Vanier Cup celebrates 50 years with visit to Acadia

OTTAWA (CIS) – With exactly 100 days to go before kickoff, Canadian Interuniversity Sport announced Thursday the 50^th TELUS Vanier Cup Tour, which will result in the historic trophy making 15 stops on campuses across the country, culminating three months from now with the milestone CIS football championship game in Montreal.

Named after Georges Vanier, the former Governor General of Canada, the trophy was first awarded in 1965 to the winner of an invitational event contested between two teams that were selected by a panel. In 1967, the trophy was declared the official "CIAU (now CIS) National Football Championship" and a playoff system was instituted. From its creation until 1982, it was known as the Canadian College Bowl.

The national final is scheduled for Saturday, November 29 at 1 p.m. Eastern at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium on the campus of McGill University, which also serves as the home of the CFL's Montreal Alouettes, co-organizers of this year's TELUS Vanier Cup. It will mark the first-ever staging of the event in the Quebec metropolis.

"The Vanier Cup is one of the most prestigious and historic trophies in Canadian sport," said Pierre Lafontaine, chief executive officer of CIS. "This is an outstanding opportunity for us to promote one of our marquee events at the national level. We're especially excited at the thought of sharing the Cup and all its history with our fans everywhere in Canada."

The 50^th TELUS Vanier Cup Tour gets under way with a bang on Sept. 6 with an afternoon-evening doubleheader in Montreal and Quebec City. The trophy will first stop at Concordia University for a 1 p.m. kickoff (vs. Bishop's) before making its way to the provincial capital, where the reigning two-time CIS champion Laval Rouge et Or will open their title defence against their archrivals, the Montreal Carabins, at 7 p.m.     

The Tour will then continue for eight more weekends of regular season action, including stops in Wolfville, N.S., Ottawa, Calgary, Saskatoon, London, Montreal and Sherbrooke, before it wraps up in November with a pair of RSEQ conference playoff games (semifinal & Dunsmore Cup final), the Uteck Bowl national semifinal that will see the Canada West champions visit the RSEQ champs, and finally the TELUS Vanier Cup at Molson Stadium.

At each stage, fans will get a chance to have their photo taken with the Vanier Cup, interact with key figures of previous Cups and enter a variety of contests.    

The Tour schedule currently includes 11 televised games on Radio-Canada, Sportsnet, Shaw and Rogers, with more TV broadcasts to be confirmed shortly. All contests will be streamed live on the web.

Associated special events include the annual Panda Game between Ottawa and Carleton at the brand new TD Place at Lansdowne in the nation's capital, the Dinos Hall of Fame Weekend in Calgary, the Huskies Blackout in Saskatoon, as well as 14^th Greenwood Air Base Day at Acadia University, in Wolfville.

NOTES: For all the information on the Tour and the 50^th TELUS Vanier Cup, visit www.vaniercup.com... The CIS football season kicks off on Labour Day with five OUA contests. The three other conferences begin league play the following weekend.   

50^TH TELUS VANIER CUP TOUR SCHEDULE (local game times - TV info)

Sept. 6             Bishop's at Concordia  (1 pm ET – Radio-Canada)

Sept. 6             Montreal at Laval (7 pm ET)

Sept. 13           Saint Mary's at Acadia (2 pm AT - TBC)

Sept. 20           Ottawa at Carleton  (1 pm ET – Rogers Ottawa)

Sept. 26           Manitoba at Calgary  (6 pm MT – Shaw)

Oct. 4               UBC at Saskatchewan  (7pm CT – Shaw)

Oct. 9               Laurier at Western  (7 pm ET – TBC)

Oct. 18             Sherbrooke at McGill  (1 pm ET – Radio-Canada)

Oct. 25             Montreal at Bishop's  (1 pm ET – Radio-Canada)

Oct. 25             Concordia at Sherbrooke  (4 pm ET)

Nov. 1             Laval at Montreal  (1 pm ET – Radio-Canada)

Nov. 8             RSEQ semifinal (TBD – Radio-Canada)

Nov. 15           RSEQ Dunsmore Cup final (1 pm ET – Radio-Canada)

Nov. 22           Uteck Bowl (CW at RSEQ) (12:30 pm ET – Sportsnet & Radio-Canada)

Nov. 29           50^th TELUS Vanier Cup  (1 pm ET – Sportsnet & Radio-Canada)