The Alberta Golden Bears ice hockey team is an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) 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. Tw ...

team representing the

Alberta Golden Bears and Pandas The Alberta Golden Bears and Pandas are the sports teams that represent the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Alberta athletics teams have won a total of 101 national championships, including 84 in U Sports sanctioned sports, ma ...

athletics program of

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

. The team is a member of the

Canada West Universities Athletic Association Canada West (formally the Canada West Universities Athletic Association or CWUAA) is a regional membership association for universities in Western Canada which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs ...

conference and compete in

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body for universities in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country and four regional conferences: Ontario University Athletics (OUA), Résea ...

. The Golden Bears play their home games at the

Clare Drake Arena Clare Drake Arena is a 2,700-seat multi-purpose arena in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It is home to the University of Alberta Golden Bears and Pandas ice hockey teams A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to ...

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

History

It's unclear exactly when Alberta played its first official game but the Golden Bears were on the ice at least by the 1910–11 season when they were members of the Edmonton League, a local senior circuit. Sparse records have Alberta playing in the league until 1935. In 1919, Alberta arranged an exhibition series with

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

and then forced the first western intercollegiate conference the following season along with

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

. Travel expenses proved too costly at the time and Alberta withdrew after the inaugural season. Alberta would resume its series with Saskatchewan in the mid-20s on a part-time basis but it wasn't until 1936 that they made the competition an annual rivalry. Alberta suspended its program for

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, as did all Canadian colleges, and returned in force in 1946. The Golden Bears won every league championship from 1936 until 1950 and were so dominant that they were awarded the Halpenny Trophy, awarded to the league champion, on a permanent basis. Alberta finally received some pushback from their counterparts in the 50s but remained the dominant force in the conference. In 1963, the western league, which had existed as an isolated entity until that point, was one of four conferences to receive an invitation to send its champion to participate in the inaugural University Cup. Alberta won the league title the following year to attend the second tournament and swept through the competition to win the program's first national championship. Alberta appeared in five more tournaments during the competitions first ten years, however, troubles were brewing in their home conference. The Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Association covered schools across a huge expanse from

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...

to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

. In 1972, in order to help reduce travel costs, the league was split in two with Alberta becoming a founding member of the

. The Golden Bears won the league title in seven of the first eight seasons and went on to capture four national titles over that span. During this time, head coach

Clare Drake Clare James Drake (October 9, 1928 – May 13, 2018) was a Canadian ice hockey coach. He was the most successful coach in Canadian Interuniversity Sport men's hockey history. In 28 years as the head coach of the University of Alberta men's ice ...

briefly left to take over the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division (NHL), Pacific Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. Th ...

but he returned after one season away and remained with the club until 1989. Even after Drake's retirement, Alberta continued to pile up the wins, capturing two national titles in the 90s, four in the 2000s and three in the 10s. The team has been able to compete in so many tournament thanks to being the preeminent power in Canada West from the start. Alberta has won 29 championships since 1973, more than all other schools combined, including 13 of 15 from 2001 to 2015. The result of which has been that the Golden Bears are the most successful program in U Sports, with 16 national championships and 44 tournament appearances, far more than the next best schools (as of 2024).

Season-by-season results

Senior and collegiate play

''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points'' † Alberta withdrew after one game.
‡ Alberta withdrew with 2 games remaining.

Collegiate only

''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, SOL = Shootout Losses, Pts = Points'' ¿ Alberta forfeited 4 games during the season for use of ineligible player. This is their adjusted record at the end of the season.
Totals include games since 1962–63.
Note: Games not counted towards University Cup appearances are not included.

References

External links