Old Four

Old Four

No. of teams	4
Region	Central Canada
Locations

The Old Four is a soccer conference composed of four public institutions of higher education in Central Canada. The name is also an appellation for the four universities as a group, consisted of McGill University, Queen's University, University of Toronto and University of Western Ontario. They are home to the original four soccer teams in Canadian collegiate athletics. ^[1] The Old Four holds an annual exhibition tournament over the Labour Day weekend, although the teams do not accumulate points toward the regular season of the Canadian Interuniversity Sport competition.

As the name suggests, the Old Four schools are among Canada's oldest and most prestigious universities. Except for the University of Western Ontario, all were founded by royal charter during the British colonial era before Canadian Confederation. Historically, these schools have held intense rivalries in athletics. Today, the Old Four are all research universities and members of Canada's U15 Group of Canadian research universities. They are the only universities in eastern Canada with endowments of over $1 billion respectively.

The Old Four was for several decades also a conference for Canadian football competition between these same four schools, but conference realignment, beginning in the early 1970s, has meant that it no longer exists in its original form.

Members

The Old Four schools are all public institutions unaffiliated with any religion. Although three were founded as religious schools, they have all since become secular institutions.

Institution	Location	Team name	Venue	Founding religious affiliation	Founded
McGill University	Montreal, Quebec	Martlets, Redbirds	Percival Molson Memorial Stadium	Nonsectarian	1821 as McGill College
Queen's University	Kingston, Ontario	Gaels	Richardson Memorial Stadium	Presbyterian	1841 as Queen's College
University of Toronto	Toronto, Ontario	Varsity Blues	Varsity Stadium	Anglican	1827 as King's College
University of Western Ontario	London, Ontario	Mustangs	TD Waterhouse Stadium	Anglican	1878 as The Western University of London Ontario

Summary of tournament finals

Year	Location	Men's winner	Men's runner-up	Score	Women's winner	Women's runner-up	Score
2002	Montreal	?	?	?-?	Western	McGill	2-1
2003	London	Western	McGill	1-0	Western	McGill	4-3
2004	Kingston	Western	McGill	2-1	McGill	Western	2-1
2005	Montreal	Toronto	Queen's	2-1	McGill	Queen's	1-0
2006	Toronto	Western	Queen's	3-0	McGill	Western	6-2
2007	London	Western	McGill	1-0	McGill	Queen's	1-0
2008	Toronto	McGill	Toronto	2-0	McGill	Toronto	3-1
2009	London	Western	McGill	2-1	McGill	Queen's	3-0
2010	Kingston	McGill	Queen's	2-1	McGill	Toronto	1-0
2011	Montreal	Toronto	McGill	P-P*	Toronto	McGill	P-P*
2012	Toronto	Toronto	Western	1-1 (5-4 PK)	McGill	Western	2-1
2013	London	Queen's	Western	1-1 (4-2 PK)	Toronto	McGill	0-0 (4-3 PK)
2014	Kingston	McGill	Western	1-0	Western	McGill	1-0
2015	Montreal	Western	McGill	2-1	Western	McGill	2-2 (5-3 PK)
2016	Toronto	Western	McGill	3-1	McGill	Toronto	1-0
2017	London	Western	Queen's	2-1	Queen's	Western	1-0
2018	Kingston	Western	Queen's	2-1	Queen's	Toronto	1-0

Note: The 2011 finals were cancelled due to field conditions. ^[2]

References

1. "U of T Soccer to Host Old Four Tournament" . Retrieved 2008-09-02.^{[ permanent dead link ]}"The University of Toronto Varsity Blues soccer program is proud to host a very time-honoured tradition - the annual Old Four tournament, August 30–31, 2008 at the Varsity Centre. This tournament features the original four football schools in Canadian university sport: McGill University, Queen’s University, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Toronto."
2. "OLD FOUR MATCHES CANCELLED DUE TO WET FIELD CONDITIONS" . Retrieved 2012-08-28."Both men’s and women’s gold-medal matches at the 2011 Old Four tournament have been cancelled due to excessive water on the field."

External links

• McGill Athletics
• Queen's Golden Gaels
• Toronto Varsity Blues
• Western Mustangs

Conference news

• https://web.archive.org/web/20060509054448/http://universitysport.ca/e/w_fieldhockey/story_detail.cfm?id=5898
• https://web.archive.org/web/20060220081001/http://www.goldengaels.com/interuniversity/soccerm.html
• https://web.archive.org/web/20051016033626/http://www.varsityblues.ca/news/?id=2572
• Mustangs blank Redmen in Old Four gold medal game - Aug 26, 2007
• McGill claims Old Four soccer titles - August 31, 2008 ^{[ permanent dead link ]}
• Old Four Tournament wraps up at Queen's 8/29/2010 ^{[ permanent dead link ]}