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)
Feature University Football

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)
Feature University Football

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 […]

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 […]

The UBC Thunderbirds celebrated an 18-17 Shrum Bowl victory over the SFU Red Leafs on Friday atop Burnaby Mountain as the crosstown clash resumed after a 12-year absence. (Photo by Jeff Sargeant property of UBC athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Its Friday rise from mothballs complete, Shrum Bowl’s 34th performance seizes the magic right back, its charm defined by both its ferocity and its foibles! UBC tops SFU in an icy 18-17 classic!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — As B.C.’s football gods looked down from above at the frozen tundra of Terry Fox Field on Friday night, the actions of their collective super-powers made it readily apparent that they were an immortal group of gridiron fans scorned.Who dare deny them the pleasure that would have come from watching the past […]

Football Canada president Jim Mullin, who worked his first Shrum Bowl as a 13-year-old statistician in 1978, picks three of the most memorable crosstown clashes in which he provided the play-by-play call. (Photo property of Krown Kountdown U 2022, All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Jim Mullin: The venerable voice of 14 Shrum Bowl broadcasts re-visits three classic crosstown SFU-UBC clashes ahead of Friday’s epic re-start at Fox Field!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Jim Mullin is the Keith Jackson of the Shrum Bowl.Behind the mic for 14 of the crosstown classics since 1990, the current president of Football Canada is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to not only reflecting on the most human moments of the province’s very own gridiron treasure, but on what […]

Back in the early 1980s, Jay Prepchuk, who would go on to serve on both the UBC and SFU coaching staffs, was a record-setting pivot for Simon Fraser. (Photo property SFU athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Having grown up in the game, Simon Fraser’s 1980 Shrum Bowl MVP Jay Prepchuk, a former UBC and SFU coach, cherishes the return of the grand game!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — If there’s one area that any wannabe Shrum Bowl historian will find tough sledding, it’s determining the reasons why the series stuck to either U.S. or Canadian rules for extended periods of time throughout its history.For example, as local broadcaster and Football Canada president Jim Mullin points out, the reason the first […]

Simon Fraser head coach Mike Rigell catches a moment on Terry Fox Field during fall training camp 2021 to chat with top returning quarterbacks Brandon Niksich and Justin Seiber. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Extra practice time a huge benefit for SFU, UBC heading into Friday’s Shrum Bowl XXXIV, and why the revival of the crosstown classic kicks off a local university football renaissance!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — Talk to those in the know, and the future of the Shrum Bowl becomes something much more than a game local football fans hope gets played each season.In its fabled past, both UBC and SFU have had their turns declining the game (it has been played 33 times in 55 years heading […]

A snow plow begins the job of clearing a heavy Tuesday snowfall from the surface of Terry Fox Field at SFU Stadium in the early afternoon hours of Wednesday. The host Red Leafs are set to face the visiting UBC Thunderbirds in the first Shrum Bowl in 12 years on Friday evening. (Photo by Howard Tsumura property of Varsity Letters 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

After a fresh coat of the white stuff, Terry Fox Field gets a Wednesday dusting as we prepare for a winter classic Shrum Bowl! Our preview includes three Thursday stories!

BURNABY — Friday night’s resurrected Shrum Bowl atop Burnaby Mountain could not be coming at a better time for Simon Fraser football.The school’s new SFU Stadium at Terry Fox field is still shy of its second birthday, the program is in it’s first season as the newly-minted Red Leafs, and on Nov. 12 the team […]

As Shrum Bowl 2022 approaches, UBC Thunderbirds head coach Blake Nill found time to chat and joke with coaches from rival SFU this past weekend during the B.C. high school Subway Bowl semifinals at BC Place Stadium. (Photo by Richard Lam property of UBC athletics 2021. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

Shrum Bowl XXXIV: With a new QB at the helm, UBC Thunderbirds set to climb Burnaby Mountain on Friday for meeting with SFU Red Leafs in first clash since 2010!

VANCOUVER — B.C.’s football community has gone 12 years without the ability to anticipate, watch and debate another Shrum Bowl clash.Consider that for a second, and you could also say that it’s been a dozen years since the coaches at UBC and rival Simon Fraser have actually had common ground on which to both greet […]

Slinging on his way to the best QBR of his collegiate career in last Saturday's win over West Texas A&M is Simon Fraser senior quarterback Justin Seiber. (Photo by Ethan Cairns property of SFU athletics 2022. All Rights Reserved)
Feature University Football

After taking the road less travelled, Simon Fraser senior quarterback Justin Seiber reflects on adversity, the game of his life and a Shrum Bowl opportunity!

BURNABY MOUNTAIN — With the end of his football career now just weeks away, Justin Seiber admits he is pondering a professional path into the world of sports analytics.All of that seems fitting in light of the numbers that the 6-foot-3, 200 pound Simon Fraser senior quarterback put up last Saturday as the previously-winless Red […]