About University of British Columbia Thunderbirds Football
The story goes that the Thunderbirds were very nearly the Seagulls. In 1933, the students of the University of British Columbia decided it was time to give their sports teams a nickname. They put the matter to a vote, and "Seagulls," a write-in candidate, prevailed.
Perhaps worried that a gawky, food-thieving aquatic bird would fail to evoke a sense of fearsome awe in the school's opponents, student leaders abandoned the results of the vote and turned to Native American mythology instead. Thus were born the Thunderbirds, the name symbolizing the "power and fighting spirit" of UBC's athletes, as the university puts it. Fifteen years later, the nickname received the formal blessing of the area's indigenous people, the Kwicksutaineuk.
The football team has done all it can to live up to its high-flown nickname. The Thunderbirds have won 16 Hardy Cups, given annually to the best team in the Canada West Universities Athletic Association Football Conference. They've also won four national championships, most recently in 2015.
Fighting spirit? Look no further than the underdog 2015 team, which needed a late interception and a field goal with no time left to beat the University of Montreal in the national title game, 26-23. Power? Try the 1982 bunch, which went 8-0 and outscored opponents by four touchdowns per game. In the postseason that year, the Thunderbirds routed St. Francis Xavier 54-1, getting four touchdowns and 276 rushing yards from their best player that year (and maybe ever), running back Glenn Steele. It was perhaps the closest thing to a perfect game the T-Birds have ever played.
UBC plays in the 3,500-seat Thunderbird Stadium, which sits west of Vancouver, British Columbia. The stadium was designed by architect Vladimir Plavsic, who fought the Nazis as a teenager in Yugoslavia, fled to Canada, and helped shape the look of 20th-century Vancouver.
