The Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame has recently acquired the Sid Thomas Memorial Trophy. This trophy has had quite a journey over the last few decades. Here is the history.

“Big” Sid Thomas was a sports writer and later sports editor for the Daily Colonist in the 1930s and 40s. He spent his lifetime promoting healthy activity for the youth of Victoria. To him, sport was the ideal opportunity for fair play and friendly rivalry. Sid’s popular “Sports Slants” column ended with his early death in 1946.

In honour of his support for all local sport, the Sid Thomas Memorial Trophy was presented to Victoria’s Amateur Sportsman of the Year, beginning in 1947, with Peter Salmon being the first recipient to have his name placed on the copper strips fastened to the base. Other well-known recipients included Eddie Haddad, 1948; Bruce Humber, 1950; A. Ferguson, 1951; Doug Fletcher, 1952; Archie McKinnon, 1953, Bob Wheaton, 1959, and Vaughn Trapp in 1960. Then the bronze trophy vanished.

Sid Thomas 

Sports Media Award

Fast forward to 2001 when the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame (GVSHoF) revived the memory of “Sid Thomas” with its Sports Media Award. This award is presented from time to time to recognize outstanding support for sport in greater Victoria by members of the media. To-date this award has been presented to the following recipients:

2001 Sid Thomas                                        

2001 Jim Tang

2002 Ted Reynolds                                     

2002 Bill Walker

2003 Ken Dobson                                       

2004 Gorde Hunter

2005 Ernie Fedoruk                                    

2006 Jim Taylor

2009 Jack Short                                          

2010 Alec Merriman

2011 Max Low                                             

2012 John McKeachie

2017 Denny Boyd                                       

2019 Alex Robertson

Back to 1960

The actual disappearance of the trophy is still unknown but in 1971 at the Colonist Printers in Victoria, Tom Barber who was General Manager saw the trophy in his office in a corner minus an arm, the copper name plates removed and minus quite a bit of paint from the base. He had recovered it from somewhere in the building and thought it deserved preservation, but was not aware of the history or actual name of the trophy, which for now was considered a statue.

Tom held the position of General Manager until the Colonist Printers was sold off to a large concern outside of Victoria. As GM, Tom cleared out the building taking the statue home with him. Someone found the original copper strips wrapped up in a desk drawer, and they were also recovered and taken home.

When Tom died and his house was sold, his wife passed the statue and associated parts to one of their daughters and her husband, Gordon Brown. Eventually the arm was re-attached and the statue was resident in their home from the late 1970's onward.

It accompanied them from Victoria to Port Alberni, North Vancouver, Haida Gwaii, Victoria, Burnaby, Maple Ridge and finally to their current home in Powell River. All the while it usually sat quietly on the fireplace hearth or in a corner. They had an inkling it must have been a somewhat important item to someone, but really had no clue to the history or its significance.

When Tom's wife Pat passed away seven years ago, the copper strips with their inscriptions were found and Gordon thought they most likely came from the base of the statue...thereby returning it to the status of a trophy.

As with many things, it takes time to get around to completing the research based on the inscriptions, which Gordon did in the fall of 2018. While tracking some of the names on these plates, he found a link to the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame and some limited background information on Sid Thomas.

Gordon Brown and Doug Jennings

Gordon contacted the GVSHoF President, Doug Jennings, who was very interested in the trophy. They discussed by telephone further detail of the GVSHoF organization and the goals it has, which seemed to the family, the most appropriate manner in which to donate the trophy back to Victoria.

On November 9, 2018 Gordon and family members met in Victoria with the GVSHoF President Doug Jennings who accepted the restored Sid Thomas Memorial Trophy as a donation into their sport memorabilia collection.

Gordon and the family hope that that the Sid Thomas Memorial Trophy will now continue its' journey for years to come, in a much more prominent and deserving manner.