From the early 1970’s to the mid 1980’s, from May to October, Friday nights meant only one thing in the city of Guelph. Get home from work, have a quick bite and head for the Exhibition Park enclosure to watch some of the greatest fastball in the country.
It was “Fastball Night in Guelph” and the Guelph Ingram’s were our version of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Jack’s love of fastball kept the sport alive for many years. He started sponsoring a junior team in the late 1960’s, but as his players became too old for junior, he decided to sponsor a team in the Inter-City Fastball League.
Ingram would say that the key to his success was the tremendous management team he built around him, but it was also well known that Ingram was very loyal to ‘his boys’ on the team. While some clubs in the league augmented their squads with import players, Ingram went almost entirely with local talent.
Led by players like Ron Robinson and Ab Henshaw the team won four championships in five years in the late 70’s and early 80’s to cement their place in Guelph’s sporting history. Jack Ingram made Guelph fastball into a dynasty.
Inducted into the Guelph Sports Hall of Fame – Builder category – on May 2, 2001
