Kelowna Packers
Order classic Kelowna Packers tees and hoodies. Wearing an apple logo for the Okanagan Valley orchards, the senior Packers reached the 1958 Allan Cup final and became the first Canadian team to tour the Soviet Union, playing exhibitions there that November. Celebrate Kelowna hockey history by browsing all of our Packers gear, then read the team history below. As a small business, we're proud to keep the names, logos and stories of hockey's lost teams in circulation.
3 products
Kelowna Packers History
The Kelowna Packers had two iterations, one in the 1950s as a senior team in the Okanagan Senior Hockey League, and another in the 1980s in the BCJHL. Both teams used an apple logo, which was a reference to the Okanagan Valley's apple growing.
The senior league team won the OKSHL twice, once in 1958 and again in 1960. They played at Kelowna Memorial Arena on Ellis St, which still exists today. The team were also finalists for the Allan Cup in 1958, losing to the Belleville McFarlands. They were also the first Canadian team to tour the Soviet Union, as they played exhibitions in the USSR in November 1958.
The junior league team started play at Kelowna Memorial for the 1985-86 season, after the Kelowna Buckaroos had left town in 1983. The Packers had two excellent seasons to start their junior run, winning 85 of 104 games in their first two seasons. They would rebrand to the Kelowna Spartans in 1989 and go out of business in 1995.
