BCLions.com Staff
The BC Lions Football Club is saddened to report the loss of one of its founding fathers, Victor Spencer.
Born in Vancouver in 1924, Spencer played football at Upper Canada College in 1942, as well as for the Hamilton Tigers of the Ontario Rugby Football Union before returning home to British Columbia for two more years of senior football in 1947 and 1948. Soon after, he spearheaded a group seeking admission into the Western Interprovincial Rugby Union, what would later become the West Division of the Canadian Football League as we know it today.
Spencer worked tirelessly for three years along with other team directors of the upstart franchise before they received approval from other member clubs in 1953. The first BC Lions team took to the field in 1954 at Empire Stadium, a new facility for Vancouver which he helped oversee construction of as member of the stadium committee in addition to his service on the organizing committee of the 1954 Empire Games.
“If football in British Columbia has a father then it’s Victor Spencer,” said Lions’ president and CEO Dennis Skulsky. “Without his vision, his efforts and his love for our great game, it likely would have been many years before British Columbia had a professional football team to call its very own. It was under his leadership that we have been blessed with gridiron heroes such as Annis Stukus, Willie Fleming, Norm Fieldgate, Bob Ackles and countless others. We are incredibly saddened by his passing and equally grateful for his many contributions to this great organization.”
Spencer spent nine years as a member of the club’s executive board and was instrumental in the Lions’ successful bid to host the 1955 Grey Cup. He was inducted onto the BC Lions Wall of Fame in 2002 and was called to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame as a Builder in 2006. In 2011, he was also inducted as a Builder in the BC Football Hall of Fame.