Queen's Golden Gaels
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The 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.
The 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," of course, 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."
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: "Oil thigh 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 Golden 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 three Vanier Cup victories as the top team in Canadian Interuniversity Sport (1968, 1978, and 1992). However, many of the Gaels' teams in less popular sports have had more success recently than the football program. An example is the women's soccer team, which, in 2006, earned silver medals in the CIS national championships, thanks largely to star striker Eilish McConville.[1] McConville led all CIS players with 22 goals during the regular season, and was named the CIS Player of the year as a result. [2] The success of the soccer program and other teams in less well-known sports demonstrate the university's commitment to its stated goal of "sport for all," also reflected in how it continues to field more men's and women's teams at the Varsity level than any other university in Canada.
Contents |
[edit] Current Football Roster
Players' years of enrolment are noted in italics
[edit] Offence
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Quarterbacks
Runningbacks
Inside Receivers
Wide Receivers
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[edit] References
- ^ A summary of the team's performance leading up to the championship match can be found here.
- ^ 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.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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