It truly was a god-awful sight to behold when students would
walk past Varsity Stadium’s deteriorating façade.
Thankfully, it received a facelift, a la Joan Rivers, and is now named
the Varsity Centre – a year-round sports venue – in hopes
that the Blues will actually win a game.
According to historical records, dug up in a
dusty office far from the eyes of students, the original stadium was
host to 30 Grey Cups. That is a historical football fact; not a lot of students realize
that U of T actually has a football team, let alone a football stadium
for that matter.
With the Varsity Blues experiencing so many
lopsided losses to the rest of the Canadian Interuniversity Athletics
Union’s (CIAU) football teams – losing 70-1 to Western at
the beginning of the 2005-06 season – student apathy in the
historical Varsity Blues is at an oblivious high.
I spent five years at the University of
Toronto, and what was common when speaking about the university’s
pigskin anti-heroes was by how much they could lose by – a fact
that has not changed as of recent either.
The only monumental victory the Varsity Blues
have had as of late was off the field in a court case against Paramount
Pictures, suing the film company for defamation of character after the
release of the Cinderella-inspired high school film Varsity Blues. But, there is
hope on the horizon with the recent revamping of the home field. Will
the Varsity Blues who have played their home games at Birchmount Stadium start winning like they did back
in 1993 when they were – believe it or not – Vanier Cup
winners? It is quite possible, since the National Football
League’s own New Orleans Saints experienced homelessness in 2005,
due to Hurricane Katrina’s growth spurt in the Gulf of Mexico.
Being without the Louisiana Superdome left
the team with a 3-13 record—still better than anything the
perpetually homeless Blues could muster. The Saints have the
distinction of making it to the NFC Finals against Lovie
Smith and his Chicago Bears. Let’s hope the same can happen for
the Varsity Blues who have a new lease on life, as U of T spent $61.7
million for the entire Varsity Centre, which begs the question, was the
project spurred on by the Royal Ontario Museum’s own facelift?
The entire Bloor Street block from Spadina to Queen’s Park Circle has been bustling with
construction and renovation projects. The street is already miring for
drivers who plan to visit the stores located in the fashionable
Yorkville area.
Since my departure in 2003, the University of Toronto has quickly disassembled
the last vestiges of Victorian period education in favour
of boxy modern architecture. The Bahen
Centre, Terrance Donnelly Centre, Leslie L. Dan Pharmacy Centre,
expansion of the Joseph L. Rotman School of
Management, Morrison Pavilion, the handful of Sid Smith projects,
School of Continuing Studies redesign, New College new residence,
Morrison Hall, Woodsworth residence and
finally the Kings College Precinct have all come in the past decade
changing the face of the campus.
The University of Toronto is building, but
none of the projects will have as much of a moral impact on the St.
George campus as the Varsity Centre, because one can only hope that the
Varsity Blues actually win a game in their new home. I wish Coach Steve
Howlett all the best on that endeavor.
