Sam Jacks

In Ontario, Jacks was awarded "The Citation for Outstanding Contribution and Dedication to Recreation", which was one of the highest honours of the Society of Directors of Municipal Recreation of Ontario. This honour was presented to him personally by John Robarts, the 17th Premier of Ontario.

While stationed in England during the Second World War Jacks met Agnes MacKrell at a dance while he was a recreation director in the army. Agnes Jacks CM 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. She died of heart failure on April 1, 2005, at the North Bay General Hospital at the age of 81.

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.

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 the game was related to or in actual fact the organized sport of netball which had been introduced to Canada in the early 1960s.

Jacks died from cancer on May 14, 1975 at the age of 59. His wife, Agnes (MacKrell) Jacks, died of heart failure on April 1, 2005, at the North Bay General Hospital. She was 81.

In 1963 he created the Society of Directors of Municipal Recreation of Ontario (SDMRO). He served as its first President and remained in the position for two consecutive terms (1963–1964).

By 1963, Jacks, a resident of West Ferris, Ontario, 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.(Video on YouTube) Critical to the development of the new sport, Red McCarthy, the director of recreation in Espanola, Ontario, was a member of NORDA and developed the sport's first set of rules after volunteering to help experiment with Jacks's basic rules. Most of the initial rules set out by McCarthy are still a part of ringette today.

While living in West Ferris, Ontario in 1963 Jacks became responsible for his most well known achievement, his invention of the sport of ringette. Jacks had reportedly worked for two years to develop a presentation for the sport. His wife, Agnes Jacks stated, "I must make one point clear, this was not part of his job, this was his own interest on his own time."

Jacks was the founder of the Society of Directors of Municipal Recreation of Ontario (SDMRO) and was serving as its first President in 1963 when he presented his proposal for a new winter team sport for girls to the Northern Ontario Recreation Directors Association (NORDA). Mirl Arthur "Red" McCarthy, the director of recreation in Espanola, Ontario and member of NORDA then volunteered to further develop them.

In 1948, Jacks, a resident of West Ferris, Ontario, became the first Director of Parks and Recreation for the city of North Bay, Ontario in Northern Ontario. 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.

In 1947, Jacks became the head coach of the Canadian Floor Hockey Team which competed in the AAU Junior Olympic Games (Amateur Athletic Union) in the USA. The Canadian team finished in third place. Jacks also coached a AAU Junior Olympic Games track and field team in 1947 who won the trophy for third place.

In 1946, Jacks returned to the West End YMCA in Toronto to continue his professional career. Among his numerous duties part of his time was spent working with post-war juvenile "gangs". He also created the Toronto Boy's Club and became its first President.

After the outbreak of World War II Jacks enlisted and became a member of the Canadian Armed Forces serving from 1940-1945. During his time with the Canadian military he served with the #1 Motor Transport Volunteer Reserve Depot, 1st Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, 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.

In 1936, while in his early twenties and a year after beginning 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 which used a straight stick and a felt disk with a hole in the middle. This achievement was later recognized by the Youth Branch of the United Nations.

In 1935 at twenty years of age Jacks 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, present day Greater Toronto. Jacks would hold this position until 1940, a year after the outbreak of World War II in 1939.

The early 1930s in Canada was marked by the Great Depression. Jacks began his professional career in 1935.

Samuel Perry Jacks (April 23, 1915 – May 14, 1975) more commonly known as, "Sam Jacks", was a Canadian soldier in World War II, Canadian inventor, military and civic recreation director, sports coach, creator of the Canadian sport of ringette for girls and the Canadian who created and codified the first set of rules for floor hockey in 1936. He was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1915 and became a Canadian citizen after his parents immigrated to Canada in 1920. Jacks died from cancer on May 14, 1975, at the age of 60.

Samuel Perry Jacks was born April 23, 1915 in Glasgow, Scotland less than a year after the outbreak of World War I in July 1914. The war would end in November of 1918. Two years later in 1920 when Jacks was roughly five years old, he and his family moved from Scotland, immigrated to Canada, and settled in the city of Toronto.