The Manitoba Bisons are the athletic teams that represent the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The football team plays their games at Investors Group Field. The soccer team play their home games at the University of Manitoba Soccer Fields while the track and field teams use the University Stadium as their home track. The University has 18 different teams in 10 sports: basketball, curling, cross country running, Canadian football, golf, ice hockey, soccer, swimming, track & field, and volleyball.
In Canada, soccer is the most popular sport in terms of participation rate. According to FIFA's Big Count, almost 2.7 million people played in Canada in 2006. Professional soccer in Canada is played in the Canadian Premier League and Major League Soccer. Canada also has many semi-professional and amateur soccer leagues. Canada's men's and women's national soccer teams are ranked 33rd and 6th respectively in the FIFA World Rankings, as of February 10, 2022.
Donald Henderson Bain was a Canadian amateur athlete and merchant. Though he competed and excelled in numerous sports, Bain is most notable for his ice hockey career. While a member of the Winnipeg Victorias hockey team from 1894 until 1902, Bain helped the team win the Stanley Cup as champions of Canada three times. A skilled athlete, he won championships and medals in several other sports and was the Canadian trapshooting champion in 1903. In recognition of his play, Bain was inducted into a number of halls of fame, including the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1949. He was also voted Canada's top athlete of the last half of the 19th century.
Gerald Sydney Halter, was a Canadian sports executive and lawyer. He served as the first commissioner of the Canadian Football League from 1958 to 1966, and was president of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada from 1938 to 1946.
Charles Robert Gardiner was a Scottish-born Canadian professional ice hockey goaltender who played for the Chicago Black Hawks in the National Hockey League. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Gardiner moved with his family to Canada as a child. Playing all of his junior hockey in or around Winnipeg, Manitoba, Gardiner joined the Black Hawks in 1927. He played seven seasons with Chicago, winning two Vezina Trophies for allowing the fewest goals, was named to the First All-Star Team three times and Second All-Star Team once in recognition as one of the best goalies in the league. In 1934, Gardiner became the only NHL goaltender to captain his team to a Stanley Cup win. A few months after winning the Cup, Gardiner died from a brain hemorrhage brought on by a tonsillar infection. When the Hockey Hall of Fame was established in 1945, Gardiner was named one of the inaugural inductees.
Joe Poplawski is a former professional Canadian football receiver who played for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1978 to 1986.
William Abraham Hewitt was a Canadian sports executive and journalist, also widely known as Billy Hewitt. He was secretary of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1903 to 1966, and sports editor of the Toronto Daily Star from 1900 to 1931. He promoted the establishment of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA), then served as its secretary-treasurer from 1915 to 1919, registrar from 1921 to 1925, registrar-treasurer from 1925 to 1961, and a trustee of the Allan Cup and Memorial Cup. Hewitt standardized player registrations in Canada, was a committee member to discuss professional-amateur agreements with the National Hockey League, and negotiated working agreements with amateur hockey governing bodies in the United States. He oversaw referees within the OHA, and negotiated common rules of play for amateur and professional leagues as chairman of the CAHA rules committee. After retiring from journalism, he was the managing-director of Maple Leaf Gardens from 1931 to 1948, and chairman of the committee to select the inaugural members of the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945.
Frederick George Stambrook was a president of the Manitoba Soccer Association and the Canadian Soccer Association.
The Winnipeg Falcons were a senior men's amateur ice hockey team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Winnipeg Falcons won the 1920 Allan Cup. That team went on to represent Canada in the 1920 Olympic games held in Antwerp, Belgium. There the Falcons, soundly beating all their opponents, won for Canada the first Olympic gold medal in ice hockey.
The Winnipeg Fury were a professional soccer team in Winnipeg, Canada. The team was part of the Canadian Soccer League from 1987 to 1992. They were one of four teams to participate in every season of the CSL. In 1993, they played in the Canadian National Soccer League.
George Anderson was a Canadian soccer organizer and manager. Born in Strichen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Anderson moved to Canada when he was 19, first living in Souris, Manitoba and then in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He served in the Canadian army during the First World War.
Konrad Jonasson "Konnie" Johannesson was an Icelandic-Canadian aviator and ice hockey player who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics. As a pioneering aviator, he was instrumental in flight training as well as airport administration.
The Challenge Trophy is a national amateur soccer cup in Canada contested by the champions of individual provincial soccer competitions. It is one of the oldest soccer competitions in Canada, being held since 1913. It is run by the Canadian Soccer Association.
Héctor Vergara is a Canadian soccer referee. Although born in San Javier, Chile, Vergara grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He attended John Taylor Collegiate. Vergara earned a Bachelor of Recreation Studies and a Bachelor of Arts in Advanced Psychology from the University of Manitoba.
Robert Porter "Buddy" Tinsley was a Canadian Football League offensive lineman for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1982, and was a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Hall of Fame, the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and the Baylor University Hall of Fame.
Tony Nocita is a former professional Canadian soccer player who currently plays for Sons of Italy Lions SC.
Sylvester Patrick "Silver" Quilty was a Canadian football player, referee, coach and sport administrator. As a player, he won the Yates Cup in 1907 with the Ottawa Gee-Gees football team, and was credited as the first man to play the flying wing position. He also played with the Ottawa Rough Riders, and the McGill Redmen football team. After his playing career, he became a football referee and officiated the 10th Grey Cup, and also coached the Ottawa Rough Riders.
Frederick Paul Henry Marples was a Canadian sports executive in ice hockey and athletics. He was president of the Winnipeg Monarchs team which won Winnipeg Amateur Hockey League championships in 1914 and 1915, and the Allan Cup as senior ice hockey champions of Canada. His operation of a reserve team to support the Monarchs led to debates on player eligibility for the Allan Cup and calls for a national governing body of hockey. As the secretary-treasurer of the Winnipeg Amateur Hockey League, he helped establish both the Manitoba Amateur Hockey Association (MAHA) and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) in 1914; then served as secretary-treasurer of the MAHA from 1914 to until 1934, and as secretary of the CAHA from 1926 to 1945. He sought to grow the game in rural regions of Manitoba, promote minor ice hockey as a source of future senior players, to keep players in junior ice hockey until age 21, and was against the exodus of amateur players to professional teams.
Vincent Leah was a Canadian journalist, writer and sports administrator. He wrote for The Winnipeg Tribune from 1930 to 1980, and was credited with giving the Winnipeg Blue Bombers their team's name. He established youth sports programs in Winnipeg for baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, ice hockey, and soccer; and brought Little League Baseball to Canada. The Excelsior Hockey Club he founded in 1934, won thirteen provincial championships and produced forty professional hockey players. He was widely known as "Uncle Vince", authored eight books on history and sports, and was a freelancer for the Winnipeg Free Press from 1980 to 1993.
Maurice Douglas Burnet Smith was an England-born Canadian journalist. He began working for the Winnipeg Free Press in 1927, became a sports journalist in 1930, then served as the paper's sports editor from 1944 to 1976. He wrote a regular sports column titled "Time Out", and frequently reported on baseball, ice hockey, curling, and Canadian football. He helped establish the Canadian High School Curling Championships in 1951, and was the founding president of the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association in 1955. He covered 33 consecutive Grey Cup championships before retirement, then served on the selection committees of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame and the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame and Museum. He was made a life member of the Manitoba Curling Association in 1970, inducted into the Football Reporters of Canada section of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1982, and was posthumously inducted into the Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame in 1987.
