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 […]

Simon Fraser's Irish Coquia, fresh off leading St. Patrick's to back-to-back B.C. senior boys titles, as well as a junior championship, is working on becoming a complete guard over his debut campaign with the Red Leafs. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of Simon Fraser athletics 2023. All Rights Reserved)
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Irish Coquia: As Red Leafs tip off vs. Hawaii Pacific, Simon Fraser’s pure freshman standout ready to work on his defence while bringing a ready-to-roll offence to SFU after winning three B.C. MVP awards for St. Pat’s Celtics!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — I can picture the late, great Lorne Davies smiling a lot these days about a kid named Irish.When the founding father of Simon Fraser athletics planted the pioneering idea of his student-athletes competing against U.S.-based competition upon the school’s opening in 1965, he no doubt harboured a hope that one day SFU […]

UBC offensive tackle Giovanni Manu and his teammates hoist the spoils of victory after the 86th Hardy Cup game won 28-27 by UBC on Saturday afternoon at Thunderbird Stadium. (Photo by Rich Lam property of UBC Athletics 2023. All Rights Reserved)
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A SUNDAY READ: It’s a Hardy Cup instant classic quiz: What’s 95 yards long and 52 seconds long? For UBC Thunderbirds, it’s the measure of a most historic moment! Comeback win over Alberta keeps Vanier Cup dreams alive!

VANCOUVER — It is already being talked about as one of the greatest single minutes in the history of UBC Thunderbirds football.And if you were one of the 1,966 who gathered Saturday at Thunderbird Stadium for the 86th edition of the Hardy Cup championship game, then you can count yourself among the fortunate few able […]

Simon Fraser's Sasha Vujisic played a game-changing role over his seven minutes on the floor Friday as the Red Leafs won their first game of the season at the West Region Crossover in Arcata, CA against the host Cal Poly Humboldt Lumberjacks. (Photo by Wilson Wong property of SFU athletics 2023. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Men's Basketball

Simon Fraser Red Leafs work for biggest comeback win in head coach Steve Hanson’s tenure, as new post Sasha Vujisic brings paint presence in 83-75 win at Cal Poly Humboldt!

ARCATA, CA — Last winter, two years into his studies in computing science at Simon Fraser University while on a ever-lengthening hiatus from the game, big man Sasha Vujisic wandered into the office of Red Leafs’ men’s basketball coach Steve Hanson and asked if he could try and earn a spot on the team for […]

UBC running back Isaiah Knight gave the Thunderbirds' ground game everything it needed Saturday in Edmonton as the visitors topped host Alberta 23-10 to win its first Canada West regular season title since 1999. (Photo by Don Voaklander property of Alberta Golden Bears athletics. All Rights Reserved)
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UBC Football: First Canada West crown of the century comes in gritty defensive win at Alberta as Leonard, Townsend, Soriano help hold Golden Bears out of the end zone! Bisons next as Hardy Cup playoffs open at home!

Even if they had been trying, the football gods could not have placed the UBC Thunderbirds within the margins of a more character-defining script than the one which the Blue-&-Gold found themselves writing Saturday on the road and on the final day of the Canada West regular season.It was one of those regular-season ending, winner-take-all […]

Dane Kapler was mobbed by his teammates after he went on a 66-yard TD run Friday against Alberta to give UBC a lead it would not relinquish before a sell-out homecoming crowd at T-Bird Stadium. (Photo by Bob Frid property of UBC athletics 2023. All rights reserved)
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Switch to slotback imbues UBC’s power-train running back Dane Kapler with a double-dose of on-field danger! McCaffrey-like moments vindicate coaching staff’s gutsy off-season switch!

VANCOUVER — If you spent any amount of time sniffing around UBC’s fall camp in August, it didn’t take any time at all to realize just how deep and talented the 2023 ‘Birds looked on paper.That, of course, is the net effect of ringing the bell from top to bottom for what looks like four […]

UBC Thunderbirds' quarterback Garrett Rooker faced the Alberta Golden Bears during Canada West football action Friday, Sept. 22 at Thunderbird Stadium in Vancouver. (Photo by Bob Frid property of UBC athletics 2023. All rights reserved)
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A Sunday Read: Like Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa before him, UBC quarterback Garrett Rooker puts gruesome hip injury behind him and lifts Thunderbirds to national title relevancy!

VANCOUVER — All similarities are of course unintentional, yet it seemed there were so many times this past Friday night at a sold-out Thunderbird Stadium that the cocked arm of UBC quarterback Garrett Rooker had an overflow crowd of 7,100 in the same state of rapt anticipation normally associated with a maestro’s baton at the […]

The UBC Thunderbirds excelled on both sides of the ball, opening the new Canada West season with a 25-10 win over host Regina on Friday. (Photo by Piper Sports Photography 2023. All Rights Reserved)
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UBC football 2023: As Rooker’s return & Sudden Sam’s arrival spark impressive 25-10 road win over Rams, Thunderbirds’ young linebacking core takes giant step forward in Regina!

On a night when lofty preseason prognostication had put them in a place to answer the most elemental question of all, the UBC Thunderbirds provided a resounding response.So, was the latest edition of Point Grey’s gridiron Blue-and-Gold worthy of their co-No. 1 ranking to begin the Canada West football wars this season, right alongside the […]

Trinity Western's David Mutabazi (right) dribbled past Ajay Mitchell of Santa Barbara on Tuesday at the Langley Events Centre as the Canada West's Spartans played host to the visiting, NCAA Div. 1 Gauchos. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of VarsityLetters. com. All Rights Reserved)
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A SUNDAY READ: Tsumura on the joys of summertime basketball, NCAA Div. 1 foreign tours, and the road-less-travelled path of Trinity Western’s electric David Mutabazi!

LANGLEY — The best part of ageing into an ‘old’ basketball writer?For me, it’s that rare but reassured feeling I get, when against any reasonable expectation, a player straps the fortunes of his team on his back, and in this case almost carries them to an improbable upset.That is the place I found myself this […]

Adam Olsen of Surrey’s Elgin Park Orcas faced Vancouver’s St. Patrick’s Celtics in the 2022 B.C. Triple-A championship final last March at the Langley Events Centre. (Photo by Paul Yates property of Vancouver Sports Pictures 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature High School Boys Basketball University Men's Basketball

A phenom for the future, UBC Thunderbirds basketball spreads its wingspan and welcomes Elgin Park’s 6-foot-7 guard/wing Adam Olsen to War Memorial Gym for 2023-24 season!

VANCOUVER — Adam Olsen is all business when it comes to the level of compete he will bring to the UBC Thunderbirds basketball team next season.In fact if there was a metric capable of measuring just such an intangible among B.C.’s graduating high school Class of 2023, the 6-foot-7 guard/wing Olsen might well sit at […]