The Bishop's Gaiters is the men's and women's athletic teams that represent

Bishop's University Bishop's University () is a small English-language Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Diocese of Quebec, Anglican Bishop of Quebec ...

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François River, Saint-François and Magog River, Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territ ...

, Quebec, Canada. The name

Gaiter Gaiters are garments worn over the shoe and bottom of the pant or trouser leg and used primarily as personal protective equipment, in particular against snakebite. They are also commonly used to keep the bottom of the pant-leg dry when hiking ...

is a nickname used to refer to garments worn over the shoe and lower pants leg, worn by Anglican bishops until the beginning of the 20th century. The teams play 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 ...

, mostly competing in the

Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec The Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (), abbreviated RSEQ, is the governing body of primary and secondary school, collegiate, and university sport in Quebec. It also serves as a regional membership association for Canadian universities whi ...

(RSEQ), while the football program competes in the

Atlantic University Sport Atlantic University Sport (AUS; ) is a regional membership association for universities in Atlantic Canada which assists in co-ordinating competition between their university level athletic programs and providing contact information, schedules, re ...

football conference. The Gaiters' home field is Coulter Field, a 2,200 seat capacity stadium located on the university's campus.

Varsity teams

Basketball

The hard-court has also brought Bishop's great success. The 1966-67 Men's Basketball Gaiters were the first basketball champions at Bishop's University, the Gaiters' "machine" rolled through the Ottawa-St. Lawrence Athletic Association with a 15–1 record before triumphing over Ottawa and MacDonald in the league playoffs. The men's basketball team enjoyed their most successful season in 1998, winning the CIAU

National Championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

, becoming the smallest Canadian university in history to do so. In 2015, the Gaiters won their second RSEQ championship in school history. The women's basketball team also won back-to-back National Basketball championships in 1983 and 1984.

Football

The Gaiters football program first began in

1884 Events January * January 4 – The Fabian Society is founded in London to promote gradualist social progress. * January 5 – Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera '' Princess Ida'', a satire on feminism, premières at the Savoy The ...

and has fielded teams in every decade since then. The team originally played at the intermediate level, but rose to prominence upon entry to the senior level (now varsity in U Sports football) under the guidance of then head coach, Bruce Coulter. The team won conference championships in 1964, 1971, 1986, 1988, and 1990 under Coutler and the school's football stadium was renamed in his honour in 1991 following his retirement. The team won one more

Dunsmore Cup The Dunsmore Cup () is a Canadian sports trophy, presented annually to the winner of the university-level football competition conducted by Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ), the governing body for all student sports in the province of ...

in 1994, which marks the last time that the team won a conference championship. However, following the move to the

conference in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

, the team made an appearance in the Loney Bowl championship game in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. The team continues to play at Coulter Field and has been led by head coach Chérif Nicolas since 2017.

Ice Hockey

The Gaiters joined the RSEQ conference for the 2021–22 season, becoming the 37th U SPORTS-level women's hockey university team in Canada. When the Gaiters joined the RSEQ, they became the first-Quebec based program not from the city of Montreal to compete in the conference.

Rugby

The Bishop's Gaiters men's rugby team was established in 1976–77, the program was founded by long time head coach Bill Robson who led them to a first conference championship in 1990. That success was followed by further championship seasons in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1998 and 2003. The program currently competes in the 7 team RSEQ conference. It has been coached by Nic Clapinson since February 2022 while being led on the field by captain Kyle Corrigan. Clapinson became the fourth coach of the Rugby program, succeeding Bill Robson, Charles Goode, and Andrew Cowell.

Awards and honors

Athletes of the Year

References

External links

* {{U Sports women's soccer U Sports teams Sport in Sherbrooke U Sports teams in Quebec