Queen's Golden Gaels

The Queen's Gaels (also: Queen's Golden Gaels) are the athletic teams that represent Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Team colours are blue, red, and gold. Its main home is Richardson Memorial Stadium on West Campus.

Their rallying cry is the "Oil Thigh", a fight song sung in Gaelic by spectators when the home team scores a point, goal, touchdown, etc. Originally written in 1898 after a disappointing loss to the University of Toronto, the name comes from the phrase sung repeatedly in the main chorus: "Oilthigh na Banrighinn, a' Banrighinn gu brath", or "College of the Queen forever" in Gaelic. The song has the tune of the Battle Hymn of the Republic; its English verses about the rivals of Queen's College alternate with the Gaelic chorus.

Queen's teams have had a variety of successes on the national and international stages over the university's history. The Gaels football program is one of the oldest and most successful in Canada, boasting a total of three straight Grey Cup victories in the early twentieth century (1922, 1923, and 1924) and four Vanier Cup victories as the top team in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (1968, 1978, 1992, and 2009).

In the last two seasons alone, the Gaels have captured 11 provincial and national championships, including the 2009 Vanier Cup championship, the 2010-11 CIS Men's Curling Championship and the 2011 CIS Women's Soccer Championship.

Name

The "Golden Gaels" name was coined in 1947 by Kingston Whig-Standard sports reporter Cliff Bowering, after the football team traded its traditional uniform of red, gold, and blue bands for gold jerseys, gold helmets, and red pants. The name caught on and became the familiar term for Queen's teams by the 1950s. "Gaels" is a reference to Queen's Scottish heritage (Queen's University was established in 1841 by the Presbyterian church). Before 1947, Queen's teams were commonly known as "The Tricolour."

In September 2008, Queen's Athletics & Recreation Department began referring to the school's teams as "Queen's Gaels." Along with this change, the website was changed from goldengaels.com to gogaelsgo.com. The change was reportedly made to highlight the university's name in promoting the team, however some have criticised the move as "change for the sake of change."^[1] Under media scrutiny, the department claimed it had not in fact officially changed the name of the team;^[1] thus, major media sources like the Kingston Whig-Standard and CKWS-TV continue to refer to the team as the "Golden Gaels".

Baseball

Queen's University Varsity Baseball Team started competing in the Ontario University Athletics circuit as of 2010.

Around the locker room it is well known that well played baseball game is like a masterpiece painting. Every pitch, swing, and catch is like a stroke of the masters brush. When the game is completed, every stroke has contributed to the larger picture.

Painted on the walls of the Varsity locker room is the word "Success" followed by the phrase "the harder you work, the luckier you get."

Basketball

Queen's hosted McGill University at the Kingston YMCA on February 6, 1904, in the first-ever Canadian interuniversity basketball game. McGill won 9-7 in overtime, after a ten-minute overtime period to break a 7-7 tie.^[2]

Curling

Men's

The men's curling team, in 2010, earned the gold medal at the CIS national championship in Edmonton, Alberta. The team led by First Team All-Canadian Jonathan Beuk went 5-1 in Round Robin play before beating the Manitoba Bisons in the semi-final and the UPEI Panthers in the Championship. The Gaels qualified for the 2011 World University Games in Erzurum, Turkey where they represented Canada. The team finished fifth after losing a tie-breaker match to the Czech Republic.^[3]

Jon has since returned to the team for the 2011-12 season to coach the men's team.

Football

The Queen's Gaels football program is one of the longest-lived and storied in the entire Canadian Interuniversity Sport. The team began organized play in 1883 when the Ontario Rugby Football Union was first founded and won ORFU champions in 1893 and 1894. Queen's has competed continuously since 1882, celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2007. The first organized university football league in Canada, the Canadian Intercollegiate Rugby Football Union (CIRFU), was founded in Kingston in November, 1897, with charter members Queen's, McGill University, and the University of Toronto.^[4], the football squad showed continued success, winning three straight Grey Cups in 1922, 1923 and 1924. Once teams stopped competing for the Grey Cup, which was began being solely awarded to Canadian Football League teams in 1955, the Gaels turned their attention to the Vanier Cup, appearing in the CIS championship game five times and winning four of those games in 1968, 1978, 1992 and 2009.

The team is recently coming off of their Vanier Cup win in 2009, but due to quarterback Danny Brannagan's graduation (and subsequent signing by the Toronto Argonauts) and other key players leaving, the team endured a difficult 3-5 season. The team just barely made the playoffs in 2010, but had a strong 2011 when the team finished 6-2 and in third place.

OUA Regular Season Results

Playoff Results

• 2001 Defeated Laurier Golden Hawks in quarter-final 29-27
  Lost to Ottawa Gee-Gees in semi-final 47-12
• 2002 Defeated Waterloo Warriors in quarter-final 51-14
  Defeated Western Mustangs in semi-final 55-20
  Lost to McMaster Marauders in Yates Cup final 33-17
• 2003 Defeated York Lions in quarter-final 27-6
  Lost to Laurier Golden Hawks in semi-final 36-33
• 2004 Out of Playoffs
• 2005 Out of Playoffs
• 2006 Defeated McMaster Marauders in quarter-final 25-19
  Lost to Ottawa Gee-Gees in semi-final 23-10
• 2007 Lost to Western Mustangs in quarter-final 27-19
• 2008 Lost to Ottawa Gee-Gees in semi-final 23-13
• 2009 Defeated McMaster Marauders in semi-final 32-6
  Defeated Western Mustangs in Yates Cup final 43-39
  Defeated Laval Rouge-et-Or in Mitchell Bowl CIS semi-final 33-30
  Defeated Calgary Dinos in Vanier Cup 33-31
• 2010 Lost to McMaster Marauders in quarter-final 40-19
• 2011 Defeated Laurier Golden Hawks in quarter-final 14-10
  Lost to McMaster Marauders in semi-final 40-13

Queen's Gaels in the CFL

As of the end of the 2011 CFL season, eight former Gaels players are on CFL teams' rosters:

• Rob Bagg, Saskatchewan Roughriders
• Bryan Crawford, Toronto Argonauts
• Michael Giffin, Montreal Alouettes
• Matt Kirk, Hamilton Tiger-Cats
• Kevin Scott, Hamilton Tiger-Cats
• Chris Smith, Toronto Argonauts
• Dee Sterling, Edmonton Eskimos
• Shomari Williams, Saskatchewan Roughriders

Ice hockey

Men

In 1886, Queen's challenged the Royal Military College of Canada to a game played on the frozen Kingston harbour; the two schools play annually for the Carr-Harris Cup, to continue the world's oldest hockey rivalry. Queen's hockey is one of the oldest hockey clubs in the world; only McGill University's team, started in 1875, is older among Canadian university teams. Queen's played its first season in 1883-84, with the first game for which records exist played against a team from Petawawa.^[5]

In the 1890s, Queen's played in the Ontario Hockey Association, winning its championship three times consecutively, taking the Cosby Cup into its permanent possession. As Ontario champion, the Queen's hockey team was a regular in Stanley Cup Challenge Games by challenging in 1895,^[6] 1899 and 1906.

Queen's donated the Queen's Cup for annual Ontario University Athletics competition in 1898. In 1909, Queen's won the Intercollegiate league and then won the Allan Cup national championship by defeating the Ottawa Cliffsides in a challenge.

In 1926, Queen's was the Eastern Canadian Champions, but lost the Memorial Cup series to the Calgary Canadians for the national championship.

The varsity teams play at the Kingston Memorial Centre following the demolition of the Jock Harty Arena, while the new arena (part of the Queen's Centre project) is being constructed.

Regular Season Results

Playoff Results

• 1999-2000 Defeated Toronto Varsity Blues in first round, 2 games to 1.
  Defeated Guelph Gryphons in quarter-final, 2 games to 0.
  Lost to UQTR in OUA Final Four, semi-final, 3-2.
• 2000-2001 Lost to RMC Paladins in first round 2 games to 0
• 2001-2002 Out of Playoffs
• 2002-2003 Defeated RMC Paladins in first round 2 games to 0
  Lost to Toronto Varsity Blues in quarter-final 2 games to 1
• 2003-2004 Defeated RMC Paladins in first round 2 games to 0
  Lost to Toronto Varsity Blues in quarter-final 2 games to 0
• 2004-2005 Out of Playoffs
• 2005-2006 Out of Playoffs
• 2006-2007 Lost to Ottawa Gee-Gees in quarter-final 2 games to 0
• 2007-2008 Gained first round bye
  Lost to McGill Redmen in semi-final 2 games to 0
• 2008-2009 Did Not Qualify for Playoffs
• 2009-2010 Lost to Carleton in OUA First Round 2 games to 1
• 2010-2011 Lost to Nipissing in OUA First Round 2 games to 0

Women

The first traces of women's hockey in Canada date back to the 1890s when it is played at the university level. The University of Toronto and Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario were two of the first Canadian universities to field women’s hockey teams.

Elizabeth Graham would play hockey for Queen's University and is credited as being the first goaltender ever to wear a mask for protection. She used the mask in 1927, and the use of the mask was in the Montreal Daily Star. She actually wore a fencing mask and the speculation is that she had used the mask as a means of protecting dental work that was recently performed.^[7]

During the 1960’s, Cookie Cartwright and a group of dedicated students revived the women’s ice hockey program at Queen's University. Cartwright and the Golden Gaels would go on to capture the first women's university championship. ^[8]

After 32 long years, the Queen's women's hockey team captured their first OUA Championship in 2010-11. The team won all five of their playoff games in overtime, knocking off nationally-ranked opponents Windsor in the Quarter-final, Wilfrid Laurier in the Semifinal and Guelph in the Final. Game 1 of the OUA Championship series was historic in its own right for the Gaels as the team won the longest collegiate hockey game in history, a six-overtime marathon. The game finally game to an end after 107 minutes and 14 seconds of overtime when Morgan McHaffie banged home a rebound past Guelph goaltender Danielle Skoufranis. Queen's goaltender Mel Dodd-Moher made 66 saves for the win.^[9]

The team moved on to their first CIS Championship following the OUA playoffs where the Gaels defeated the defending champion Alberta Pandas and the host Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks to win the bronze medal.^[10]

On March 3, 2011, a postseason match between the Queen's Golden Gaels and the Guelph Gryphons became the longest collegiate hockey game, male or female, Canadian or American — on record. The match began on Wednesday and it only ended on Thursday. The duration of the match was 167 minutes and 14 seconds when Queen's forward Morgan McHaffie placed a rebound past Gryphons goalie Danielle Skoufranis.^[11]

Soccer

Women's

The women's soccer team captured gold at the CIS national championship in 2010. They beat rival Wilfrid Laurier 1-0 in the CIS final revenging its loss in the OUA final one-week earlier. Striker Jacqueline Tessier led the CIS in scoring during the regular season, tallying 18 goals in 16 games.^[12]

In 2006, earned silver medals in the CIS national championships, thanks largely to star striker Eilish McConville.^[13] McConville led all CIS players with 22 goals during the regular season, and was named the CIS Player of the year as a result.^[14]

Track & Field

Track and field has been reported as the first sport at Queen's University. It began in 1873, as competitions held annually to celebrate the Universities inauguration on October 16 included traditional Scottish competitions such as the caber toss.^[15] These competitions remained major university events into the early 20th century.^[15]

When the CIAU (now CIS) began the Queen’s University Track and Field team was one of the only teams to participate in all three athletics sports – indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, and cross-country.

In 1963 Rolf Lund was named head coach of the team, marking a turning point in the team’s history. Through the late 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the Queen’s track and field team saw many successful individuals. Some notable athletes include Olympian Sheridon Baptiste; Olympian Anne Marie Malone;^[16] Olympian Victor Gooding, current school 1500m record holder Bob McCormack; and current head coach and multiple CIS champion Melody Torcalacci.

See also

• Canadian Interuniversity Sport

References

1. ^ ^{a b} http://www.queensjournal.ca/story/2008-09-05/sports/the-names-gaels-queens-gaels/
2. ^ Queen's Journal, vol. 31, no. 7, Feb. 16, 1904; 105 years of Canadian university basketball, by Earl Zukerman, http://www.cisport.ca/e/m_basketball/story_detail.cfm?id=13618
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ http://www.cisport.ca, History of Canadian University Football section.
5. ^ Queen's Journal, March 3, 1884.
6. ^ Legends of Hockey [Accessed 30 April 2007]
7. ^ "Notable women hockey players". National Hockey League. Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum. 2010. http://www.hhof.com/html/wmspla03.shtml. Retrieved April 18, 2010. 
8. ^ http://www.cbc.ca/hockeyhistory/episodesummary/06/post/
9. ^ [2]
10. ^ [3]
11. ^ http://www.thestar.com/sports/hockey/article/948578--gaels-griffins-women-set-hockey-record
12. ^ [4]
13. ^ A summary of the team's performance leading up to the championship match can be found here.
14. ^ The CIS press release announcing McConville's award can be found here. A story in the Queen's Journal on the championship match can be found here.
15. ^ ^{a b} "Queen's Encyclopedia". http://qnc.queensu.ca/Encyclopedia/a.html#Athletics. 
16. ^ "Queen's Track and Field". http://queenstrack.com/alumni/hall_of_fame/ann-marie-malone. 

External links

• Queen's Gaels
• Explanation of the Term at the Queen's Website
• Gaels Hockey Website