Ottawa Gee Gees

Name

The name is a result of a progressive evolution. Similar to many older institutions, their teams were long referred to by the school's colours as the Garnet and Grey (French: Grenat et Gris). Eventually, members of the media began to refer to the teams simply as the ‘GGs’, providing a nickname in both English and French for the bilingual school’s teams. The nickname stuck and would eventually be combined with a horse racing term (where a Gee-Gee is the first horse out of the starting gate) to create the current ‘Gee-Gees’ team name

Varsity teams

Ottawa Gee-Gees teams compete in:

Gee-Gees Men's basketball

The Gee-Gees men's basketball team has been strong for most of its existence but has recently become a perennial power and one of the best teams in the country.

2010-2012: New coach, fresh start

In July 2010, the University of Ottawa appointed James Derouin, an alumni and former player, as their new head coach after the departure of Coach Dave DeAveiro who left for McGill University. Derouin was an assistant coach for the UBC Thunderbirds for the previous two years and was captain of the Gee-Gees Men’s Basketball Team for both the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons. In his final year, he also played under former Gee-Gees head coach Dave DeAveiro.

The 11 win 2010-11 season was successful despite falling just short of an entrance to the Final 8, losing to the McMaster Marauders in the OUA Final 4.

The 2011-12 regular season would prove even more successful than the previous year. The Gee-Gees entered the OUA playoffs with a 13-9 record but unfortunately was ousted by rival Ryerson Rams by only 3 points in the semifinals. The Gee-Gees would have a playoff experienced mix of veteran and young players going into the 2012-2013 season, and would be looking to make some serious noise to build on their strong ’11-’12 campaign.

2012-2014: Joining the nation’s elite

The Gee-Gees would come into the 2012-13 season with the last chance to make a deep run with star Warren Ward and the rest of their graduating players.

Highly ranked nationally all season, the Gee-Gees posted a 15-5 regular season record and were dead-set on making an appearance in the CIS tournament. The team ended up going on to lose to bitter cross-city rivals Carleton Ravens by only 3 points in the OUA Wilson Cup final, still qualifying for the CIS Final 8 Tournament being held in Ottawa. The team would go on to lose to the Lakehead Thunderwolves in the national championship semifinals but defeated the Acadia Axemen to earn their first national medal in school history with a bronze.

The 2013-14 season has turned out to be one of the best in school history with the play of star senior Johnny Berhanemeskel and star transfer Terry Thomas the Gee-Gees were ranked at #2 in the nation almost all season and posted a school best 20-2 regular season record with their two losses coming against nation’s #1 Carleton. The Gee-Gees went into the OUA playoffs looking as the second seed and narrowly beat the Ryerson Rams to advance to the final four in Toronto. In the semifinals, Ottawa easily beat McMaster and advanced to the gold medal game against Carleton the following day. In the final, the Gee-Gees edged Carleton by a score of 78-77 to win their first Wilson Cup (basketball) in 21 years. The loss was Carleton's first against Canadian competition in 49 straight games. Sitting on seed 1 for the Final 8 in the W. P. McGee Trophy, the Gee-Gees advanced to the final game, beating the Saskatchewan Huskies and the Victoria Vikes. The second time this season, facing the cross-town rival in a final game, the Gee-Gees lost this time 79-67.

Men's basketball program alumni

Ali Mahmoud

Alex McLeod

Joshua Gibson-Bascombe

Warren Ward

Terry Thomas

Women's soccer

The Gee-Gees women's soccer team program was founded in 1994 by current head coach, Steven Johnson. The team went on to become national champions in 1996, in just their third season of play, after which Johnson was recognized as CIS coach of the year (an honour he would again receive in 2005). The team has also won CIS silver medals in 2005, 2003, 2000, 1997 and CIS bronze medals in 2001, and 2006. They went on to win the OUA gold in 2014, and CIS bronze following in 2014 along with receiving the Ottawa Sports Award. They won OUA bronze in 2015. Currently ranked no.2 in the CIS and no.1 in the OUA.

Men's hockey

The men's hockey program was formed in 1889. The team played in the Ottawa City Hockey League. The team was first known as "Garnet and Grey", as well as the other varsity athletic programs within the University of Ottawa. In the 1940s, all the varsity athletic programs became known as the "Gee Gees", which was nicknamed by the media. The Gee Gees had tremendous success in the 1980s. Despite, that the Gee Gees have yet to win the University Cup - U Sports championship for men's hockey. Ottawa's most memorable run took place in 2004, as the Gee Gees ousted rivals Universite de Québec à Trois-Rivières (otherwise known as UQTR Patriotes) 2-1 in the OUA playoffs, and then advanced to the Queen's Cup, hosted by the University of Western Ontario. The Gee Gees lost the OUA final to York, but they still earned a spot in the University Cup, held in Fredericton, New Brunswick, where power-house UNB (University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds) played host to the tournament. However, the Gee Gees failed to record a win and went home 0-2. Notably, it was the first time since 1985 that the Gee Gees played in the University Cup.

The Gee Gees are well known for their successful coaches like Mickey Goulet, who is the former head coach of the Italian National Men's Hockey Team, which participated in the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. Coaches like Michel Boucher, Tony Zappia, and Dave Leger.

The Gee Gees played in several rinks before the current Minto Sports Complex, which was built on the site of the Minto Arena, the former Minto Skating Club facility, which was demolished in 2000. Ottawa has held games at the Sandy Hill Arena and the Robert Guertin Arena in Hull. The first rink, was known as "College Yard", which was an outdoor rink in front of Tabaret Hall. The second venue for the Gee Gees was the indoor Rideau Skating Rink, which was flooded during winter for the ice surface. The site on the corner of Waller Street and Laurier Avenue is now the Arts building at the University of Ottawa.

2014-16 Suspension

On March 3, 2014, the University of Ottawa men's varsity hockey team was suspended from any activity due to "severe misconduct". In a press conference, the University stated that they alerted the police due to the severity of the allegations. It was later discovered that some of the players on the hockey team were allegedly involved in a gang sexual assault on the weekend of February 1 while in Thunder Bay playing Lake Head University.

University of Ottawa officials were made aware of the situation by a third party on February 24, 2014. University officials gave its information to Thunder Bay police, who confirmed they were in the initial stages of an investigation regarding a sexual assault. The University of Ottawa conducted its own review which called for the initial suspension while the investigation was ongoing. The University also contacted Ottawa police about the allegations, who in turn, cooperated with Thunder Bay police to complete the investigation.

During a press conference on March 3, 2014, the president of the university, Allan Rock stated that the university was going to announce the suspension of the hockey program on February 28, 2014, but the Thunder Bay Police asked them to delay.

Two former players ultimately faced charges related to the incident. In January 2015, Rock announced that uOttawa would sit out the 2015-16 season as well in order to give university officials more time to implement reforms. The team will return for the 2016–17 season.