During the 1983-84 season it has always been noted Vernon's Junior hockey team was known as the Vernon Rockets. Thanks to longtime season ticket holders Paul Beugeling & George Zimmerman for proving otherwise. During the 1983-84 season Vernon was known as the Vernon Lakers. George Zimmerman gave Paul Beugeling a Vernon Lakers program from the 1983-84 season to make it official. The Vernon Lakers were around from 1980-1995 before changing to the Vernon Vipers in the summer of 1995.
Vernon Junior Hockey Franchise History
1961-1962 Vernon Jr Canadians
1962-1967 Vernon Blades
1967-1973 Vernon Essos
1973-1978 Vernon Vikings
1978-1979 Vernon Canadians
1979-1980 No team
1980-1995 Vernon Lakers
1995-Present Vernon Vipers
Paul Beugeling's Vernon Junior Hockey History website,
VernonJrAHockey.CA
You can view the full program by going to https://vernonjrahockey.ca/vernon/pdf/1983-84.pdf
ReplyDeleteI apologize for inaccurately reporting the team name in my book about Vernon's hockey history. Every source that I discovered during the research for the book referred to the Rockets, not the Lakers. While researching, I spoke with George Zimmerman and Paul Beugeling, but our conversations didn't disclose the error that had been made about the name of the 1983-84 team.
ReplyDeleteNow I know why I was unable to find an original logo for the '83-84 "Rockets!"
I wonder if the "Rockets" became an urban myth because of the team's firepower. No other Vernon team has matched the team's 452 goals in 60 games, an average of 7.53 goals per game.
Nothing is written in stone so to speak, it may turn out that the name ROCKETS was official if only for a short time but, by the time the programs were made they decided to reverse course and stick with LAKERS.
ReplyDeleteOnly people like Mike Enemark, the son of owner Carl, who passed away in 2004, would know how this went down. Mike also coached the Lakers for the 83-84 season and a bit in 84-85 so, he would definitely know.
So, don’t fret about it to much Don it may be revealed your way with more research! You did an awesome job on the book, you just have to do one with the revisions!