The Jung-Yul Kim story starts in Seoul, South Korea.

Jung-Yul Kim was born on February 9, 1973, in Seoul, South Korea. In the first years of his life, his family flew by airplane to Canada, which would become their new home. Crossing the Pacific Ocean, on their way through Anchorage Alaska, the 747 filled with cigarette smoke, the family were entertained with perhaps entertained by American Movies such as ‘Herbie Rides Again’(1974). They carried on, through that gruelling 20 hour flight to reach their final destination of Toronto, Ontario, Canada(this is presumed). This move was at the absolute height of the Cold War. South Korea was suffering under a military dictatorship with no guarantee that it would become the liberal democracy that we know today.

A change in the Canadian Immigration Policy(Normally barring non-europeans), which happened a few years earlier, finally allowed Asian Immigrants to come to Canada.

Immigration Regulations, Order-in Council PC 1967-1616, 1967

The difference from South Korea to Canada was a positive political shift for the families who came at that time but, the economic situation was still difficult, and as with all immigrants at that time, there is always a challenge to find a place economically in a new country where you don’t speak the language perfectly. At that time, they would have found Canada in a bit of an economic slump with higher than normal unemployment and inflation going up, making everything cost more and more, even groceries.

If all of those factors didn’t make the challenge great enough for this young family, they also faced the brutal realization of the bitter coldness of the Canadian winter climate with its intensely cold winter lows, and much much more snow than they would have seen back home.

What those good folks never knew was what the future would hold for that wonderful child, who would later be blessed with amazing abilities and all sorts of extraordinary opportunities in their new homeland, Canada.

As we all already know, at King City Secondary School, it became clear that this was a Football Man. Follow the link to read about it in his own words as he give an autobiography. There is also a video of the induction ceremony.

KCSS Alumni Association Profile

KCSS Alumni Induction Due to Personal Excellence

In the articles that follow, I will tell the amazing story of the 1993 Toronto Varsity Blue, and how they almost never played that year. The team had been ressurrected just in time for Jung-Yul Kim to lead them to greatness.