Sam Jacks

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Sam Jacks (April 23, 1915 – May 14, 1975) was a Canadian inventor and sports pioneer best known for creating the sport of ringette and for codifying the first rules of floor hockey.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Jacks moved to Toronto, Canada with his family in 1920. He began his career in recreation at the Toronto West End YMCA in 1935 and, in 1936, wrote the first organized rules for floor hockey, a gym game played with a straight stick and a puck with a hole in the middle.

During World War II (1940–1945), Jacks served in the Canadian forces. He met Agnes MacKrell in England; they married and later had three sons. After the war, he returned to recreation work, including roles with the YMCA and coaching, and he helped lead Canadian youth sports programs.

In 1948 Jacks became the first Director of Parks and Recreation in North Bay, Ontario. He helped establish professional networks for recreation directors in Northern Ontario and Ontario as a whole. In 1963, while in North Bay, he created ringette, a winter team sport for girls played on ice. Red McCarthy, a fellow recreation director, helped develop the sport’s first rules. Ringette was designed to give girls their own winter sport, separate from boys’ programs.

Today ringette is recognized as a major sport for women, with Jacks and McCarthy credited as its founders. The sport’s origins are associated with both Espanola and North Bay, Ontario, and ringette remains one of the few ice-based team sports led primarily by female athletes.

Jacks received several honors for his work, including induction into Ringette Ontario Hall of Fame (1974), the North Bay Sports Hall of Fame (1982), Ringette Canada Hall of Fame (1998), and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame (2007). The World Ringette Championships’ senior division trophy is named the Sam Jacks Trophy in his honor, and Ringette Canada has the Sam Jacks Memorial Trophy for the Eastern Canadian U14AA Championship. He also helped found the Society of Directors of Municipal Recreation of Ontario (SDMRO) and led its early years.

Agnes Jacks continued promoting ringette after Sam’s death and was honored with the Order of Canada in 2002, among other accolades.

Sam Jacks died of cancer in 1975 in Glasgow, Scotland, at age 60.