One of UBC's outstanding two-way football and rugby players of the early '50s was a league All-Star in football and an All-Star at the university, provincial and national levels in rugby. For 10 years, represented BC and Canada internationally in rugby.
George Puil, a standout basketball, rugby and football player in high school, was a prize newcomer to the UBC Thunderbird football team in 1949. According to the Ubyssey, he and Doug Reid "...both turned in grand games on offense and defense" as the 140-lb. Puil was one of the increasingly rare 60-minute men. Despite his diminutive size, Puil was the mainstay of UBC's ground attack leading the team in scoring this 1949 season, recording exactly half the UBC Thunderbirds' touchdowns.
With the completion of the football season, George was quick to pursue his other sporting love, rugby. He immediately gained a reputation as being one of the top players on the Thunderbird rugby team, a team in the hunt for the McKechnie Cup (BC Championship) and the World Cup (West Coast University Championship).
In 1950 Puil returned to the Thunderbird football field where "Spasms of greatness by George Puil" were among the few positive notes that could be made about the UBC Thunderbirds this season as they experienced stiff competition in the Evergreen Conference.
When the football season was completed, Puil returned to the Thunderbird rugby team, a team involved in the quest for the 1951 McKechnie Cup. Rugby coach Albert Laithwaite was quoted as saying "I've also got two of the best wings in the district in John Newton and George Puil."
The next year, back on the football field, it was Puil's ball carrying and broken field running that complemented quarterback Cal Murphy's aerial offensive. Despite the Thunderbirds' disappointing '51 season, Puil "shouldered almost the whole Thunderbird attack" and in the opinion of the Ubyssey in one game "turned in by far the best performance of the game". Later that season Puil utilized his deceptive running ability to play "his usual dazzling game for the rugby team ". Puil, John Newton and Gerry Main were the top scorers on this season's UBC Thunderbirds rugby team.
In 1952 Puil was back for his fourth season with the UBC football team and, according to the Ubyssey, "will not have to carry the whole load as the backfield is 50% better than last season's crew". Only campus old timers could remember when someone other than George "lugged the mail" for the honour and glory of dear old Varsity.
According to Ubyssey sports reporter Allan Fotheringham, Puil "...is the most dangerous broken field runner ever to pull on a Thunderbird sweater". Puil's distinguished UBC football career came to a close by being selected to the Evergreen Conference All-Star team. However without missing a beat, he was again in a UBC rugby uniform injecting fighting spirit into the student squad, this his fourth and final season. He scored three tries to lead UBC to a 19-0 Miller Cup victory and the 1953 Vancouver rugby championship. The Thunderbirds then successfully defended the McKechnie Cup as "wingers Newton and Puil were the most effective members of a brilliant unit". Puil "as usual tackled like a demon" in UBC's 9-6 World Cup rugby victory over California that same year.
This 1952/53 rugby season was a high note upon which Puil completed his UBC athletic career, a career that included seven Big Blocks. This rugby team happened to be one of the school's best; they were BC rugby champions as well as victors over the acknowledged finest rugby team in the U.S., the University of California. Puil was, without a doubt, an integral part of this team, in fact one of the main reasons this was a "golden age" of rugby at UBC.
Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s while Puil was teaching and successfully coaching high school football, he continued to be one of the finest rugby players in BC. He was an "automatic selection to BC and Canadian All-Star teams from his final year at UBC until his retirement in 1963," stated a downtown newspaper.
For 12 years, commencing in 1962, Puil was a Park Board Commissioner, serving as Chairman for three of those years. Beginning in 1976 Puil was elected Councillor for the City of Vancouver retiring in 2002 after serving 26 consecutive years.
George Puil was an All-Star football and rugby player at UBC, (in 2017 he was inducted into the BC Football Hall of Fame) followed by 10 years of representing BC and Canada in international rugby matches and over the course of five decades has served Vancouver on the Park Board and City Council - definitely one of UBC's and Vancouver's most recognizable figures.
Researched and written by Fred Hume, UBC Athletics Historian
