We’re searching for Canada’s greatest football program. And your vote will help decide the winner. This week we have Queen’s taking on Laval in the final round.
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QUEEN’S
When you can say a football team first suited up in 1882, won its first Dominion championship in 1893 and at one point featured stars with names like “Pep” Leadlay and “Chick” Mundell, it’d usually be safe to assume that any argument about its greatness would be washed scalp-to-soles in the sepia tinge of history.
All of these things are true of Queen’s football.
Students at the Kingston, Ont., university were introduced to an early incarnation of the sport by Fred and Jackson Booth in 1882, then became Canadian Rugby Union champions the following decade. Led by Leadlay, the program responded to a few fallow years during and just after the First World War with three straight Grey Cup wins in 1922, ’23 and ’24 (making them one of only two CIS teams to take the CFL’s top prize).
At their peak in ’23, they went undefeated on the season and outscored the Regina Roughriders 54–0 in the final (a Grey Cup record for margin of victory), and in total across all three Cup wins they stomped their opponents 78–4.
So, yes, there’s a good dose of nostalgia in the argument for Queen’s as the greatest program in CIS history. But it’s not like the Gaels faded into irrelevancy after turning their attention away from Earl Grey’s hardware—far from it.
Instead, they won Vanier Cups in 1968, ’78, ’92 and 2009—the only team on this list to take the Cup in four different decades. Key contributors to the first shaky steps football took in this country, the Gaels’ true greatness resides in the astounding sustained success of the program.
For a sense of the sheer scale of that success, just take a look at the numbers. The Gaels’ .563 winning percentage may not seem overly impressive divorced from context and stacked against Laval’s .752. But Laval’s record stretches back just 17 seasons.
The Gaels have been playing winning football for 131 years, their record established over more than 800 games. In that time, they’ve won 30 conference titles—tops on this list even though it doesn’t include a pair of Ontario Rugby Football Union wins in the 1890s—and produced six players who went on to the NFL and 206 CFLers.
Pick any point in the history of football in Canada and you’ll find Queen’s there, winning games and titles and churning out top-level talent. That’s the mark of a truly great program. Queen’s has one. It’s not sepia—it’s splashed in red, yellow and blue.
– Evan Rosser
GAELS BY THE NUMBERS:
Vanier Cup wins: 4
Vanier Cup appearances: 5
Conference titles: 30 (23 Yates, 7 Dunsmore)
CIS MOPs: 3
NFL players produced: 6
CFL players produced: 206
All-time winning percentage: .563
LAVAL
Schools have a tendency to give their mascots silly names. The University of Toronto has a beaver named Trevor True Blue. Queen’s has Boo Hoo, a tartan-hatted bear. Western has a white and purple mustang who answers to the name JW. They’re all very cuddly creatures, though none truly captures the essence of its school’s identity like Victor, the mildly insane-looking bird who patrols Université Laval’s sidelines during games. But it’s not the mischief in his eyes or the feathers coming out his ears that make him synonymous with his school. It’s just his name. Victor stands for victory, just like Laval itself.
Laval may be the oldest post-secondary institution in the country, but the school’s football program is only 17. In their first season in 1996, the newly helmeted Rouge et Or went 1-8. In their fourth, they won a national title by beating St. Mary’s 14–10 in Toronto. So say what you will about the lack of heritage Laval brings to the college gridiron—this school has achieved more in its short lifespan than its rivals have accomplished over the past five decades. With 11 conference titles, a .752 all-time winning percentage and a record seven Vanier Cups, the Rouge et Or are the most dominant team in CIS.
And since no other school in Canada seems able to compete with them on the field, many trash the Quebec City–based school with tired criticisms about how their athletics programs are too rich and have too much of a lock on coveted French-Canadian athletes. Yes, Laval’s athletics program is one of the wealthiest in the country, allowing the football team to operate on a $2-million budget. But the majority of that budget comes from community outreach and fundraising. So the real strength of the program isn’t its ability to buy Vanier Cup wins, but rather the efficacy with which they have gained the community’s support.
No other school enjoys such a large and financially supportive fan base (an average of 14,257 attended the team’s home games in 2012), which has allowed Laval to invest in equipment, coaches and recruitment techniques. But none of this equals cheating, and the athletic directors of other universities are quick to admit that they’re the ones who now have to catch up. Until they do, it’s likely the Rouge et Or will continue to dominate on gridirons across the country and build on their short but sterling resumé.
–Brett Popplewell
ROUGE ET OR BY THE NUMBERS:
Vanier Cup wins: 7
Vanier Cup appearances: 8
Conference titles: 11
CIS MOPs: 1
NFL players produced: 0
CFL players produced: 30 (37 drafted)
All-time winning percentage: .752