Want to know the history of our iconic sports team name? Buckle in and keep reading
Mizuki Kinoshita (She/Her) // Contributor
Lily Jones (She/Her) // Illustrator
Six teams—including men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s soccer as well as men’s and women’s volleyball—are proud to call themselves “The Capilano University Blues.”
Now why are our teams called “The Blues”? The story of our name goes back to the time Capilano University (CapU) was founded. Back when it was called Capilano College, Hilary Clark, who had just been hired to teach at Capilano College, met with then-Director of Athletics, Joe Iacobellis. The two brainstormed names and colours for the newly developed athletic teams.
In honour of Delbrook High School in North Vancouver, which had burned down in a horrific fire in 1977, Clark suggested using their school colours as Capilano College’s new branding. The school, which was only a 20-minute drive away, burned down suddenly and left students without a building for the rest of the year. To pay tribute to what was lost and let the legacy of the school life live on even though the physical buildings were destroyed, royal blue and turquoise became Capilano College’s new colours. The road from there to naming the teams “The Blues” was an obvious one.
Now, is the name “Blues” special in any kind of way except for its origin story? Most Canadian universities have athletic teams, and they all share one thing: pride over their names. Some universities use animals as their team names while others, like CapU, use colours.
One local example of using animals as a team name is the University of British Columbia (UBC). The name of UBC’s athletic sports team is “The UBC Thunderbirds” and their name holds special meaning. After choosing it, it was officially given to them by the Kwakwaka’ wakw people of BC’s West Coast. To date, they are the only institution allowed to use the Thunderbird as their branding.
Simon Fraser University (SFU)’s athletic teams have been rebranded as the “SFU Red Leafs” after a community-wide discussion in 2020. The new name reflects their Canadian identity and unites its community under a symbol of pride as Canada’s only NCAA team. The rebranding process involved feedback from diverse groups, including Indigenous representatives, ensuring a name that embodies SFU’s values and legacy.
These names represent so much more than just the sport and the team. They stand for what makes a school special to students in all their diverse forms, whether that be a homage to students who lost everything in a fire or adopting a name with Indigenous blessings, by finding a name and making it a brand these schools managed to unite their school spirits in something that can be chanted and used to empower student-athletes as well as fans. These names are an identity, used on hoodies, hats and more, which can be carried into the future by anyone who decides to identify with it.