A Short Club History
1977 — Two Swedes, Jan Samuelsson and Lief Akerblom, map four areas in Calgary, Glenmore Park, Edworthy Park, Bowness Park and Prince's Island. The Calgarians are so taken by the Swedes that they keep inviting them to return may times over the next 20 years. This relationship culminates, in 1996, at the Veterans World Cup, in Spain, with Samuelsson joining the Canadian team as flag bearer.
1978 — Club was founded in 1977 by Ed Lowan, Jim Webster, and Cy Pecksen after one too many in the local pub.
1982 — Ghosts and goblins invade Prince's Island as club hosts first Spook O.
1984 — While checking control sites for the 1985 Canadian Championships, event organizers, Ed & Alistair, are mistakenly arrested for picnicking in their silk pajamas.
1985 — Club hosted its first Canadian Orienteering Championships at Mount Laurie, near Seebe west of Calgary. The scenic and runnable terrain below the majestic Rockies resulted in rave reviews from orienteers from across the country as well as internationally. In all the excitement following the event, Meet Director, Jim Webster, is almost thrown into the icy waters of the Bow River.
1986 — Club organizes first search party at Pioneer Lodge. Judy is found after only three hours having spent the afternoon at a farm house just off the map. While most of the searches were tired, Judy seemed well fed and no worse for the experience.
1986 — Stuart eats 43 pieces of pepperoni pizza; wimp Pardoe explodes after only 42.
1987 — FWOC again hosted the Canadian Championships, near Sundre, in central Alberta. The event is hi-lites by orienteers having to cross flooded creeks after a week of rain.
1990 — More than 1200 competitors attended the North American Orienteering Championships organized by FWOC near Caroline in central Alberta.
1992 — Jack McLean DNF's for the 18th consecutive time. Still refuses to say the "O" word. Maggie continues to plead with organizer to fix results.
1987–1991 — Club holds a series of succesful bus trips to meets across Western Canada including Hartney, Prince George, Cypress Hills, Lethbridge, and Cranbrook. Ron Monk introduces North American Women's Leg Wrestling Champion to club members during a ski trip to Fernie. She remained undefeated after three days and 10 hours on a bus.
1994 — Usually soft spoken Don Bayly manages to convince other club members that Sulphur Springs is a runnable area suitable for mapping.
1995 — FWOC organized three days of orienteering events during the Canada '95 week which included the 1995 Canadian Championships hosted by that other club (EOOC). Adrian Zissos because famous throughout the orienteering world for the famous boulder field control.
1995 — FWOC brought to the internet by Adrian, Mark, Mark, and Charlotte.
1995 — After working on nine quilts, N. Craig, puchases all tickets to guarantee success in the '95 Quilt raffle.
1996 — FWOC experimented with the "Bare Bones" style of Alberta Orienteering Championships. It featured three fun days of orienteering with organizational simplicity.
1997 — Adrian finally returns from the boulder field, happy but 15 kgs lighter.
1998 — Alberta awarded 2002 Asia Pacific Orienteering Championships. Adrian is unable to think of anything else trying to coordinate the flood of volunteers.
1998 — In a moment of confusion, FWOC executive selects Cranbrook as 1999 Alberta Barebones event site, only later realizing that the location is actually in B.C. and not Alberta. Issues of sales tax ensue, but after promising to update maps OABC agrees.
1998 — Under a full moon, FWOC members begin Tuesday Night Training (TNT) tradition followed by pizza (and sometimes beer). After O-lav organizes Feb. 23/99 event everyone is afraid to try and match his standards and he ends up organizing next 14 Tuesdays.
1999 — Barebones, a 4 day event held in Cranbrook, BC for the first time, gets 170 participants
Biggest Club Hi-lite: There has never been a documented club member's death due to bear, cougar or bison attack.
2000 — introduced electronic punching as the first club in Canada (Western Canadians were the first A meet in North America with e-punching)
2001 — achieved probably unbeatable results at Canadian Champs (15 gold medals, 44% of awarded gold medals)
2001 — Alberta Championships 3-day is relocated on 72 hour notice when a fire ban causes closure and evacuation of Kananaskis Country.
2002 — Massive organizational efforts to host APOC 2002 Canada. Over 830 participants from 31 countries for 10 days of competition — the largest multi-day international sporting event in all of Canada this year. A big hit with everyone who took part.