The history of Guelph athletics in honour of our 50th anniversary
In 1874, just seven years after the British North America Act marked Canadian independence, the Ontario School of Agriculture and Experimental Farm opened its doors on 550 acres of provincially purchased land. This momentous day saw 28 students flood through the barn doors of what would later become the University of Guelph, and with them they brought athletics.
At the time, student-athletes were participating in just track and field, a tradition that continues in Guelph today and has evolved into Guelph becoming the premier track and field school in our proud dominion.
In 1880, the college was renamed the Ontario Agricultural College, and together with the Ontario Veterinary College and the Macdonald Institute, students in the Guelph area participated in a number of sports, including baseball, rugby, soccer football and hockey under the nickname “Aggies,” in reference to Guelph’s institutional agricultural heritage.
The year 1957 marked the next milestone for athletics when it was decided that the official nickname of the athletic teams would change to “Redmen.” Guelph would join the Royal Military College and McGill in the cohort of schools that decided to use the clichéd Redmen name and accompanying Native mascot to identify their school’s athletics.
In 1965, one year after the three colleges were officially galvanized to make up what is now knows as the University of Guelph, it was decided by the Senate, after a unanimous recommendation from the Committee of Ceremonials, that the official colours for the Guelph would be red, black, and gold.
The colour scheme was decided based upon three factors: the aesthetic value and availability of heraldic colour combinations; the colours already in use by the Colleges on the campus; and the colours already in use by other universities.
Red was representative of the most common colour used by the OAC, black was the colour of the OVC, and gold, the newest addition, signified science.
Fast-forward to 1966 and to the successes of a Guelph softball team, who were nicknamed the Gryphons. For one reason or another, the Gryphons nickname started to catch fire across campus and by 1967, Fred Gilbert, the first student president of the Athletic Advisory Committee, suggested the Gryphons nickname be taken to a vote among students attending the U of G. An Ontarion poll showed that 71 per cent of respondents voted in favor of the Gryphons nickname and from that day forward the lion-bodied and eagle-headed mythical creature that rules the land and skies of South-Western Ontario, has been identified with Guelph students.
The mid-sized University of Guelph has continued to grow in both academics and athletics since 1967, and the school now facilitates 23 men’s and women’s varsity teams, a slew of sports clubs including ultimate Frisbee and ringette, and arguably Canada’s most prestigious intramural program, which boasts over 7,000 student participants.
To add to the growing image of the Gryphons in Guelph, the Guelph Minor Hockey Association announced in 2013 that they would be changing their name from the Guelph Storm (Guelph’s OHL team nickname) to the Gryphons, with both men’s and women’s minor hockey sporting the red, black, and gold.
Guelph now sports the nation’s best track and lacrosse teams and is a consistent Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) top 10 in football, men’s and women’s rugby, and hockey, and shows no signs of slowing down in the Gryphons relentless pursuit to stay competitive with much bigger universities across Ontario.
Here’s to 50 years for the University of Guelph, and another 50 years of Gryphons sports.