UofG Traditions

Homecoming Football

An event you shouldn’t miss when you are doing a semester abroad at the UofG is the Homecoming Football Game in the beginning of September. Not as if the game was very exciting by itself (in fact it was quite boring :-D), but the atmosphere is marvelous! Everyone was dressed in the Gryphon colours (black, red and yellow) and was cheering on the team with the Gryphon fan chants.

The problem about football is that they stop the time about ten thousand times throughout the game, so that the offense and the defense teams can leave or enter the field alternately. The game consists of four quarters (12 to 15 minutes) with a 2 minutes break between each quarter and a 15 to 20 minutes halftime-break. In fact the game lasts a lot longer due to the one million small breaks. On top of that we lost very badly (16 to 50) against the Western Mustangs.

The best part about the Homecoming game maybe was the Western Mustangs cheerleaders. They did an amazing job!

Ice Hockey

On October, 6th we went to the first seasonal Gryphon Ice Hockey game on campus. In fact, it isn’t necessary to say Ice Hockey here in Canada as they hardly know field hockey. So whenever someone talks about hockey, he/ she means ice hockey. This time the Gryphons won. :-)

Painting the Cannon

One of the oldest traditions of UofG students is the act of painting the cannon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Guelph#Painting_Old_Jeremiah).

“The Cannon” is an antique British naval gun called “Old Jeremiah”, that currently stands on Branion Plaza, along Winegard Walk, at the heart of the campus. Originally it was a sign of remembrance for those who fell during World War I. In 1950 a student first painted a message onto "Old Jeremiah" which started the tradition of “Painting the Cannon”. Nowadays the cannon is painted differently at least two to three times a week by clubs or even by private persons who wants to announce a wedding or other special events. When you want to do it, you have to guard the cannon first all day long so that no other group will hog it for the night and second all night long so that it won’t be repainted the same night. That is the reason why you can see tents next to the cannon nearly every day.

Quidditch Tournament

Yesterday, October, 22nd a Quidditch-Tournament was hosted by the UofG. That’s right! Quidditch! The most famous sport in Joanne K. Rowling’s magic world of Harry Potter. Guelph has two Quidditch teams, “Royal City Quidditch” and “UofG Gryphons”, which are officially registered with Quidditch Canada. Without the broomsticks it would look like a normal team sport. But with them it looks a bit hilarious (sorry guys!).

Quidditch – an overview:

3 “Chasers” per team wearing white headbands try to throw, kick or pass a ball called “Quaffle” through one of the three opposing team’s hoops to score ten points each.
1 “Keeper” per team wearing a green headband tries to prevent the opponents from making points.
2 “Beaters” per team wearing black headbands try to throw or kick balls called “Bludgers” onto the opponent players to “knock them out”. When knocked out, the players loose the “Quaffle” and have to do a knockout procedure, e. g. running back to their own hoops and touching them before being back in the game.
1 “Seeker” per team wearing a yellow headband tries to remove a red band from the trousers of a third party player called “Snitch” to earn 30 points and end the game. The “Snitch” enters the game after 18 minutes.