Media Releases

Celebrating 150 years of University of Toronto football

June 21, 2011

New foundation to support student athletes and Toronto youth

TORONTO – The Friends of Var­si­ty Blues Foot­ball and the Fac­ul­ty of Phys­i­cal Edu­ca­tion and Health will cel­e­brate 150 years of foot­ball at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to with a gala fundrais­er on Novem­ber 9, 2011.

The Var­si­ty Lead­er­ship Foun­da­tion Din­ner will take place in the Great Hall at his­toric Hart House, on the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to cam­pus. The gala din­ner will mark the offi­cial launch of the Friends of Var­si­ty Blues Football’s “Var­si­ty Lead­er­ship Foun­da­tion”. All pro­ceeds from the din­ner will pro­vide sup­port to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s foot­ball pro­gram in the areas of ath­let­ic schol­ar­ships and pro­gram enhance­ments.

“The Var­si­ty Lead­er­ship Foun­da­tion Din­ner will cel­e­brate the sto­ried his­to­ry of foot­ball at U of T and the devel­op­ment of young stu­dent ath­letes who have made sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tions to all areas of Cana­di­an life for a cen­tu­ry and a half,” said Peter McN­abb, Chair of the Friends of Var­si­ty Blues Foot­ball.

“Our list of alum­ni reads like a Who’s Who of pio­neers and lead­er­ship, and under the tagline, ‘Hon­our­ing the Past, Build­ing the Future’, the Var­si­ty Lead­er­ship Foun­da­tion is set to con­tin­ue the tra­di­tion of the Blue and White through­out Canada’s future.”

The first doc­u­ment­ed foot­ball game involv­ing stu­dents at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to was played on Novem­ber 9, 1861, when a group of stu­dents orga­nized a pick-up game in Queen’s Park on the site of what is now the Ontario Leg­isla­tive Build­ing.

Two of the play­ers in that game were William Mulock, lat­er a mem­ber of Sir Wil­frid Laurier’s cab­i­net and a long-time Chan­cel­lor of the Uni­ver­si­ty, and James Loudon, who went on to serve as Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to pres­i­dent from 1892–1906.

This was the begin­ning of a 150-year tra­di­tion that has seen the estab­lish­ment of the Var­si­ty Blues foot­ball team, the con­struc­tion of Var­si­ty Sta­di­um and the dis­tin­guished con­tri­bu­tions of Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to foot­ball alum­ni to all areas of Cana­di­an life.

Among well-known Var­si­ty Blues alum­ni are Prime Min­is­ter Lester B. Pear­son, Ontario Pre­mier William Davis, Roy McMurtry, Jus­tice John Sopin­ka, Sen­a­tor Trevor Eyton, Dr. Smir­le Law­son, Dr. Fras­er Mus­tard, Dr. John Evans, Rev. Bob Rum­ball and Conn Smythe.

“This is an excit­ing time for Var­si­ty Blues foot­ball,” said Dean Ira Jacobs. “We are very proud to cel­e­brate the rich tra­di­tion of foot­ball at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to and we are grate­ful to the Friends of Var­si­ty Blues Foot­ball for their ini­tia­tive, fore­sight and phil­an­thropy in sup­port­ing future gen­er­a­tions of out­stand­ing stu­dent ath­letes.”

About The Friends of Var­si­ty Blues Foot­ball

Found­ed in 1993, the Friends of Var­si­ty Blues Foot­ball is a vol­un­teer-based group of corporate/business exec­u­tives, alum­ni, coach­es, fac­ul­ty, par­ents and friends of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Var­si­ty Blues. Its mis­sion is to sup­port a sus­tain­able and com­pet­i­tive Var­si­ty Blues Foot­ball Pro­gram by pro­mot­ing stu­dent ath­let­ic and aca­d­e­m­ic excel­lence, lead­er­ship and com­mu­ni­ty respon­si­bil­i­ty.

At one time, many of the Friends of Var­si­ty Blues Foot­ball enjoyed the priv­i­lege of wear­ing the Blue and White, and each has expe­ri­enced first-hand the rewards acquired both in the lec­ture halls and on the field enabling them to suc­ceed in their cho­sen careers.

The Friends of Var­si­ty Blues Foot­ball has launched the web­site www.friendsoffootball.ca, which includes spon­sor­ship options for the Var­si­ty Lead­er­ship Foun­da­tion Din­ner.

About The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to and the Fac­ul­ty of Phys­i­cal Edu­ca­tion and Health

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to has three cam­pus­es and is one of the world’s great­est pub­lic research uni­ver­si­ties, com­mit­ted to offer­ing its stu­dents out­stand­ing aca­d­e­m­ic and non-aca­d­e­m­ic oppor­tu­ni­ties.

The Fac­ul­ty of Phys­i­cal Edu­ca­tion and Health offers under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate degree pro­grams while pro­vid­ing recre­ation, instruc­tion, intra­mur­al and inter­col­le­giate pro­grams for U of T stu­dents.

The Fac­ul­ty also aims to build Ontario’s capac­i­ty for high per­for­mance sport through its plans for the Goldring Cen­tre for High Per­for­mance Sport, an inte­grat­ed research, teach­ing, train­ing and com­pe­ti­tion cen­tre of excel­lence adja­cent to Var­si­ty Cen­tre at Bloor St. and Devon­shire Place.

For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.physical.utoronto.ca.

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FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:

George Kar­rys
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions, Var­si­ty Lead­er­ship Foun­da­tion Din­ner
416.605.2515
george@wendykane.com ‑OR- george@isportonline.com
friendsoffootball.ca