In 1989, three local guys, Wally Fletcher, Joe Innarelli and Ron Gardler sat down to figure out what they could do to hold a tournament for hockey players 50 years of age and over. Wally provided the spark, Joe and Ron the engine and the many volunteers were the fuel that created the Victoria Playmakers Tournament.
· First tournament was held in 1989 with 18 teams for ages 50+
· In 1995 a team from Japan participated. Japan has now been represented for 28 years. (They did not play in 2011 due to the severe tsunami that struck Japan.) The Japan team is named the Tokyo Vanstars.
· As the tournament grew, older divisions were added to include 50+, 55+, 60+, 65+ and around 1994 a 70+ division.
· In 2003 the tournament had grown to 68 teams. This proved to be too challenging to handle in terms of required volunteers and the tournament was losing some of the fellowship aspects. A decision was made to start divisions at 55+ and limit the tournament to 47 teams.
· For many years a team from the USA participated (the Santa Rosa Bombers from California) but they aged out in 2024. There are still players from the USA that play as spares on a Canadian team.
· In 2011 an 80+ division was added
· Due to COVID, no tournament in 2020 & 2021.
· In 2023 a 55+ women’s division was added
· In 2026 a 60+ women’s division was added
· In 2026, our 35th year 47 teams entered, including 9 women’s teams and 6 teams in the men’s 80+ division.
· Knighting commenced in 1994 (first year a player participates in that age division):
o 70+ = Hockey Knight in Canada
o 80+ = Hockey Knight Exemplar
o 90+ = Hockey Knight Exemplaritas
o As of 2025, 1073 have been knighted in the 70+ and 273 in the 80+
o The first 2 persons in the 90+ category; Don Renshaw (2017) and Ron Blasner (2022)
· In 2006 we had an ex-NHL player participate – Howie Meeker, and in 2024 Terry Harper, both in their 80’s. Terry won 5 Stanley Cups with Montreal between 1963 & 1972.