Shrum Bowl

History

The first ever Shrum Bowl game was played on October 16, 1967 at Empire Stadium and it was also the first ever football game to be played between the two schools. The UBC Thunderbirds played in the Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (CIAU) while SFU played against American colleges until formally joining the American-based National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in 1969, meaning that Shrum Bowls were played as exhibition games. In the first five years it was played, SFU typically dominated the games, posting a 4-0-1 record and outscoring UBC 168-32. While all games were played on neutral ground at Empire stadium, home to the BC Lions, the games were played with American rules when UBC was used to playing Canadian rules. Because of the heavily skewed losses, declining fan interest, and the CWUAA's objections to SFU granting aid to student athletes, the games were temporarily discontinued.

The game was revived in 1978 after both schools issued a joint statement on October 27 of that year that the game would be played after the CIAU season with all proceeds going to the United Way of Canada and drew a record 14,600. Shrum Bowl VI was played at Empire Stadium and under Canadian rules for the first time, after UBC argued that since the game was to be played on Canadian soil, it should be played as such. With the Thunderbirds as national championship contenders and games being played under their rules, the Shrum Bowl became tilted in UBC's favour. UBC would win four of the next five games, including the 1982 game that was played following the program's first Vanier Cup victory. Despite the popularity of the games, which had 9000 fans witness the 1982 edition, the Shrum Bowl was again put on hiatus due to scheduling difficulties between the schools' respective leagues.

On January 13, 1987, history repeated itself as UBC and SFU jointly announced that the Shrum Bowl would be revived with a five-year commitment from the CIAU. The agreement would see UBC having a bye-week on the second weekend of September for five years, ensuring that scheduling the game could be easily accomplished year-to-year. The 11th Shrum Bowl would be played at a team's home stadium for the first time in the game's history, at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby and once again under American rules. In 1985, Dr. Gordon Shrum died during the game's second hiatus, but his son spoke at the January press conference stating that nothing would have made his father happier than to have this game revived. UBC won the 1987 and 1988 games en route to their first ever lead in the series, 6-5-1, including a four-game winning streak, which has proved to be the longest in the history of the game. The games were now being played at alternating locations as the 1988 game was played at UBC's Thunderbird Stadium with 8,600 in attendance. The 1991 game drew the largest crowd of that era with an estimated 10,500 showing up to a temporarily expanded Swangard Stadium.

The Shrum Bowl was played on the second weekend of September from 1987 to 1993 as was originally intended, but the game ran into problems in 1994. In 1993, UBC played two opponents in one week, which proved to be extremely strenuous on the players and coaches. Since the team was not prepared to do that again, the September 10, 1994 match-up was cancelled. The Shrum Bowl resumed play in 1995 under a new stipulation: every time UBC hosts, the game would be played under Canadian rules and every time SFU hosts, it would be played under American rules. While SFU opposed the new rule, since the game was their first of the season and had to practice with different rules, both schools were simply satisfied that the game was back.

The format of alternating venues and rules was kept until 2001, which would be SFU's last in the NAIA. In 2002, SFU made the switch to the Canadian Interuniversity Sport league (formerly CIAU), which meant that they would not only be playing Canadian rules, but they would also be in the same conference as UBC. This also meant that the Shrum Bowl would count for two points in the standings as opposed to being an exhibition game and the teams would be playing two games against each other each year instead of one. From 2002 to 2006, the Shrum Bowl was the first match-up of the season between the two teams while the second was typically played midweek following Thanksgiving. Since this was often strenuous on the teams having such short weeks, the CIS moved the other regular season match-up to the beginning of the season in 2007 with the Shrum Bowl becoming the second game played between UBC and SFU.

The 2009 season marked the last game to be played while the two teams were both in the CIS. In 2010, SFU made the successful transfer to the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division II's Great Northwest Athletic Conference. Once again, the game would be played with alternating rules. The Shrum Bowl was played at Thunderbird Stadium in 2010, but could not be played in 2011 due to scheduling conflicts for both teams. SFU had no mid-season byes and UBC was reluctant to play at the beginning or end of the season.

Future games

After 2011 resulted in no game being played between the two schools, both UBC and SFU have said that they will make greater efforts to have a Shrum Bowl match played in 2012. Simon Fraser had no mid-season bye weeks, while UBC was reluctant to play at the end of their season because it would conflict with possible playoff games.

UBC’s director of athletics and recreation, Bob Philip, suggested that the Thunderbirds could request to move a CIS game to their bye week in order to align their schedule with SFU's. He further acknowledged that SFU would have less bargaining power in the NCAA after having been full-time members for only two years. It was also suggested that the game could be played in January like American college bowl games, but the focus is on playing during the regular football season. While former SFU head coach Dave Johnson suggested that they could play in a non-conference game at the beginning of the season, UBC head coach Shawn Olson was against the idea because it would be treated like a preseason game with many non-starters playing. UBC had declined the offer from SFU to play the Shrum bowl in 2015. With new head coaches Kelly Bates and Blake Nill, the opportunity for a 2016 Shrum Bowl seems promising. Although since UBC is the reigning Vanier Cup champions, it may affect scheduling as the Nill era in Point Grey is looking to be in the championship game every year. With SFU having a coach stick around through an entire off-season for the first time in 3 years they are looking to bounce back from a winless campaign. Having a Shrum Bowl in 2016 would really highlight the different levels of play in the CIS and NCAA. If the champion of the Canadian League were to lose to a team which struggles in the NCAA, it would really show the different levels of competition across the border.

Game results

The following is a list of results from all Shrum Bowl meetings between the Simon Fraser Clan and UBC Thunderbirds from their first meeting on October 16, 1967 to the present: