Ivan Temple (1999)

Ivan Temple was one of the greatest hockey "builders" Victoria ever had. In the early 1940's, at the short-lived Willows Arena, Ivan was a co-founder of Victoria Minor Hockey and after fire destroyed that building he kept hockey going by driving Victoria's keenest players to Nanaimo. With the opening of Memorial Arena, Ivan served as president of the Senior Amateur Association for 12 years and began his involvement with the B.C. Hockey Association. As three-term president and long time secretary-manager, Ivan pioneered the use of helmets in minor hockey, introduced Mutual Aid Insurance and the idea of a Minor Hockey Week as well as many innovative rule changes. He had an unbending attitude about rules and violence in hockey and worked long and hard for the well being of every young player in the game. His career spanned nearly 60 years and by the time of his death in 1976, he had been made a life member of the B.C. Amateur Hockey Association and earned the Diamond Stick, the highest honour bestowed by the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association.