Students at UNB have been associated with ice hockey as far back as 1880. The first organized game occurred in 1897 when an informal team played against a Canadian Army Company.[3] A second team wasn't organized for another 5 years but, once the Reds hockey team reappeared, the school recognized the club as official representatives of the university.
By 1905 enough other schools had picked up the game for New Brunswick to help found the Maritime Intercollegiate Hockey League (MIHL). However, just three years later, the league was rocked by allegations of St. Francis Xavier knowingly using what some felt were ineligible players (there was no governing body of the sport at the time). UNB, along with Acadia and Mount Allison, withdrew from the league and formed their own rival circuit, the Maritime Inter-provincial Intercollegiate Hockey League (MIIHL). The leagues would remain separate until after World War I but the three rogue teams would continue to award a trophy until its retirement in 1928.
During its first 50 years of existence, the UNB Reds played in both collegiate and senior levels of hockey, often at the same time. It wasn't until the late-50's that the team played exclusively at the college level. The then-renamed Red Devils had success in the early 60s and appeared in the second iteration of the University Cup in 1964. After Pete Kelly's retirement in 1966, the team flagged and saw middling results for most of the next 25 years. UNB didn't really recover until the arrival of Mike Johnston in 1989 and he soon had the team back at the top of the conference. UNB won four consecutive Division titles in the mid-90s but they weren't able to parlay that success into a national tournament appearance. After Johnston's departure, the team continued to perform well, finally winning a conference championship in 1997 and then achieved their ultimate goal of a national title the following year.
In 2000, Gardiner MacDougall was named head coach and would go on to lead the team to an unparalleled level of success. Over the next 23 seasons, the Reds would win 9 national championships, 12 conference championship and capture 16 consecutive (and counting) league titles.[4] In May 2024, MacDougall stepped down to assume coaching duties for the Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).[5]
Moniker
Originally the school's athletic teams were referred to as simply "UNB", however, they were also called "Red and Black" or "The Hillmen" from time to time. In January of 1958, the student newspaper began to assign specific names to each of the school's varsity programs. They began referring to the ice hockey team as "Red Devils". While the fans would accept this change, the school ignored the nickname until the 80s when the name began to appear on team jackets.[6] Unhappy with having a different name for each of its programs, the university decided to have one brand for the athletic department. In 1991, the school selected 4 possible names and allowed students and alumni to vote for the new name. The final result was overwhelming with "Varsity Reds" receiving 66% support. The school kept the moniker until 2018 when they rebranded as "Reds" while also changing the color scheme.
Season-by-season results
Senior and collegiate play
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points
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