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The Vanier Cup (French: Coupe Vanier) is the championship trophy of Canadian Interuniversity Sport men's football. It is named after former Governor General of Canada Georges Vanier.
Summary History
The Vanier Cup was created in 1965 as its championship trophy of the Canadian College Bowl. In 1982 the name of the game was changed to the Vanier Cup.
For the first two years of competition, the Canadian College Bowl was an invitational event, with a national panel selecting two teams to play, much like the system employed by American college football today. In 1967, the Canadian College Bowl was declared the national football championship of the Canadian Interuniversity Athletics Union, with a playoff system determining the two participants. Save several isolated incidents, this was often contested between the Atlantic Bowl and Churchill Bowl champions.
The Vanier Cup was played in Toronto, Ontario, from its inception in 1965 through 2003. However, after the CIS opened the game to host conference bids in 2001, the possibility arose to have games held outside Toronto. The 2004 and 2005 games were hosted by the OUA in Hamilton, followed by 2006 in Saskatoon, and 2007 back in Toronto.
The Canadian College Bowl was formally renamed after the trophy in 1982. Today, both the game and the trophy are known as the Vanier Cup, and it is played between the winners of the Uteck Bowl and the Mitchell Bowl. The Uteck and Mitchell Bowls, in turn, are contested by the Jewett Trophy, Hardy Trophy, Dunsmore Cup, and Yates Cup champions.
In every year since 1965, the Vanier Cup's most valuable player is awarded the Ted Morris Memorial Trophy, and since 1992, a second player (often, the most valuable offensive player if the MVP is from the defense and vice-versa) is awarded the Bruce Coulter Award.
Expanded History
In the fall of 1964, following a football game at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, four gentlemen (Don Loney, head football coach at St. F.X.; a friend of his, Phil Carr-Harris; Peter Gorman Sr., a Toronto businessman whose son was a quarterback at St. F.X.; and Bill Rodda, a friend of Gorman Sr.) were enjoying a post-game beverage and discussing football in general and university football in particular.
The previous year, the Canadian Interuniversity Athletic Union (CIAU) had initiated national championships in Men’s Hockey and Basketball and all four men felt that football should have a national championship as well. Thus was born an idea.
The CIAU, both financially (travel costs) and philosophically (eligibility rules, egos, turf) was not ready for such a move and so Gorman, with an indomitable positive attitude, began to develop a different scenario on his return to Toronto. He would create an annual invitational championship game with a recipient charity and guaranteed travel costs for the two teams, selected by a national panel, to play for an as-yet unnamed trophy.
In short order, Gorman incorporated the event as The Canadian College Bowl, pulled together a group of Toronto business acquaintances to serve as the directors of the Bowl Game each of whom would guarantee to any losses from the game, and persuaded the Toronto Lions Clubs to organize a College Bowl Parade. Next he approached The Canadian Save the Children Fund, with which he was already heavily involved, to serve as the recipient charity of the game.
Gorman then approached Governor-General Georges P. Vanier, who was already the official patron of The Save the Children Fund, to see if the GG would assent to have the Championship trophy named in his honour. The Governor-General agreed and Gorman had 90% of his package, plus a Vanier Cup trophy. The final piece of the puzzle would be to obtain the CIAU’s endorsement. The CIAU agreed, especially since it would have the opportunity to name its own committee to liaise with Gorman’s group and serve as the panel of experts that would select the two participating teams each year. Faced with a proposition which would increase the profile of the fledgling organization, add another championship to its slim portfolio at no cost and with a major role in the selection of teams, the CIAU accepted Gorman’s proposal and so began the flagship of all Canadian University Championships, or as a management consulting firm’s report later called it, “Canada’s Premier University Event.”.
After two successful invitational games, the CIAU had overcome many of the earlier hurdles to establishing a national football championship, and in Canada’s Centennial year, 1967, the Canadian College Bowl became Canada’s University Football Championship.
In 1974, the Toronto Junior Board of Trade, organizers of the bi-annual Toronto Grey Cup Festival, were brought in to create the College Bowl Festival and organize and obtain sponsors for events such as the Outstanding Players Awards Dinner, the All-Canadian Luncheon, the Kick for Cansave, the Hospital for Sick Kids Visit, a Friday night dance, a Board of Trade dinner, and the Lions Club College Bowl Parade.
In 1982 the CIAU assumed full control of the event and renamed it the Vanier Cup. The Canadian College Bowl Board of Directors was re-established as the Vanier Cup Management (later Organizing) Committee, with representatives from the Toronto business community, the Toronto Junior Board of Trade, the CIAU, local universities, and a large cadre of volunteers. This continued through the 2000 game, after which responsibility for organization was shifted to the hosting conferences, initially the OUA (Ontario University Athletics), and in 2006, the Canada West conference, where the 2006 game will be played at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. The game reverts to its Toronto roots in 2007 and will be organized in conjunction with that year's Grey Cup game.
On Saturday, December 3, 2005, the game that started as just post-game banter, the Vanier Cup, celebrated its 40th anniversary. The Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks defeated the University of Saskatchewan Huskies 24-23, reversing the results from the second and fourth Canadian College Bowl games in which the then Waterloo Lutheran University Golden Hawks lost to the St. Francis Xavier University X-Men and then the Queen's University Golden Gaels.
Vanier Cup Games
Canadian football trophies and awards | Canadian Interuniversity Sport trophies
"Vanier Cup"