1969 was an important year, highlighted by many events that are still talked about by older fans.

Before the great Jean Béliveau led the Montreal Canadiens to their 2nd consecutive Stanley Cup championship, he earned the nickname ’le Gros Bill’ while playing for the Québec Citadelles of the Provincial Junior A League.

In 1969, the Provincial Junior A League ended its activities. At the end of the 1968-69 season, the Junior Aces Director of Operations, Mr. Paul Dumont, had been advised by the General Manager of the Philadelphia Flyers that his organization intended to sell the junior team before the beginning of following season. As such, Junior A hockey was threatened to disappear from the Québec area. This was an unacceptable perspective for Mr. Dumont who had been in charge of this junior team for many years.

In order to avoid this situation, he decided to talk to his good friend, Dr. Clément Massicotte. Soon after, Marius Fortier, Jean-Marc Bruneau and 16 other associates accepted to be part of the great adventure. With a commitment of $1,000. each, they established the COLIBEC Society which saw Jean-Marc Bruneau become its first president.

The four initial promoters now had the mandate to negotiate with Bill Putman of the Flyers. The purchasing offer of the Junior Aces and all its assets was for one dollar ($1.), accompanied by a guarantee that the buyers losses, should they rose in the first year of the purchase, would be covered by the former owners up to a maximum amount of $10,000. Mr. Putman accepted this proposition without further negotiation and also promised to help the new owners signing players.

The team strategy was very simple: operate the club in a professional manner, no matter what the costs were. In order to build a good franchise, they had to change the team’s image. This is where as a result of contest, the name REMPARTS was suggested. Nonetheless, the biggest piece of the puzzle was the hiring of Maurice Filion as the teams General Manager and Head Coach. Well-known for his prior success with the Drummondville Rangers, Fillion was the right man for the task. With the final addition of Guy Lafleur, the fabulous adventure of the Remparts was now underway, and so too was the new era of junior hockey in Quebec.