Emil Sick

Emil Sick (June 3, 1894 – November 10, 1964) of Seattle, Washington was a brewing worker and industrialist in Canada and later the US. He is well known for his involvement as owner of baseball teams and stadiums in Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia from the 1930s until 1960.

He was chairman of the board of Sick's Rainier Brewing Company and president of Sicks' Brewery Enterprises, Inc., both of Seattle, and a director of three other firms, Molson's Brewery, Ltd., and Sicks' Breweries, Ltd., both of Canada, and the Peoples National Bank of Washington. He also was a director of the Seattle World's Fair.

Early Life and Family Business

Emil Sick was the son of Canadian brewer Fritz Sick (1859 - 1945) who built Sick's Lethbridge Brewery where he created Old Style Pilsner and other brand name beers still present in Canadian markets.

Emil Sick attended Western Canada College in Calgary, and took courses at Stanford University.

In an effort to allow his son to learn the family business, Fritz assigned Emil to the duties of shipping clerk at the Lethbridge brewery. Later, Emil worked in other duties within his father'’s operations in Spokane, Salem, Missoula, Vancouver, B.C., and Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and Regina, Saskatchewan.

Sick became general manager of the Associated Breweries of Canada, in 1925. He was managing director of the company in 1928 and president in 1934, one year after he and his father entered the U.S. market following the repeal of Prohibition.^[1]

The Sicks began by acquiring control of breweries in Great Falls and Missoula. Then they established the Goetz Brewery in Spokane. Moving on to Seattle, Fritz and Emil made a deal to lease the old Bay View Brewery at the base of Beacon Hill, which was shuttered in 1919 and turned into a feed mill.

On June 7, 1933, the Sicks incorporated the Century Brewing Association and renamed the Bay View plant Century Brewery, modernizing it with a $75,000 investment. A year after leasing the property, the Sicks purchased it.

Rainier Brewery

In 1934 the Sicks made their most important transaction. It would transform Emil Sick into one of Seattle’s most significant citizens and impact the game of baseball in the state for decades. They acquired exclusive rights to sell the Rainier brand in Washington and Alaska from the Rainier Brewing Company of San Francisco.

Baseball: Seattle Rainiers & Sick's Seattle Stadium

In 1938 Sick bought the Pacific Coast League's Seattle Indians and renamed them the Seattle Rainiers which energized the game in Seattle.

With the Indians on the verge of folding, union boss Dave Beck and Roscoe “Torchy” Torrance urged Sick to the rescue two weeks before Christmas (1937). Owner of one of the city’s few recession-proof enterprises (beer), Sick could afford to take on a baseball club. The oddest part of it all was that Sick really didn’'t care for sports.^[2]

Sick provided $200,000 up front, setting aside $25,000 to be used as working capital with the rest going to toward unpaid bills. While Sick had to be talked into buying the Indians, he saw the value of investing in the club in an effort to sell more beer. He renamed the Indians the “Rainiers”, after his beer which had been named after Mt. Rainier and established plans to house the club in a state-of-the-art facility. He came up with another $200,000 for a stadium handing over $40,000 to George Vanderveer, landowner of the Rainier Avenue site that once housed Dugdale Park. He began construction of Sick's Stadium, a 15,000-seat facility.^[3]

The Pacific Coast League, which included the Los Angeles Angels, San Francisco Seals, San Diego Padres, Hollywood Stars, Sacramento Solons, Oakland Oaks, Seattle Rainiers and Portland Beavers, effectively could be marketed as a major league with none of the 16 Major League teams operating west of St. Louis.

The Rainiers finished first in 1939, 1940 and 1941. They lost the postseason series in 1939, but won pennants in 1940 and 1941. In 1942 and 1943, the Rainiers finished in third place, but won the PCL pennant in the postseason both years.

After a few lean years, the Rainiers won PCL flags in 1951 and 1955, the last pennants won under Sick's ownership. After the 1960 season, the team was sold to the Boston Red Sox.

Sick's Seattle Stadium was the home for the Seattle Pilots who played in the American League in 1969 before moving to Milwaukee where they became known as the Milwaukee Brewers.

Baseball: Vancouver Capilanos, Athletic Park and Sick's Capilano Stadium

With the Western International League's Vancouver Maple Leafs losing money for Con Jones at Con Jones Park through 1937 and 1938, Sick purchased the single 'A' class team and renamed them the Vancouver Capilanos after a brewery he operated in BC. He promptly moved them from East Vancouver back to Athletic Park on the South Granville Slope. ^[4]

In 1944, Sick looked to expand his involvement in baseball by purchasing Athletic Park for $35,000 from the land holder, the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 1946, he was on the hook for a $50,000 rebuild of the main bleachers after a fire swept through the facility.

After much wrangling with city fathers, finally in 1951, Sick opened Sick's Capilano Stadium and moved the team to their Little Mountain home. The stadium was constructed from the identical blue prints from Sick's Seattle Stadium.

The Capilanos were disbanded at the end of the 1954 season when the WIL was reformed as the North West League. Although the Capilanos were the final champions of the WIL, the new NWL wanted to focus only on American markets in the Pacific North West and were unwilling to admit a Canadian team.

When the Oakland Oaks of the PCL were moved to Vancouver in 1956 to play as the Vancouver Mounties, Sick divested himself of the stadium and it was known as Capilano Stadium from that point forward.

Today, the stadium is known as Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey Stadium and is home to the NWL's Vancouver Canadians.

Philanthropy

Sick was equally well known for philanthropy and volunteerism in Seattle. He led a fundraising drive to save St. Mark's Cathedral. As chairman of the non - denominational committee, he saw $100,000 collected to wipe out the church's debts and beautify the picturesque building.

As president of the Seattle Historical Society, Mr. Sick led the drive which collected $100,000 for construction of the Museum of History and Industry. MOHAI opened its doors February 15, 1952.

Mr. Sick was a long-time leader of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, serving as its president in 1941. Thirteen, years later he was elected an honorary lifetime member.^[5]

In 1945, Sick led a founders member committee that raised money to build the first King County Blood Bank. Sick'’s efforts resulted in contributions of $100,000 for the construction of the building, plus an additional $145,000 to be used as a sustaining fund. Sick formed the founders committee and spent three years raising the cash.

Today, there are 20 blood banks in Western Washington and the former King County Blood Bank, subsequently re-christened the “Puget Sound Blood Center” is famous for having pioneered breakthroughs in blood transfusion and transplantation medicine.

In 1946, Sick was asked to serve as chairman of the “Green Cross for Safety Campaign.” The mission of this effort was to work for the prevention of all types of accidents, especially those on streets and highways, but also in homes.

Sick became a trustee of the Seattle Foundation, an organization that encouraged personal philanthropy to improve the quality of life in King County.

He was also the chairman of the Washington State March of Dimes. Sick led annual fund-raising drives that netted the March of Dimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. In his capacity as chairman, Sick also raised funds on behalf of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis.^[6]

See also

• Seattle Postcards: The Seattle Rainiers. credit: The Seattle Times. [Link]

References