The Old Four is a soccer conference composed of four

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

institutions of higher education in Central Canada. The name is also an appellation for the four universities as a group, consisted of

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

, Queen's University,

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

and

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...

. They are home to the original four soccer teams in Canadian collegiate athletics. The Old Four holds an annual exhibition tournament over the Labour Day weekend, although the teams do not accumulate points toward the regular season of the

Canadian Interuniversity Sport 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 ...

competition. As the name suggests, the Old Four schools are among Canada's oldest and most prestigious universities. Except for the

, all were founded by

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but s ...

during the British colonial era before

Canadian Confederation Canadian Confederation (french: Confédération canadienne, link=no) was the process by which three British North American provinces, the Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, were united into one federation called the Dominion ...

. Historically, these schools have held intense rivalries in athletics. Today, the Old Four are all research universities and members of Canada's U15 Group of Canadian research universities. The Old Four was for several decades also a conference for

Canadian football Canadian football () is a sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's scoring area ( ...

competition between these same four schools, but conference realignment, beginning in the early 1970s, has meant that it no longer exists in its original form.

Members

The Old Four schools are all public institutions unaffiliated with any religion. Although three were founded as religious schools, they have all since become

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

institutions.

Summary of tournament finals

Note: The 2011 finals were cancelled due to field conditions. ''"Both men’s and women’s gold-medal matches at the 2011 Old Four tournament have been cancelled due to excessive water on the field."''

References

External links

McGill Athletics

Queen's Golden Gaels

Toronto Varsity Blues

Western Mustangs

Conference news

* https://web.archive.org/web/20060509054448/http://universitysport.ca/e/w_fieldhockey/story_detail.cfm?id=5898 * https://web.archive.org/web/20060220081001/http://www.goldengaels.com/interuniversity/soccerm.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20051016033626/http://www.varsityblues.ca/news/?id=2572
Mustangs blank Redmen in Old Four gold medal game - Aug 26, 2007

McGill claims Old Four soccer titles - August 31, 2008

Old Four Tournament wraps up at Queen's 8/29/2010
{dead link, date=January 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes College athletics conferences in Canada University and college soccer in Canada Universities in Ontario Universities in Quebec Soccer competitions in Canada