The Guelph Gryphons are the athletic teams that represent the
University of Guelph
, mottoeng = "to learn the reasons of realities"
, established = May 8, 1964 ()As constituents: OAC: (1874) Macdonald Institute: (1903) OVC: (1922)
, type = Public university
, chancellor ...
in
Guelph
Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Wel ...
,
Ontario
Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...
, Canada. The university's varsity teams compete in the
Ontario University Athletics
Ontario University Athletics (OUA; french: Sports universitaires de l'Ontario) is a regional membership association for Canadian universities which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providin ...
conference of the
U Sports
U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Ca ...
(OUA's), and, where applicable, in the west division. The university teams are often referred to as the Gryphs, which is short for the school's mascot, Gryph, the
gryphon
The griffin, griffon, or gryphon (Ancient Greek: , ''gryps''; Classical Latin: ''grȳps'' or ''grȳpus''; Late and Medieval Latin: ''gryphes'', ''grypho'' etc.; Old French: ''griffon'') is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back ...
.
Varsity teams
![Guelph Gryphons goalie 2012](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Guelph_Gryphons_goalie_2012.JPG)
Guelph Gryphons teams compete in:
*
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
(m)
*
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
(m/w)
*
Cross Country Running
Cross country running is a sport in which teams and individuals run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain such as dirt or grass. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open coun ...
*
Field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...
(w)
*
Figure Skating
Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, when contested at the 1908 Olympics in London. The Olympic disciplines are me ...
(w)
*
Ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
(m/w)
*
Football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
(m)
*
Golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
*
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...
(m/w)
*
Nordic Skiing
Nordic skiing encompasses the various types of skiing in which the toe of the ski boot is fixed to the Ski binding, binding in a manner that allows the heel to rise off the ski, unlike alpine skiing, where the boot is attached to the ski from toe ...
*
Rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically atta ...
*
Rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
(m/w)
*
Soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...
(m/w)
*
Swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
*
Track & Field
Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...
*
Volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...
(m/w)
*
Wrestling
Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat ...
Baseball
Established in 1998, the
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
team is not one of the school's most well known programs. Although the team does produce a varsity team, it does not receive the same recognition as the football, or even
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
teams. Much like football, the team has an early season starting from the first week of September for a month straight until October. Since it is a short schedule of 21 games and only one month for play, the league often schedules two games per day. University baseball in the OUA is growing and currently eight universities compete, four of which qualify for the playoffs and championship. However, unlike many varsity sports the baseball team does not compete in the CIS. The team does, however, try to compete in the CIBA (Canadian Intercollegiate Baseball Association). In 2012, the Gryphons baseball team established a new team wins record by obtaining 14 wins in regular season play. The Gryphons finished second in the OUA standings and it meant that the team would advance to the OUA playoffs for the first time since 2004. In the playoffs, the Gryphons started strong by defeating Western before dropping the next to Toronto in a nail biter for a chance at a place in the final. The team would lose the semi final to Brock to close out the season in third place.
Men's basketball
Garney Henley
Garney Henley (born December 21, 1935) is an American former professional football player, who played in the Canadian Football League.
College career
Garney Henley attended Huron College in South Dakota, playing as a running back from 1956 to ...
took over as head coach for the Basketball team in the 1965-66 season taking it from an intramural program to a varsity contender. In the 1973-74 season, the team entered the
CIAU National Basketball championship as a wild card team. The team won the National Basketball Game for the first time in the school's history beating
St. Mary's University with the final score of 74-72.
The team competes in the OUA West division along with the university's longtime rival, the
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by resident ...
. The team plays its games from October to February of the following year. Generally, the team is hand-picked by scouts from various high schools trying to fill a 16-man roster. However, tryouts may be held at the beginning of the school year for the last spot on the team. Pre-season practices, workouts, and tryouts often happen prior to the start of the season, which is held in late October. During the
off-season
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...
, the team competes in various exhibition games and tournaments against college teams in Ontario, and sometimes teams from the
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
.
Women's basketball
The women's
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
team was established in 1971 (or earlier) and competes in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) west division. The team's season runs from November to February, playing over thirty games within this period.
Field hockey
The women's
field hockey
Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...
team was established in 1979. There are nine teams that compete in this sport and only one division exists. The team plays from September to November. 25 games are played within this time, and only fourteen of these games are officially recorded by the OUA.
Men's ice hockey
![Guelph Gryphons 2012](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Guelph_Gryphons_2012.JPG)
The
men's ice hockey team dates back to the early days of collegiate hockey in North America. The team was originally known as the ''Ontario Agricultural College'' hockey team. As the OAC, the team competed as early as the 1899-1900
Ontario Hockey Association
The Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) is the governing body for the majority of junior and senior level ice hockey teams in the Province of Ontario. The OHA is sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Federation along with the Northern Ontario Hockey As ...
Intermediate season and transitioned to the University of Guelph Gryphons while sitting out the 1963-64 season. The Gryphons won the
University Cup
The David Johnston University Cup is a national collegiate sports award, presented annually to the champion of a season-ending tournament played by U Sports men's ice hockey teams in Canada. The UQTR Patriotes are the current champions for the 2 ...
in 1997, emblematic of Canadian scholastic hockey supremacy. The Gryphons have also won league titles in 1976, 1979, 1980, 1994, 1997 and 2015.
Season-by-season results
Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against
Notable alumni
*
Ken Lockett
Kenneth Richard Lockett (born August 30, 1947) is a Canadian retired professional ice hockey goaltender who played for the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League (NHL) and the San Diego Mariners of the World Hockey Association (WHA).
Pla ...
*
Brad Pirie
J. Bradley Pirie (born October 21, 1955) is a Canadian former ice hockey player. He played with Team Canada at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
Early life
Pirie was born in Guelph. He played with the University of Guelph Gryphons, where he was an al ...
*
Dean Prentice
Dean Sutherland Prentice (October 5, 1932 – November 2, 2019) was a Canadian professional ice hockey left winger who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for 22 seasons between 1952–53 and 1973–74. He had 10 NHL seasons with 20 or mo ...
(assistant coach)
Women's ice hockey
The
women's ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...
team was established in 1979. There are currently 11 teams that compete in the OUA and thus only one division exists. The team plays from September to February. 26 OUA games are played within this time, with several exhibition games played before and sometimes during the regular season. In the 2016/17 season, the Gryphons repeated as OUA champions, with a convincing 6-1 win on home ice over the Nipissing Lakers, to lift the McCaw Cup.
Football
The Guelph Gryphons
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
team has been in competition since 1950 and is considered to be the biggest sport at the university.
The football team has a nine-week schedule which starts in late August to the last week of October, followed by the OUA playoffs which run within the first three weeks of November. Unlike other sports, there are only 11 schools that compete in OUA football, so there is only one division. The team usually has 60 to 80 varsity athletes however, not all will have the opportunity to play for the team. The recruitment process is very similar to other major sports at the University of Guelph. Players are generally hand-picked by coaches and scouts while they play for their respective high school teams.
Men's lacrosse
The University of Guelph's
men's lacrosse team participates in the
Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association
The Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association (CUFLA) is an association of men's field lacrosse teams connected with several universities in Ontario and Quebec. Teams compete in the fall with league playoffs typically in early November.
Hist ...
(CUFLA). They have won the championship, known as the Baggataway Cup, five times - in 1995, 2000, 2008, 2013 and 2014.
The Baggataway Cup is not affiliated with the OUA.
Women's lacrosse
In 1997, the University of Guelph put together their first
women's lacrosse
Women's lacrosse (or girls' lacrosse), sometimes shortened to lax, is a sport with twelve players on the field at a time (including the goalkeeper). Originally played by indigenous peoples of the Americas, the modern women's game was introduce ...
team. The lacrosse team competes from September to November. Within this time the team plays fifteen games, with only twelve of these recorded by the OUA.
Women's rugby
The women's
rugby
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby union: 1 ...
team formed in 1994. The team competes in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) Shiels division. The team's season spans from September to November. The team plays twelve games each season, but only five are recorded in the OUA standings. The Gryphons women's rugby team finished the 2008-2009 year with a perfect 5-0 record.
The Guelph Gryphons have been working towards a National Gold metal for the past four years earning Bronze at the CIS championships between 2007-2010. Finally finishing their 2011-2012 season with Gold, they returned from the national University 7's tournament in BC receiving their second Gold for the 2011-2012 season.
Men's soccer
The
men's soccer team started in 1979. The current team consists of a total of 23 players, one coach, four assistants, two trainers, one manager, and one sports informer. The season has 14 games from September to October, with the post-season lasting through November.
The OUA has 17 participating schools around Ontario. In 1990, the Gryphons won their first OUA title defeating the Toronto Varsity Blues 1–0 in the championship game at Alumni Stadium.
After defeating
Mount Allison
Mount Allison is a peak of the Diablo Range, located in the East Bay southeast of Fremont, California.
Geography
Mount Allison is part of a ridge that also includes Mission Peak and Monument Peak. Unlike those other two peaks, Mount Allison ...
in the CIAU Semis, the Gryphons met the defending champion,
UBC Thunderbirds
The UBC Thunderbirds are the athletic teams that represent the University of British Columbia in the University Endowment Lands just outside the city limits of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In Canadian intercollegiate competition, the Thun ...
, in the CIAU final but dropped a 2–1 decision before a record crowd at home.
In the 2016/2017 season, the Guelph Gryphons Men's Soccer team were crowned OUA champions in a 3-1 win over the rival York Lions. This represents their first OUA title since 1990.
Men's volleyball
The
men's volleyball team at the University of Guelph had its first year of in the OUA in 1979. The 2010 team consists of 18 men from all around Canada, one coach, four assistants, one trainer, and one sports informer.
The team's season consists of 20 games and runs from October to February while playoffs last until the end of February. The OUA currently contains 11 competing teams from universities all over Ontario.
Some highlights throughout the years has been in 2003–2004 where the Gryphons finished with a 13–5 record for 2nd place and were ranked as high as 8th in the CIS. This marked their best finish since 1982–83 when Guelph finished second in the OUA West Division. The Gryphs won their semi-final series against
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
in two straight matches but later lost to the
Toronto Varsity Blues
The Toronto Varsity Blues is the intercollegiate sports program at the University of Toronto. Its 43 athletic teams regularly participate in competitions held by Ontario University Athletics and U Sports. The Varsity Blues traces its founding to ...
. In the 2016/2017 season, the Guelph Gryphons achieved a bronze medal.
Women's volleyball
The
women's volleyball team was established in 1979 at the University of Guelph. They compete in the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) West Division. The team's season runs from September to February, including approximately eight tournaments and twenty matches. They have yet to win an OUA championship.
Awards and honors
*2019 OUA Male Athlete of the Year: Jace Kotsopoulos, Soccer
*2019 OUA Female Coach of the Year: Rachel Flanagan, Ice Hockey
*2019 OUA Female Team of the Year:
Guelph Gryphons women's ice hockey
The Guelph Gryphons are an ice hockey team that represents the University of Guelph. They compete in the Ontario University Athletics Conference in U Sports. The program has yielded seven McCaw Cup conference championships and one Golden Path Tro ...
Athletes of the Year
See also
*
U Sports
U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Ca ...
*
Guelph Athletics
Guelph Athletics is the athletic department at the University of Guelph, located in Guelph, Ontario. The university athletics program is sponsored by Russell Athletics. Many of the athletic programs are associated with Ontario University Athletics ...
References
External links
*
University of Guelph athletics
{{U Sports volleyball
U Sports teams
Sport in Guelph
University of Guelph