Samuel Perry Jacks (April 23, 1915 – May 14, 1975) more commonly known as, "Sam Jacks," was a Canadian soldier in World War II, inventor, military and civic recreation director, sports coach, creator of the Canadian sport of ringette, originally designed for girls, and the creator and codifier of the first set of rules for floor hockey in 1936. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom, in 1915 and became a Canadian citizen after his parents had immigrated to Canada in 1920. Jacks died from cancer in 1975, at the age of 60.
Among his many achievements and honours was his posthumous induction into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 2007. He was also posthumously inducted into the North Bay Sports Hall of Fame on February 27, 1982. He was inducted into the Ringette Canada Hall of Fame in 1998 during the 10th annual Canadian Ringette Championships. Today the "Belle" division is known as the Under-19 (U19) division. The Sam Jacks Trophy for the Under-14 AA (U14AA) winners of the Eastern Canadian Ringette Championships is named after him as well, a trophy that was donated by his wife, Agnes Jacks .
At the time of his death in 1975, Jacks had reportedly been working on another game for girls during his spare time, which he called "Net Ball." It is possible that the game was related to or actually was the organized sport of netball, which had been introduced to Canada during the early 1960s.
Biography
thumb|150px|right|[[Toronto, Canada, where Jacks lived in 1920 after his parents immigrated from Glasgow, Scotland in the United Kingdom ]]
Samuel Perry Jacks was born April 23, 1915, in Glasgow, Scotland in the United Kingdom, less than a year after the outbreak of World War I in July 1914. The war would end in November 1918. In 1920, when Jacks was roughly five years old, he and his family moved from Scotland, immigrated to Canada, and settled in Toronto.
thumb|Food line at the Yonge Street Mission in [[Toronto, Canada, in the 1930s during the Great Depression]]
In 1935, Jacks was 20 when he began his professional career in recreation becoming the Assistant Physical Director at the Toronto West End YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association).
The West End YMCA moved to its present West End branch at College Street and Dovercourt Road in 1912, now in Toronto. Jacks would hold that position until 1940, a year after the outbreak of World War II in 1939.
In 1936, while in his early twenties and a year after he had begun his professional career at the YMCA, he invented and codified the first set of rules for the first organized version of floor hockey. The game was designed for youths to play in a gym and was a variant of hockey that used a straight stick and a felt disk with a hole in the middle. The achievement was later recognized by the Youth Branch of the United Nations. Chemical Warfare School, and served with the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion in charge of sports for South West England. On September 30, 1945, the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion was officially disbanded after it had returned to Canada and hostilities in Europe had ceased.
While stationed in England during World War II, Jacks met Agnes MacKrell (1924–2005) at a dance while he was a recreation director in the army. Agnes Jacks was born in Scotland and her family moved to London, England, just before the outbreak of World War II. Agnes had been working at a munitions factory in England when she and Sam met toward the end of the war while Sam was finishing six years of having served with the Canadian Armed Forces. The couple then married and Agnes automatically became a Canadian citizen. After the war the couple arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, then moved to Toronto, Canada with their first son, Barry. They later had two more sons in Canada, Bruce and Brian. Agnes was a war bride. After Sam died in 1975, Agnes became an important lifelong and committed ambassador for the sport of ringette, which Sam had created in 1963. In 1996 she was inducted into the Ringette Canada Hall of Fame as a "Builder" for her commitment and ambassadorship for the sport of ringette. On Saturday, October 26, 2002, she was inducted as a member of the Order of Canada and was also recognized with the Queen Elizabeth II Golden Jubilee Medal for her contributions to women's sport. For a time she served as the Honorary President of the International Ringette Federation. She died of heart failure on April 1, 2005, at the North Bay General Hospital at the age of 81. After moving to the city and accepting the position he then became a member of the Northern Ontario Recreation Directors Association (NORDA). Soon after he played an important role in developing the first Northern Ontario Playground Hockey Association (NOPHA), an organization whose goal was to help inspire youth to play ice hockey on outdoor rinks.
By 1963, Jacks was serving as the municipal recreation director of North Bay, had become a member of the Northern Ontario Recreation Directors Association (NORDA) and was the president of the Society of Directors of Municipal Recreation of Ontario (SDMRO). That same year, Jacks created a winter team sport for girls, called ringette, which involved ice skating. Most of the initial rules set out by McCarthy are still part of ringette. Today ringette is one among only four ice skating team sports in existence worldwide, with bandy, ice hockey, and rinkball being the other three. However, ringette is the only one of the four winter sports in which the best athletes are female, rather than male.
In Ontario, Jacks was awarded "The Citation for Outstanding Contribution and Dedication to Recreation," Jacks became responsible for his most well known achievement, his invention of the sport of ringette. but Sam and Agnes still recognized the needs and concerns of girls, and Sam was never deterred from creating a sport just for the girls themselves:
The Northern Ontario town of Espanola is considered "The Home of Ringette" since its first official rules were drafted there by Red McCarthy, but the Northern Ontario city of North Bay is considered the "Birthplace of Ringette" since Jacks was working there when he first developed the sport as a concept. Both Sam Jacks and Red McCarthy are credited as the sport's founders. Despite the historical differences, today the title of "birthplace of ringette" is often shared by both cities.
To date, with the exception of the artistic sport of synchronized skating, ringette remains the only winter team sport to have been exclusively developed for and around the female physique and to be driven by a female athlete demographic.
Death
Jacks died from cancer on May 14, 1975, at the age of 60. His wife, Agnes (MacKrell) Jacks, died of heart failure on April 1, 2005, at the North Bay General Hospital. She was 81.