Sports
IOCO Memories
Chapter 9
Sports field
Al Sholund worked for the Refinery for years and stated, “Sports played a large part in the community life of Ioco, and it was encouraged and supported by the Company. The Ioco Refinery Baseball Team was formed. Uniforms and equipment had to be found, some of which was provided by the Company on the recommendation of Dr. Strachan’s Welfare Department under the Refinery Industrial Relationship. An Athletics Club was already in operation, supporting itself financially by having ten cents per day deducted from the employee’s wages. Up to this time no land was available for sports, but there was a complete baseball field including a grand-stand, inside the refinery grounds. Under the leadership of Mr. Lewis G. Popham as Manager, the baseball team was soon to become known for their ability to win games. The Dewdney Triangle League consisted of teams from Ioco, Coquitlam, and Port Moody. The Ioco team was known as the Ioco Baseball Nine and were champions of British Columbia in 1921 and champions of the Lower Mainland in 1922. It was necessary to acquire land for a fast growing sports club.”
As the town site was completed a sports field, a lawn bowling area and two very fine tennis courts were built. The sports field was home to the Women's Softball team the Ioco Flames and the Ioco Football club.
Marjory Kingsbury
My husband George, as a young lad, suffered with severe asthma and could not run or take part in sports so he used to sit and watch the men pitch horseshoes. One day, they asked him to give it a try. He ended up Champion of B. C. in 1928 when he was 16 years old. A game those days was 50 points, now it is only 21 points. We still have the large cup presented to him by Mayor J. W. Cornett of Vancouver.
George Kingsbury
I played all kinds of sports but I wasn't too good at many. Horseshoes I kind of excelled in. I was kind of lucky that way I guess.
We had a horseshoe team, we used to even go down to Bellingham and play. We used to go into Haney and Maple Ridge of course and Port Coquitlam and used to go into Stanley Park in Vancouver and as I said into Bellingham and every year they used to play for the B.C. championships.
Ioco Senior Baseball Team
1923- Memebers of the team Jack Bacon, B. Cameron, R Cameron, W. Clark, Jesse Scott, Coyle, Crtaig P. Dowding, Dean Freshfield, P. Robinson, and P. Thorburn.
Fred Laidlaw
We had our own baseball team. The Ioco baseball team was the best in BC at first for several years. The company used to hire a couple of these professionals from the Coast League and build the team around them and Moody had a team and Coquitlam-Port Coquitlam had a team, Maillardville had a team and Hammond Cedar had a team and Haney had an all, well not all, well these guys were semi-professional players because they were holding their jobs at the plant because they were good ball players.
