Helmets of Discontinued Canadian College Teams

Below is a list sent to me several years ago by a visitor to this website (thanks Bob W.) of Canadian colleges and universities which had an intercollegiate football team at one time but eventually discontinued it; the year listed for each school is reported to be the last in which football was played at the college. I would greatly appreciate information (especially color photographs) about historical helmet designs used by any of these teams during the years from 1960 onward.


UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF CAPE BRETON

Cape Breton had a team for one season only (1990). The very few photographs of the football team which have been found all appear to show the team using white helmets with no logos or stripes, and with facemasks of some darker color (probably either green or orange, if the school colors have not changed since 1990).


DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY

c.1970s

The Dalhousie (Halifax, NS) "Tigers" last played in 1976 and apparently used plain gold helmets through at least the period 1970-1974.


LAURENTIAN UNIVERSITY

A single photograph has been found (in the Wilfrid Laurier University digital archives) showing this team using helmets unadorned but for stripes in 1968 (photograph below). The helmet shell is probably yellow and the middle stripe blue (if the school colors have not changed since then). The team last played in 1971 and was called the "Voyageurs".


LOYOLA COLLEGE

c.1968

Loyola College (Montreal, QC) had an intercollegiate football team from at least 1961 to 1974, when the school merged with Sir George Williams University to form Concordia University. The helmet design shown above was used by the team in at least 1968; "Warriors" was the team nickname and the school colors were apparently garnet and gold at this time.


UNIVERSITY OF PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

c.1970s

UPEI had a football team (called the "Panthers") until 1979. Very little information has been located for this team other than a couple of photographs showing plain green helmets in use during the 1970s.

UPEI was formed by the merger of Prince Edward College and Saint Dunstan's University in 1969; Saint Dunstan's had a football team (named the "Saints") prior to the merger, but I do not know if Prince Edward College also had one.


ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE

This team existed until some point in the 1970s; the list above indicated 1971 or 1972, but I have seen other references that suggest the team existed until at least 1976 (strangely there seems to exist no list of conference standings for Canadian colleges for pre-21st century years anywhere on the internet). Only a few photographs have been found, most of which show an oval-shaped dark logo containing the letters "RMC" worn on what are probably white helmets. The oval-shape is probably red, assuming the school colors have not changed. "Redmen" was the team nickname during the years when the football team existed. Below is the clearest photograph that has been located.


SAINT PATRICK'S COLLEGE

Several yearbooks published by this college have been digitized and published on the internet, providing some information about helmet designs used by the football team, which apparently last played in 1966. Photographs published in the early 1960s seem to show the team using unadorned dark-colored helmets, with an apparent switch to what are probably gold helmets (silver also being a possibility) by the mid-1960s, again without any logo, stripes, or other adornment. No color photographs were found, unfortunately, but the team colors may have been green and gold. "Gaels" was apparently the team nickname.

Saint Patrick's began to merge with Carleton College in 1967, and the football team mentioned in the 1968 and later yearbooks is apparently that of Carleton (the helmets look black and the team is referred to as the "Ravens").


SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

c.1970s c.1980s - 1990s 2001? - 2014?
2015 (some games) 2015 - 2017 2018
*see note 1 below *see note 1 below
2019; 2021 2022 -

Simon Fraser University announced the discontinuation of its football team in March 2022. The team had existed since 1965 and had competed against American teams rather than Canadian ones for most of its history. SFU participated in the NAIA from 1965 through 2001 before switching to Canada Interuniversity Sport in 2002. In 2010 SFU returned to playing American teams as a member of NCAA Division II and the Great Northwest Athletic Conference. The football team's final season was spent as an affiliate member of the Lone Star Conference.

The helmet designs depicted above for this team are probably complete from 2000 to 2022, but other 'unknown' ones may exist for the earlier years.

SFU's team nickname was "Clan" until August 2020; a new nickname "Red Leafs" was announced in September 2022.

*1 Both these designs have the c.2001-2014 "SFU" logo on the right side of the helmet.


SIR GEORGE WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY

1967 - 1968 1969 1970
1971 1972

This university in Montreal had a football team for just six years (1967 through 1972); the school merged with Loyola College in 1974 to form Concordia University. The Sir George Williams team was nicknamed the "Georgians" and partial information has been found for other designs used by the team:


UQTR (Universitè du Quèbec à Trois-Rivières)

c.late 1970s

UQTR (Trois-Riviàres, Quebec) used this design at an unknown time, probably during the late 1970s; the team last played in (I think) 1979. The team nickname was "Patriotes". A return of the program in 2017 was announced but later cancelled.