History
As many Canadian college did in the early part of the 20th century, the UBC Thunderbirds began playing in a local senior league. By at last 1916, the Thunderbirds playing members of the Vancouver City Senior League (VCSL) though whether or not the team was officially sanctioned by the school at that time is uncertain. What is known is that UBC was a full member after World War I and won both the league and provincial senior championship in 1921. Normally, this would have given the team the ability to compete for the Allan Cup, the national senior championship, however, the provincial playoffs were held at the same time as the Allan Cup regionals (early March) and UBC's title came too late for them to qualify.
UBC continued to play senior hockey until the late 20s when the VCSL dissolved. They both resurfaced in 1931 for one final season before the league disbanded for good. UBC's ice hockey team played just one official season from 1932 until 1945, joining the short-lived Pacific Coast Intermediate Hockey League (PCIHL) for its inaugural season in 1938–39. It wasn't until after World War II that a concerted effort was made to revive the program. The team tried various ideas; playing as an independent outfit, joining senior leagues, etc... however, the team had yet to play an intercollegiate game. This was primarily due to remote locale of the Thunderbirds. At the time, the nearest fellow college that sponsored varsity ice hockey was Alberta, some 1,000 kilometers away. Despite the distance, the two schools agreed to start an annual competition in 1949 and award the Hamber Trophy to the champion. UBC won the inaugural series, however, Alberta took the next twelve titles. Despite UBC's inability to win a second championship, the Hamber series proved to be the most consistent competition for the team until the early 60s.
In 1961, UBC joined the Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Union (WCIAU) a collection of colleges in Western Canada. At the time, the only other members were Alberta and Saskatchewan but joining the league still required a sizable financial investment in the program. After going winless in their first season of play, the league rebranded as the Western Canadian Intercollegiate Athletic Association (WCIAA) and was one of four leagues to receive invitations to send their champion to the University Cup. Surprisingly, UBC rose to the challenge and won the league's inaugural championship. The Thunderbirds then won their national semi-final to appear in the first University Cup championship game, however, they fell 2–3 to McMaster. [2]
Despite the team's success, the team was forced to leave the WCIAA in 1964 as travel expenses had ballooned. Two years later, UBC rejoined the league and appeared to have addressed the financial issues at least in the short term. The Thunderbirds won their second league championship in 1971 but lost to eventually champion Toronto in the University Cup semi-finals. A year later, to cut down on travel expenses for all schools, the WCIAA was split into two conferences. UBC was one of four teams that were founding members of the Canada West Universities Athletic Association. Over the succeeding 30 years, UBC found it very difficult to make a name for itself in the conference. The Thunderbirds made just 6 playoff appearances from 1974 to 2004 Their lone trip to the national tournament in 1977 came as a result of being the league runner-up at the time Canada West possessed a rotating wild-card bid. Even after the team was able to get in on the playoff chase, UBC didn't make a single appearance in the finals until 2020. By then, the University Cup field had expanded to allow both league finalists entry and the program was able to end its 43-year drought. Unfortunately, the team's timing could not have been worse and the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the series befoere UBC had played a single game. [3]
After the entire 2020–21 season was cancelled, UBC got a second chance to make its tournament return and made it appear that the program had turned a corner. The following season the team won 20 conference games for the first time in its history but were knocked out in the league semi-finals. 2023–24 proved to be even better for the Thunderbirds as the team won its first regular season championship since 1963 and first ever Canada West title.
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