Montreal's Iraghi Muganda dives for the end zone as he eludes the defence of UBC's Ryan Baker (14) and Ben Sangmuah (15) during Saturday action at the 2023 Vanier Cup in Kingston, Ont. (Photo by James Paddle-Grant property of Queen's Athletics 2023. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Vanier Cup 2023: UBC’s national title bid falls short at the hands of Montreal’s historic post-season defence! Carabins keep Thunderbirds’ offence out of the end zone to hoist U SPORTS gridiron spoils!

KINGSTON, ONT. — They came east to play the biggest game of their season, but to win it they had overcome a defence whose numbers told a tale of invincibility.And in Saturday’s Vanier Cup national championship final, it was a heavy dose of those historic credentials which not only kept the UBC Thunderbirds out of […]

UBC's 1987 Western Bowl hero Mark Nykolaichuk (far right) celebrates with fellow 'Birds football alums (left to right) Bill Barber, Mike Bellefontaine and Terry Cochrane at the 2023 Hardy Cup championship game played at Thunderbird Stadium. (Photo courtesy Mark Nykolaichuk)
Feature University Football

UBC’s Vanier Cup ties that bind: It’s been 36 years since Mark Nykolaichuk’s Western Bowl pick-six sent host ‘Birds to ’87 final! Saturday, he’s at Vanier Cup ’23 to support UBC’s latest national title bid!

VANCOUVER — It was a moment etched in time for Mark Nykolaichuk.And fittingly, when readers of The Province newspaper opened their Sunday tabloid to the front page of the sports section on the morning of Nov. 15, 1987, what they saw captured that precise moment to perfection.“UBC Back In Final” the headline screamed, along with […]

Thunderbirds' Cesare Rednour-Bruckman puts the straight arm on St. FX punter Max Capriotti on his way to a punt return touchdown Saturday as the Thunderbirds defeated the Atlantic champion X-Men 47-17 in the Mitchell Bowl national semifinal at Thunderbird Stadium. (Photo by Bob Frid property of UBC athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved).
Feature University Football

UBC at Vanier Cup 2023: Through Soriano, Kennedy and a kid named Chez, how three blank football canvases now paint Thunderbirds’ title-contending DNA!

VANCOUVER — How do you define the image of a Vanier Cup national title contender?How about through the actions of three UBC defenders, who over the early stages of the second half of Saturday’s Mitchell Bowl national championship semifinal game at Thunderbird Stadium, made the kinds of back-to-back-to-back plays which not only reversed the momentum […]

UBC's huge class of incoming players gathered Thursday on the Point Grey campus in advance of its 2018 fall camp. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics)
Feature University Football

UBC FOOTBALL: How the ‘Birds new 2018 class can lean on and learn from 2015’s rookie class of Vanier Cup champions

VANCOUVER — His imprints may still seem fresh, yet with his fourth fall training camp at the helm of UBC football officially set to open today, you could say that Thunderbirds’ head coach Blake Nill has finally got some blue-and-gold tradition of his own to lean on.On Thursday afternoon, 16 sleeps ahead of its Canada […]

Ben Hladik may be a tue freshman at the tender age of 18, but he was picked the Canada West's Defensive Player of the Week this week for plays like this one, sacking reigning Hec Crighton award winner Noah Picton of the Regina Rams last week in Vancouver. (UBC photo by Richard Lam)
Feature High School Football

Hints of greatness: Big Ben begins blue-and-gold career looking like a potential UBC all-timer

VANCOUVER — Ben Hladik is so attuned to everything he does as a football player, that even a discussion of his jersey number with the UBC Thunderbirds is important enough to provide a most thoughtful answer.

Glenn Steele has been chosen the greatest UBC Thunderbirds football player of all time. (Photo -- UBC athletics)
Feature University Football

The Man of Steele: UBC running back Glenn Steele picked No. 1 on list of ‘Birds all-time 100 players

VANCOUVER — The greatest player in the history of UBC Thunderbirds football is asked to remember his favourite moment from the game which propelled his team into the 1982 Vanier Cup national final.All these years later, Glenn Steele remains the ever-humble ‘Bird, yet even his best attempt at a simple recollection winds up sounding a […]