VANCOUVER — Perfect team. Perfect time. Perfect fit.So perfect, in fact, that you wonder if there had been more than a little divine intervention from the football gods above.How else does Giovanni Manu wind up a fourth-round pick of the Detroit Lions this past April, thus becoming the first UBC Thunderbird ever selected in the […]
University Football
Alberta 42 UBC 28: No. 7 Golden Bears huddle behind dominant O-line performance, win second-half war of attrition to top No. 3 UBC in Canada West opener at sold out Thunderbird Stadium!
VANCOUVER — Isn’t it amazing how the simplest play in football, when executed with precision and consistency, can shift a game’s entire equilibrium.Yes, we’re talking about running the football the way it was meant to be run.. behind a wall of powerful push, snap after snap after soul-crushing snap.And as on cue, as such syncopated […]
UBC Football ’24: An offensive line’s journey through NFL joy, the loss of a mentor and the rebirth of youth! On eve of opener, a look inside the Thunderbird trenches reveals the meaning of the game!
VANCOUVER — Football is a game of constant renewal, reinvention and rebirth, and perhaps nowhere is that more palpable than along its offensive line where its tackles, its guards and its centre can be looked upon as a union not unlike a musical quintet.Within its ‘lean-on-me’ kind of environment, offensive lines not only learn to […]
UBC football ’24: Can Thunderbirds find a way to snap 37-year Hardy Cup repeat drought? Ex-Dinos’ boss Wayne Harris reunites out west with old boss Blake Nill as ‘Birds new linebacker coach!
VANCOUVER — Last spring, coming off the team’s first Canada West title and Vanier Cup appearance since 2015, Blake Nill’s cel phone began to elicit some interesting activity from the 403 area code.“When the University of Calgary decided not to bring in Wayne for this season, it was funny because I got calls from three […]
UBC Football ’24: QB Garrett Rooker made Thunderbird Stadium his own ‘Home, Sweet Home’… Texas pivot soaked up Vancouver’s summer sun, now preps ‘Birds for Hardy Cup rematch Friday vs. Alberta!
VANCOUVER — Garrett Rooker has spent so much time on UBC’s Point Grey campus the past few months that the suburban Houston, TX neighbourhood of his youth may have, for the time being, defaulted in its status to that of his ‘second’ home.“I spent most of my summer here,” admitted the Thunderbirds’ fourth-year quarterback and […]
The story of Gio and Theo: UBC’s book-end offensive tackles bring rare size and athleticism to the party! NFL teams and major pundits can’t help but be impressed ahead of 2024 draft!
By Howard TsumuraVANCOUVER — The story of Gio and Theo is the story of two ‘Made-in-B.C.’ high school football products who not only made the decision to play for their home university team, but along that journey turned themselves into the kinds of players with a chance to play in the National Football League.UBC offensive lineman […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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 […]