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Chilliwack Mustangs
Jr. Football Club
1958-1962
The Valley Huskers began play in the BCFC in 1999. The team was founded by Keith Currie and their original Head Coach was Dave Haynes. Haynes led the Huskers to a 2-8 first season. The next year (2000) the Huskers were greatly improved and finished 6-4 and lost in the first round of the playoffs. The Huskers have played in one Cullen Cup Championship game in 2002 where they took a quick 21-0 lead over the Okanagan Sun. In the second half the Sun adjusted and took the game away from the Huskers the final score was 39-21 Sun. Haynes' final year was 2003 when they failed to make the playoffs. Bill Gray took over the next year and the team failed to make the playoffs with an 0-10 record. In 2005 Jeff Whitehead took over as the Huskers head coach and finished with a 1-9 record and the team was in non playing status. In 2006 things started to look up for the Huskers as the team started a new era under a new coach. The team finished 2006 at 0-10 but has over 30 players retuning in their second year....stay tuned.
Late in 1991 Keith Currie, Don Wiens and Wayne Bjorge decided that minor football had been missing from Chilliwack for far too long! Chilliwack Minor Football was born as a result of this decision. Our inaugural season started with one Junior Bantam and one Flag team in 1992, both of these teams were named the Greyhawks. In 1992 another team emerged form a new league called the VCFL they were known as the Chilliwack Steelers they played in the Sr. Bantam Division of the P.C.F.L(now the V.C.F.L), were very dominant and played in the P.C.F.L title that year and lost. They then folded and merged with the Chilliwack Greyhawks.The next year Chilliwack fielded the Cowboys who replaced the Steelers in the V.C.F.L were a seperate entity from Chilliwack Minor Football.By 1994 our association had grown to cover all six age divisions from Flag to Midget. All teams were competitive right off the bat and this continued right into the Chilliwack Giants. On the left is the original Grey Helmet along with the concept helmet that was due to come out in 1994 the year the team name was changed to the Giants.
By 1994 our association had grown to cover all six age divisions from Flag to Midget, and the all divisions took the team name Giants. Up until 1995 all divisions had played in the Vancouver Mainland Football League. In the 1996 season all divisions moved over to the Valley Football League. With two Midget teams the Giants and the Cowboys (The Cowboys were Chilliwack's VCFL entry). In 1997 the Cowboys were integrated with Giants. The teams that make up the VCFL are on average located much closer than the teams that made up the VMFL, so our traveling times are much less. Since then, the Chilliwack Giants have grown to over 200 kids playing football and cheerleading.
Orange Helmet for Eric Hames
Eric, filthy after cleaning an oil by product chimney, asked Carol, whom he'd just met, to go out for dinner. "I said no thanks," she recalled Friday, 50-plus years after Eric was sent to drive her during a visit with her sister in Calgary.Eric persisted, and the rest as they say, is history.Four sons and five decades later, Carol headed to Vancouver's Westin Bayshore Resort Saturday in her husband's stead to receive his Orange Helmet Award. Organized by the B.C. Lions, the awards are in their third year, but this was the first time a pioneer category was added. Eric and two others were honored, all post humously, as 800 people looked on. Eric Hames passed away in 1989. He left behind a wife, four sons and a legacy in B.C.football.After finishing with the British Royal Air Force, Hames came to Calgary's oil fields. He met and married Carol, then joined theCanadian Army and eventually settled in Chilliwack. During these years, he found something new besides a wife and adopted country. Eric Hames found football. "I think he liked that it's a contact sport," Carol said, "The ruggedness of it."After growing up with soccer and cricket, Eric embraced football's pounding grace. Too old to learn to play competitively, he ran and blocked as a lineman while serving at CFB Chilliwack in the military's engineering core."He only played on the base here for exercise—he loved football."To ensure local youths had an earlier understanding of the sport, Hames helped start the Chilliwack Mustangs junior football club in 1958. Hames found funding through the CFL's Lions. The partnership grew, and Hames became tight with the pro team's players and personnel. The Lions paid for coaching sessions and drove east for Chilliwack's spring camps.As time passed, it became apparent the junior team wasn't working, so when it folded, Hames donated all the team's equipment,from balls to helmets and jockstraps, to Chilliwack secondary school. The result: CSS Frontiersman, which produced such products as Jim Sache, who went on to form the Valley Huskers junior football team. The Huskers, incidentally play in the same B.C.Football Conference which used to feature the Mustangs.On Saturday, one of the Hames' boys-mayor Clint took his mom to Vancouver to receive the award on her late husband's behalf."He loved football," Carol said. "He'd be very proud to receive this award."
The Sardis Falcons High School football club was founded in 1973. They Produced players like Rick Klassen (BC Lions), and George Chayka (BC Lions).....more to come.
The Chilliwack Frontiersmen: high school football team was started in the fall of 1962. The coaches were Jack Covey and another teacher Les Matthews . The core of the equipment was obtained from the community Juvenile team coached by present mayor Clint Hames father Eric Hames.The juvenile team, which had folded the year before , encouraged the starting of this program and assistance also came from Bob Ackles and the B.C. Lions .The Frontiersmen team continued for the next 11 years and was discontinued due to the high cost of transportation and equipment which was draining the athletic budget at the school.Also I had left the school for an administration job at A.D Rundle and no one was willing to take the leadership of the program which involved more then 100 students in the program each year. During the eleven year reign of the team they won four Fraser Valley Championships.In later years a core of the Frontiersmen players was instrumental in starting a minor program in the Chilliwack area and eventually started the Huskers Jr.program .Support for the Huskers football team continues to come from the original core and their sons and the many players who are citizens in the community. Key players in the developmental of these community programs were Dave Haynes, Jim Sache and Keith Currie.One of the most notable players to come out of the high school program as Big Bernie Cross. Bernie received a scholarship to the Washington State Cougars and had a tryout in the NFL. On the left is the two helmets of the Frontiersman.
Sardis Falcons
1973
Chilliwack Frontiersman
Football 1962-1973
Chilliwack Giants
1994-Present
Chilliwack Greyhawks
1992-1994
Valley/Chilliwack Huskers
1999-Present
Original Helmet
Concept Helmet for 1994
EXHIBITION
SAT JULY 7TH 7:00PM @ VANCOUVER BURNABY SPORTS COMPLEX WEST
BURNABY SPORTS COMPLEX WESTSAT. JULY.14 SOUTH SURREY @ CHILLIWACK 7:00 EXHIBITION STADIUM
SAT. JULY. 21 VANCOUVER @ CHILLIWACK 7:00 EXHIBITION STADIUM
SAT. AUG.4 KAMLOOPS @ CHILLIWACK 7:00 EXHIBITION STADIUM
SAT. AUG.11 VAN.ISLAND @ CHILLIWACK 3:00 EXHIBITION STADIUM
SAT. AUG.18 CHILLIWACK @VICTORIA 4:00 ROYAL ATHLETIC PARK
SAT. AUG.25 CHILLIWACK @ OKANAGAN 7:00 APPLE BOWL
SAT. SEPT.1 CHILLIWACK @VANCOUVER 7:00 SWANGARD STADIUM
SAT. SEPT.8 VICTORIA @ CHILLIWACK 3:00 EXHIBITION STADIUM
SAT. SEPT.15 CHILLIWACK @ SOUTH SURREY 7:00 SOUTH SURREY PARK
FRI. SEPT.22 CHILLIWACK @ KAMLOOPS 7:00 HILLSIDE STADIUM
HOME GAMES IN BOLD.
Chilliwack Huskers 2007 Schedule
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Chilliwack Steelers
1993
Chilliwack Cowboys 1994-1996
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