Over the last few months, the UBC Thunderbirds football program has enjoyed honouring the greats from all eras throughout the Blue and Golds storied history with the unveiling of our All-Decade Teams from 1950 to 2019.
 
Beyond the many great teams, there were countless impactful coaches and players to grace the field at Thunderbird Stadium, and we are both remembering and celebrating them with this recognition.

Every 10-year period in university football includes a legendary group of talent, and the Thunderbirds have featured many of the conferences very best throughout the generations.

Identifying the top performers of a decade is not easy, but it was time well spent for the panel! While we focused on career production, individual awards and factored in both team success and multiple seasons of elite contributions, the final decisions were ultimately in support of the players who thrilled fans with standout seasons.

The selections are based on the players accomplishments at the university level and the impact they had on UBC and the Canada West conference. Players were chosen for individual offence, defence and specialist performances.

In May, we began by unveiling the 1950s and 60s teams led by Hall of Fame coach Frank Gnup, the team featured members of the 1959, '61 and '62 Hardy Cup championships squads, while also boasting 37 Canadian Football League (CFL) draft picks, four-hall of Famers and two NFLers.

In June, we followed up by releasing the 1970s All-Decade Team, many consider this to be the decade of resurgence by the Thunderbirds football program highlighted by two Hardy Cup Championships while producing several gridiron greats and future UBC Sports Hall of Fame Inductees.

Our latest delivery sees us celebrate the 1980s All-Decade Team which featured two Vanier Cup championship-winning squads. This included what is considered one of the greatest teams in CIAU history, the 1982 group that went 8-0 in the regular season and later saw 10 players selected in the CFL draft, among them a record five first round picks. The tremendous decade of the 80s also featured a 1986 Vanier Cup championship winning group of T-Birds that claimed the No. 1 defence in the conference that season in only allowing 82 points.

Stay tuned for the 1990s Thunderbird Team of the Decade coming soon.

Go 'Birds