TEAM HISTORY

The Regina Silver Foxes were a Tier II Junior "A" team.

They played in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League from 1971-76.

The Silver Foxes competed with the major junior Regina Pats and the junior A Regina Blues. They were not able to attract either good players or a large attendance and folded after a short career.

As their league finishes attest, the Foxes didn't amount to much in the competitive SJHL, but their ending of a crippling losing streak during the 1974-75 season was major front-page news locally, when the Foxes beat the Moose Jaw Canucks on home ice (their only win that season as it turned out). The Foxes' had difficulty attracting stellar talent to their roster due in part to the residence the team shared with the Major Junior Regina Pats (WCHL) and the Foxes' crosstown rivals the Regina Pat Blues. The Silver Foxes' home arena was the Al Ritchie Memorial Centre in East-Central Regina.

On February 2, 1975 the team defeated the Moose Jaw Canucks on a Brent Lewis goal in overtime to end Junior A hockey's longest losing streak of 58 consecutive loses. Ex player Gary George remembers the day as if it were yesterday. Having played for the team from 74 thru 76 that win was as big as the Stanley Cup.I am very proud to have been a part of the Silver Fox organization.

The Regina Silver Foxes currently play in the South Division of the Junior B Prairie Junior Hockey League. In 2013-2014 the Regina Silver Foxes were reborn in the Prairie Junior Hockey League as an expansion team in the South Division. The team primarily played out of Pense and Southey until the 2014-2015 season in which they now play all of their home games at the Doug Wickenheiser Arena on Rochdale Blvd. in Northwest Regina.

Our Name Al Ritchie “The Silver Fox”

He was born on December 12, 1890, at Cobden, Ontario. He was taken to midland where he got his public, high school and hockey education.

Fascinated with stories of the wild west, he came to Regina in 1910 and got into the construction business with Patsons Construction and Engineering at which time he helped build the Albert and Broad Street subways. Later he helped form Ritchie and McDowough Construction which built four bridges for the Provincial Highway Department.

Al played baseball in those early years with the Metropolitan team in a Local four-team league before the First World War.

During the First World War, he took an officer’s course and joined the infantry.

He was transferred to the artillery and served in France. After the war he was discharged, joined the customs service in Regina, and later became the custom and excise appraiser for 37 years.
He was the manager and coach of the Vics Senior Hockey Team in 1921 when they won the Western Canada Championship in 1921 and 1922. Al was named coach of the Regina Pats Junior Hockey Team in the 1923-24 season and organized the Pats Junior Football team in 1925, winning the Western Championship for the next fours years and the Canadian Championship in 1928.

He was the only man in history to have won national championship in both. 

Al Ritchie Coached the Regina Roughriders and headed east for the Grey Cup in 1928, 1930, 1931 and 1932. He ended his official football career in 1935. Later he became scout for the New York Rangers and helped the Junior Flin Flon Bombers and Lethbridge teams to join the Rangers farm system.

He was better known as “The Silver Fox” and died at the age of 75 in Regina on Monday, February 21, 1966

Ron C. Johnston