Sam Jacks

Samuel Perry Jacks (April 23, 1915 – May 14, 1975) more commonly known as, "Sam Jacks," was a Canadian soldier in World War II, inventor, military and civic recreation director, sports coach, creator of the Canadian sport of ringette for girls[1][2] and the creator and codifier of the first set of rules for floor hockey in 1936.

[9] Samuel Perry Jacks was born April 23, 1915, in Glasgow, Scotland, less than a year after the outbreak of World War I in July 1914.

In 1935, Jacks was 20 when he began his professional career in recreation becoming the Assistant Physical Director[10] at the Toronto West End YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association).

In 1936, while in his early twenties and a year after he had begun his professional career at the YMCA, he invented and codified the first set of rules for the first organized version of floor hockey.

The game was designed for youths to play in a gym and was a variant of hockey that used a straight stick and a felt disk with a hole in the middle.

[16] On September 30, 1945, the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was officially disbanded after it had returned to Canada and hostilities in Europe had ceased.

While stationed in England during World War II, Jacks met Agnes MacKrell (1924–2005) at a dance while he was a recreation director in the army.

Agnes Jacks CM[17][18] was born in Scotland and her family moved to London, England, just before the outbreak of World War II.

[20] After the war the couple arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, then moved to Toronto, Canada with their first son, Barry.

On Saturday, October 26, 2002, she was inducted as a member of the Order of Canada and was also recognized with the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal for her contributions to women's sport.

[4] In 1947, Jacks became the head coach of the Canadian Floor Hockey Team, which competed in the AAU Junior Olympic Games (Amateur Athletic Union) in the United States.

[1] Jacks also coached a AAU Junior Olympic Games track and field team in 1947 and won the trophy for third place.

[6][30] After moving to the city and accepting the position he then became a member of the Northern Ontario Recreation Directors Association (NORDA).

That same year, Jacks created a winter team sport for girls, called ringette, which involved ice skating.

"I was also the arena manager back then and had acess (sic) to ice time...[32]The sport of ringette was created to both address and remedy two ongoing problems.

[19] The second was to address additional criticism that almost immediately affected the newly-created SDMRO, which pointed out the tendency for sports programs to be largely male-oriented.

His wife, Agnes (MacKrell) Jacks, died of heart failure on April 1, 2005, at the North Bay General Hospital.