The Prince George Spruce Kings are near and dear to the hearts of many, whether they’re hockey fans or not.
For 50 years, the Spruce Kings have given their fans a reason to gather on cold winter nights to watch them play the game in their home barn representing the city as junior hockey ambassadors.
The Spruce Kings annual Show Home Lottery sells out practically every year and people see their ticket purchases as an investment that pays the bills and keeps their team rooted in the community.
Ginny Parsons sometimes tries her luck at winning the show home but without fail she buys tickets on the 50-50 draw during games at Rolling Mix Concrete Arena. She’s won it a couple times but that’s not the reason she’s there, sitting in Section 7, Row 3, by the Zamboni entrance.
She simply loves her team. In fact, the 79-year-old Parsons has missed only 15 games since she bought her first season ticket in 1973, the second year of the Spruce Kings’ existence. Counting up exhibition, regular season and playoff games, that’s about 2,000 games in 50 years she personally attended. When it comes to ticket-buying loyalty, nobody else comes close.
“I’m not sure, but I think I’ve outlived them all,” said a grinning Parsons.
“It took me 50 years to get this,” she said, proudly pointing to the 50th anniversary Kings jersey autographed by all the players that she wears to the games.
So what is it about Spruce Kings games that keeps her so connected to the rink?
“The atmosphere here is very friendly and you feel welcome when you walk in and I like hockey,” Parsons said.
She grew up on a hobby farm in Alberta and hockey was a daily family ritual. But back then, there were no hockey leagues for girls and she wasn’t allowed to play on her brother’s team
“We played on ponds in Nordegg, Alberta,” said Parsons. “As teenagers, that’s where we went to play and we played on ice ponds too. We all played. My cousin and uncles had the big farms and they made sure we all had ponds.”
She missed seeing the team last season when they were stuck in the Chilliwack pod during the pandemic, playing with no fans in the building.
“The boys could tell that, its no fun going into a rink and there’s no noise,” she said. “You’ve got to have the noise. We all cheer about the same way, one gets started at that end and all of sudden it’s around to this end. It just rotates in here. I love this building.”
Parsons also loves kids. She and her first husband Del Allen had three daughters, who now have children of their own, who play hockey. She fostered several more kids and for four years was a billet mom for the team. She can blame her parental duties as the reason she missed most of those 15 games.
“A broken leg and sick kids,” she said.
Dianne Zapotichny, who sits next to Ginny at the games, suggested the Spruce Kings should reward her 50 years of support for the team with a lifetime pass.
“The nicest part about the team is it’s community-owned, and they make sure we’re involved," said Parsons. "They speak to if you see them on the street. (Kings general manager) Mike Hawes always talks to me, he knows my grandkids. The assistant coach Jason (Garneau), I knew his dad for years. I knew him when he was a little tyke.
“They’re making a game of it and they don’t have to go and get all these big sponsors. We’ve got a beautiful game and we have no millionaires sponsoring us, and we’re all sticking together.”
She and her husband already had one daughter when they moved to Prince George in 1971. He took a job working for Standard Bus and she worked as a custodian and teaching assistant with the school district. They came up thinking they would be here for a year, and that was 51 years ago. They lived in Salmon Valley for 20 years and made the 25-minute trip into town whenever there was a game on.
“It’s not far,” Parsons said.
For 42 years, Parsons has had the same seat in the building formerly known as the Prince George Coliseum.
“I like it because I can see the players when they come out (from the dressing room) and when they play down at this end I can see them more often,” she said.
A few years ago, the B.C. Hockey League outlawed fighting and players who drop the gloves are ejected and handed a game misconduct. Parsons lived through years of seeing bench-clearing line brawls and doesn’t miss that. She much prefers that players stick to hockey.
“The fighting is gone, which is nice, because when we were growing up we never did that,” she said. “All we had was Sears and Eaton’s catalogues with binder twine (for shin pads). We had no protection on the mouth or anything else.”
Because of the past two pandemic years which cancelled the BCHL playoffs, the Spruce Kings are three-time defending league champions this year. They’re currently locked in a dogfight in their opening-round playoff series with the Cranbrook Bucks, leading the Bucks 3-2 in the best-of-seven series with a chance to wrap it up tonight in Game 6 in Cranbrook. A Bucks’ win will force Game 7 on Monday at RMCA.
Parsons has fond memories of that magical run in the spring of 2019, when the Kings rolled through the BCHL playoffs with 16-1 record, then won the Doyle Cup regional title and came within a couple goals of claiming the national junior A championship in Brooks, Alta.
“I could feel the atmosphere when I walked in,” she said. “They were flying high at that time, and when you walked over top of the change room, you could hear them. So you know they’re going to talk back and forth (on the ice). As long as they communicate, they’re good.
“They don’t have to be six-foot-six. Look at little Cousins (Kings captain Kolton). They look at him and, ha ha, well try tangling with him. They get mad because he goes in under their arms.”
Over those 50 seasons, many Spruce Kings players have stayed in the city where they found permanent jobs and set up businesses, making the city a better place to live.
“I love to see that,” she said.
