Rangers Authentics

General information

The Kitchener Rangers celebrated their 50th anniversary season in 2012-13 and are entering their 55th season of operation in 2017-18.

In 1963, Eugene George and a group of Kitchener businessmen brought the Guelph Royals, a farm team of the NHL’s New York Rangers, to Kitchener and renamed them the Kitchener Rangers Junior “A” Hockey Club.

The New York Rangers sponsorship of the team ended in 1967 with the expansion of the NHL’s “Original Six’” Era, so George agreed to purchase the team from the New York Rangers for a sum of one dollar, but declined the opportunity for private ownership. He instead turned the team over to the community through the creation of a not-for-profit organization.

The Kitchener Rangers Charter declared “no person shall be a member of the Corporation unless he is a season ticket subscriber for the current season of the home hockey games of the club, and all persons who are season ticket subscribers are automatically entitled to membership.”

To this day there is not one, lone “owner” of the club. Since its inception, a 39-person Board of Directors is elected by the club’s season ticket subscribers to act as the “trustees” of our storied franchise. This 39-person Board of Directors is comprised entirely and only of Kitchener Rangers season ticket subscribers.

The Kitchener Rangers have won OHL championships in 1981, 1982, 2003 and 2008.

They have appeared in six Memorial Cups (1981, 1982, 1984, 1990, 2003 and 2008), advancing to the final game of the tournament each of those six years.

The Kitchener Rangers are two-time Memorial Cup champions (1982, 2003).