Team
Kamloops Red Devils Football Team
Year of Induction: 1996
The Kamloops Red Devils high school football team was the first induction into the team category of the Kamloops Sports Hall of Fame. The Kam High Red Devils football program produced no less than five BC Championship teams at the Premier League level (highest school category in the province). The program dominated the Okanagan League play after coach Rick Nykorak took the helm in the early 1970s. He turned a perennial non-contender into the team to beat in the Okanagan and often the province. Under Nykorak, the Red Devils won provincial titles in 1981 and 1983. Three additional provincial titles were captured in 1985, 1986, and 1990 under coach Brian Olthuis.
The 1990 team was so dominant in the league many consider it to be perhaps the best high school football team ever to win the provincial crown crushing a much-favored opponent the Centennial Centaurs 35-0. In the duration of over 20 years of high-level play, the Red Devils program sent more than 20 players on to play pro in the Canadian Football League. Many more garnered athletic scholarships to Canadian and U.S. universities or colleges.