CIS Announces Telus 50th Vanier Cup Tour
100 days to go until historic championship game in Montreal
OTTAWA (CIS) – With exactly 100 days to go before kickoff, Canadian Interuniversity Sport announced Thursday the 50th 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.
"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 50th 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 14th Greenwood Air Base Day at Acadia University, in Wolfville.
NOTES: For all the information on the Tour and the 50th 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.
50TH 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 50th TELUS Vanier Cup (1 pm ET – Sportsnet & Radio-Canada)
About the 50th TELUS Vanier Cup
Canadian Interuniversity Sport will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the TELUS Vanier Cup throughout the 2014 season. For the first time in history, the championship game will be staged in Montreal - at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium - on Saturday, November 29, at 1 p.m. ET, live on Sportsnet and Radio-Canada.
Official TELUS Vanier Cup website (including ticket information) www.vaniercup.com
About Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Canadian Interuniversity Sport is the national governing body of university sport in Canada. Every year, over 11,500 student-athletes and 700 coaches from 56 universities and four regional associations vie for 21 national championships in 12 different sports. CIS also provides high performance international opportunities for Canadian student-athletes at Winter and Summer Universiades, as well as numerous world university championships. For further information, visit www.cis-sic.ca or follow us on:
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CIS_SIC
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cissports
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/universitysport
-CIS-
For more information:
Michel Bélanger
Manager, Communications & Media Relations
Canadian Interuniversity Sport
Off: (613) 562-5670 ext. 25
Cell: (613) 447-6334