The early years
The club was first formed in September 1961 under the name of Jaguar Club of Oregon. It never grew very large and was mainly a social club, with little car-related activity. The annual “July Jaunt” and Christmas Party were the Club’s first big events. The major achievement of the Club was to help organize the first of the interstate meets involving Washington, Oregon and California Jaguar clubs. The first of these was in 1964 at Medford with 45 cars and 90 people taking part. In 1965, the meet was held in Coos Bay and 1966 in Bend, where it was called the ‘Tri-State Meet”.
Demise and Resurrection
Sometime after this event the club dissolved. At the last dinner meeting, only two people came and that ended that. The club was started again in 1968 by five enthusiastic Jaguar founders, Dick Hodgson, Wayne Bagley, Bob Fox, Alex Schneider, and Ron Schilling and the name changed to Jaguar Owners Club of Oregon. The new club rejoiced in monthly meetings that included guest speakers and Jaguar-related movies at the dinner meetings plus rallies, picnic and overnight trips in the Summer. By 1970, the club had grown to 24 members and with practically “zero” dollars in the bank, voted to put on that year’s “Tri-State Meet”, and re-named it the “Western States Meet”. That first meet was held at the Country Squire Resort, just north of Eugene, and was a big success proving that enthusiasm can overshadow financing.
All British Field Meet
“Western States”, which has grown to over 150 participating Jaguars, continues to be held on every even year. The “All British Field Meet”, originally created by JOCO, was first held in 1976 at Blue Lake Park just east of Portland. The following year, our Jaguar Owners Club again held the JCNA Concours at the Blue Lake Park and invited other British cars to join the event. From that evolved the “All British Field Meet”, which has grown significantly and is organized annually by a group of British Car Clubs. ABFM has come to be recognized as the largest annual gathering of British vehicles west of the Mississippi River.
Present Time
In the field of Concours d’ elegance, JOCO has had numerous Jaguars that have been “National Champions”. We’ve grown considerably from 5 members in 1968 to an average of 100 members today. Members’ cars range from the rare and early classic Jaguars to the latest models.
