Vanier Cup

Vanier Cup

The Vanier Cup, so named after Governor General Georges VANIER (1959-67), was first awarded in 1965 to the winner of an invitational football game called the Canadian College Bowl. The game's founder was Peter Gorman, a Toronto businessman who gave the game a charity focus by pairing it with the Canadian Save the Children Fund. A previous attempt at a Canadian interuniversity championship had been made in 1959 when the University of Western Ontario and UBC had met for the "Canadian championship" at Varsity Stadium. In 1967 the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletics Union (CIAU) accepted the Vanier Cup game as its championship, the culmination of western and eastern semifinal play-off games. In 1982 the game became known as the Vanier Cup, and the date was set for the second last Saturday in November at the end of a week-long program of activities. In 1989 the game was relocated to the SkyDome and is now scheduled so as not to conflict with the GREY CUP game which is played at the same time of year. The 4 leagues competing for the Vanier Cup under the auspices of Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) are Canada West Universities Athletic Association (CWUAA), Ontario Universities Athletics (OUA), the Québec Students Sports Federation (QSSF) and the Atlantic University Sport (AUS).

See alsoFOOTBALL.