Continue reading→

1987 Canada RWC Squad

Posted on by

A Look at Canada’s First Rugby World Cup Match on May 24th 1987 vs Tonga

May 24th 1987 was Canada’s 1st Rugby World Cup match. The game was against Tonga and Canada won 37-4, it was played in Napier, NZ in front of 7,000 fans. A try was worth 4 points then so Canada scored 7 tries to Tonga’s 1, Canada added 3 conversions and 1 penalty. Scoring for Canada were winger Pat Palmer of UBCOB (2T), centre Paul Vaesen of JBAA (2T), Rowers Ian Stuart at centre (1T), CW’s Flanker Rob Frame (1T) and a penalty try. Converting was CW’s Gareth Rees (1C), and JBAA’s (later Velox) fullback Mark Wyatt (2C). Gareth Rees also added a penalty.

Continue reading→

Rugby on Remembrance Day 1945-1947

Posted on by

A Look at Rugby on Remembrance Day in 1945, 1946 and 1947

The Armistice, an agreement to end the fighting of the First World War as a prelude to peace negotiations, began at 11am on 11 November 1918. That was the history behind Armistice or Remembrance Day. “At the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month – we will remember them”.  We took a look at how rugby in Victoria was part of the Remembrance Day events in the years after World War II.

Continue reading→

Canada v Japan Rugby History

Posted on by

Record of Matches Between Japan and Canada: 8 Wins, 2 Draws, 15 Losses

With Sunday’s game between Canada and Japan at BC Place we did some digging on previous matches between the two teams going back to 1932 and the first Canadian rugby tour to Japan.

Continue reading→

Canada Historical List of Caps

Posted on by

List of Canada Caps from 1932 to 2023

ESPN Rugby was a great resource for finding historical information on Canadian Rugby. In 2021 they focused their attention on the Tier 1 nations and the historical information on Tier 2 countries like Canada has been getting harder to find.

Continue reading→

1954 NZ All Blacks Tour to BC

Posted on by

1954 Tour Program – NZ All Blacks Visit BC for Matches vs Victoria, UBC, Mainland After 31 Games in UK, Ireland, France

In March 1954 the NZ All Blacks wrapped up a gruelling 36 match tour of the UK,  Ireland, France and North America. By the time they reached BC they had played 31 matches and had 5 more to go, 3 of them in BC and 2 in California. They won the matches in BC handily, 39-3 against Victoria, 42-3 against UBC and 37-11 against the Mainland.

Continue reading→

1932 Canada Tour to Japan

Posted on by

Canada’s 1932 Tour to Japan: Official Souvenir Book and the Mystery of the Missing Nippon Maple Leaf Cup

The 1932 tour wasn’t the first Canadian rugby tour but it was the first tour under the auspices of the Rugby Union of Canada, which was formed in 1929. The tour booklet makes mention of the 1902-1903 tour to the UK which was the first Canada tour, it also references the 1930 incoming Japan tour to BC which acted as a foundation for this 1932 tour.

Continue reading→

Don Burgess – A History of Rugby Football on Vancouver Island 1876-1940

Posted on by

Don Burgess Thesis from 1970: A History of Rugby Football on Vancouver Island 1876-1940 Available as Searchable PDF

Don Burgess was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2000, in the Builder category. He was well recognized for his contributions to rugby as a player, coach and inventor but it was his research and writing contributions that are highlighted in this article.

Continue reading→

1908 British Lions – Anglo Welsh Tour in Vancouver

Posted on by

British Lions “Anglo-Welsh” Tour of 1908 Stops in Vancouver for One Match on September 26th After 26 Matches in NZ and Australia

[Editor’s comments below]

This morning Jason D Beck, the BC Sports Hall of Fame Curator, posted an interesting story to Twitter.

September 26th – On This Day in BC Sport History: 1908

Vancouver hosts the first visit to BC of an international rugby side as the Anglo-Welsh Fifteen (later known as the British Lions) defeat the BC Reps 61-5 at Stanley Park’s Brockton Oval before 2500 spectators who were enthralled by what the newspapers described as the best display of rugby ever seen in BC. BC scored its only try right off the opening kickoff when the large number of Welsh immigrants in the crowd began singing the Welsh hymn ‘Land of my Fathers.’ As the Welsh players stood distracted by the emotion of the moment, the local side went down the field and scored a converted try for five points. The Anglo-Welsh responded by scoring 61 unanswered points.
Continue reading→

Canada 7s History

Posted on by

A Look Back at the Canada 7s Coaches from 1980 to Present: Record at Hong Kong 7s and Team Lists from 1980 to 1997

We got on the track of the Hong Kong 7s when we revisited this Rugby Street demo we had done in 2010. The show was hosted by James Buchanan and Meghan Mutrie and featured the Bowl win by the 2010 Canada 7s team. That got us thinking about the hardware that Canada have won at Hong Kong and who were the coaches over the years. Both topics we researched a bit below.

Continue reading→