Jack Adams

Builder (2007)

Multi-Sport

A player since 1933, and horseshoe pitcher with international qualifications, Jack Adams has elevated his sport into prominence. When Jack was inducted at into the Horseshoe Canada Hall of Fame in 1987, he was credited with the determination and ability to unite Eastern and Western Canada into one cohesive force.

Jack was born in Saskatoon in 1921, began pitching horseshoes in 1933 and won the Saskatchewan junior championship in 1938. Jack went into the Canadian armed forces during the Second World War and remained in the military service for 30 years, playing and promoting a wide range of sports, including horseshoe pitching, bowling, curling, badminton, basketball, golf and hockey. He was an executive council member of the Canadian Horseshoe Association as early as 1945, a Canadian regional director of the World Association since 1960, and among his early playing credentials was a Canadian Class C singles championship won at Chilliwack, B.C. After being named to the World Horseshoe Pitchers Hall of Fame in 1984, he received further accolades when he was honoured with the achievement award in Georgia in 1995.

Ever the promoter, Jack was always on the look-out for new horseshoe facilities and this picture, taken in May, 1987, shows the home practice court with a telephone post right in the middle of it. Jack added to his laurels as a player in 1998 when he won the championship at the Canadian Senior Games at Medicine Hat. There was special recognition for Jack in June, 1999, when he was inducted into the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame.

His success story, told in the StarPhoenix, credits Jack with restructuring the national horseshoe association into one, strong body, and there's an estimate, too, that by 1999, Jack had thrown 750,000 pounds of iron, which had travelled some 2,300 miles through the air. The job has never quite been done for Jack, and he was throwing the horseshoes in a warm-up for the world championships at Bismarck, North Dakota, in 2000. The game has always been a family affair. Although he had a hand in multiple sports, Jack's other major accomplishment came in 2005 when the Saskatchewan Curling Association presented him with the Scotty Richardson Memorial Award for long service. He had been a manager at the Sutherland Curling Club, an executive member of many Saskatoon men's bonspiels, an had particular skills as a draw-maker and organizer of league formats.

** Deceased