Football
| Toronto Varsity Blues | |
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| First season | 1877 |
| Athletic director | Liz Hoffman |
| Head coach | Greg Gary |
| 2nd year, 5–11 (.313) | |
| Other staff | Tom Flaxman (OC) Donnavan Carter (DC) |
| Home stadium | Varsity Stadium |
| Year built | 2007 |
| Stadium capacity | 5000 |
| Stadium surface | Polytan Ligaturf |
| Location | Toronto, Ontario |
| League | CIS |
| Conference | OUA (1980-present) |
| Past associations | ORFU (1883-1897) CIRFU (1898-1970) OUAA (1971-1973) OQIFC (1974-1979) |
| All-time record | 524–421–35 (.553) |
| Postseason record | 24–27 |
| Grey Cups | 4 1909, 1910, 1911, 1920 |
| Vanier Cups | 2 1965, 1993 |
| Churchill Bowl Championships | 1 1993 |
| Atlantic Bowl Championships | 2 1962, 1974 |
| Yates Cups | 25 1898, 1899, 1901, 1903, 1905, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1914, 1920, 1921, 1926, 1932, 1933, 1936, 1948, 1951, 1954, 1958, 1965, 1967, 1974, 1983, 1993 |
| Hec Crighton winners | 4 Mike Eben, Mike Raham, Dan Feraday, Eugene Buccigrossi |
| Current uniform | |
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| Colours | Blue and White
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| Mascot | True Blue |
| Outfitter | Russell |
| Rivals | York Lions |
| Website | varsityblues.ca |
The Toronto Varsity Blues football team won the first Grey Cup game ever held in 1909, and went on to win the cup again in 1910, 1911, and 1920. After intercollegiate teams no longer competed for the Grey Cup, the team won the first Vanier Cup ever held in 1965, and then again in 1993 as Canadian national football champions. The team has 25 Yates Cup championship wins as champions of the Ontario University Athletics conference of the CIS, a total second only to the 29 won by the Western Ontario Mustangs.
However, hard times have fallen on the University of Toronto football team in recent years. The football program had not won a game since the 2001 season (a win that itself ended an 18-game losing streak). On October 13, 2007, they set the record for the longest losing streak in Canadian university history, at 49 losses in a row. This losing streak was snapped on September 1, 2008 when they defeated the Waterloo Warriors 18-17 for their first win in almost seven years. The team last posted a winning record in 1995.
The team is seeing a minor turnaround as the Blues have won three games in two consecutive seasons. The team was led by head coach Greg DeLaval who won his first game with the Blues when the team ended their record-setting losing streak in 2008. In 2010, the Blues posted a remarkable 40-35 win over the second-ranked Ottawa Gee-Gees, which was their first win over a nationally ranked opponent since 1997 against the Waterloo Warriors. The Blues finished with a 3-5 record in 2010, which was their best since the 1996 season when they posted the same mark. The Blues posted a 3-5 record again in 2011, while once again finishing just out of the playoffs in seventh place. The team took a step back with a 2-6 record in 2012, including home losses to fellow 2-6 teams York and Ottawa.
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Famous quotes containing the word football:
“You can’t be a Real Country unless you have A BEER and an airline—it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a BEER.”
—Frank Zappa (1940–1993)
“In this dream that dogs me I am part
Of a silent crowd walking under a wall,
Leaving a football match, perhaps, or a pit,
All moving the same way.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“People stress the violence. That’s the smallest part of it. Football is brutal only from a distance. In the middle of it there’s a calm, a tranquility. The players accept pain. There’s a sense of order even at the end of a running play with bodies stewn everywhere. When the systems interlock, there’s a satisfaction to the game that can’t be duplicated. There’s a harmony.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)