Kelowna Packers The Kelowna Packers were a senior and a junior team . Senior Team . " The photographs are courtesy of Barbara Champagne [ littlechickie1 @ yahoo . ca ] . The picture of the individual is her father , who is also third from the left in the back row of the team photo . " The Kelowna Packers were established in 1949 in Kelowna B . C . The Packers were guided by a bright young man by the name of Bob Giordano . It took him eight years to reach the top in district hockey . After a brief stint as statistician for the Okanagan Senior League Bob Giordano was named as one of the six directors of the Kelowna Packers Hockey Club on May 13 , 1957 . Ten days later he was elected vice - president of the team that playing in the Okanagan Senior Hockey League along with the Penticton Vees , Vernon Canadians and Kamloops Elks . The 1957 - 58 season was the most successful one for the Kelowna Packers , finish first place in the OSHL for the first time in their history . In a seven - game series against the Kamloops Chiefs they won the OSHL championship . The Western Canada Championships came next as the Packers met the Winnipeg Maroons . The Kelowna Packers won the Patten Cup and the Western Canada championships . The Kelowna Packers then entered the Allan Cup finals against the Eastern champion the Belleveille McFarlands . In a hard fought seven game series Kelowna bowed to the McFarland in seven games . In May of 1958 the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association selected the Kelowna Packers to represent Canada on an international hockey tour . The Kelowna Packers of the Okanagan - Mainline Senior Amateur Hockey League became the first western sports team to be allowed behind the Iron Curtain to play a series of exhibition games . Outside Kelowna , there were critics of this decision and some predicted that the Packers would return without so much as a single win . But the team would play five games against Russian teams and three in Sweden , and would tour for a period extending from November 9 to 30 , 1958 . Previous to the Packers swing through the U . S . S . R . the team played three games in Sweden The Swedish National Team defeated the Packers 5 - 2 , a loss that was attributed to the long trip just completed by the Kelowna team . The tables soon turned with the following games and the Packers emerged victorious winning 5 - 2 in both the second game and the final encounter . The Packers lost their first game against the Russian Army 4 to 3 . They tied the next two games 1 - 1 against the Wings of Soviet and 2 - 2 against the Moscow Dynamos . Kelowna Packers coach , Jack OíReilly , a fiery and outspoken Irishman , guaranteed victories for the Canadians in the last two games of the tour . In the fourth game , against the Soviet Juniors , the Packers did indeed secure a win 4 - 3 . Their record stood at one win , two ties , and one loss . In the final match , they faced Russiaís top team — the Moscow Selects . The Packers played well and won an overwhelming victory of 5 - 1 over the Selects . Jack O ' Reilly had kept his promises . Despite the skepticism of their critics , the Packers returned to Kelowna as champions . In the 1959 - 60 season the Packers again captured the OSHL title . It would be the last year they were together . Senior hockey was dying in the Okanagan . Junior Team . The Packers played in the British Columbia Hockey League from 1986 to 1989 . They were renamed the Kelowna Spartans in 1989 .