Sports Stuff
By Ned Bekavac
The University of Guelph football Gryphons have their own version of the Canadian hockey team’s lucky loonie.
It seems the Gryphons have a few things buried beneath the new artificial playing surface at Alumni Stadium.
“Two gentlemen went out one Sunday morning and buried the hair of a lion and the feathers of an eagle,” says Gryphon coach Stu Lang.
A “Gryphon” is described as a creature with the head, talons and wings of an eagle, and the body of a lion.
The mentioned loonie, hidden at centre ice, is said to have brought luck to the Canadian national hockey team.
As for Guelph, it’s so far so good with their own lucky charms. The team, which beat York Saturday to finish the regular season with a 7-1 record, was a perfect 4-0 on their home field this season.
The hair and the feathers were donated to the Gryphons by the school’s Ontario Veterinary College, said Lang.
“No animals were harmed,” said Lang. “It’s buried in a green plastic mortar case. It’s all sealed, it’ll be there forever.”
A hole was dug beneath the field and along with the hair and feathers, a stuffed Gryphon mascot doll rests below the field, with a medallion that includes the date it was buried.
Guelph will hope the goods bring them some luck on Nov. 3, when they host a Yates Cup semifinal game against a to-be-determined opponent.
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One team is scoring bucket loads of goals, the other can’t seem to buy a goal.
The Guelph Storm currently lead the Ontario Hockey League in goals scored. They have 59 in 12 games. Next closest are Oshawa and Barrie, who each have 49 in 13 games.
The Guelph Hurricanes are on the opposite end. Their 17 goals in 14 games is by far the fewest in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. Next closest is Buffalo, which has 30 goals in 17 games.
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Guelph’s Chantal Morais is off to a hot start in her Queen’s Gaels women’s hockey career.
Morais (Bishop Macdonell) has five goals in six games so far this OUA season. Only Guelph Gryphon Amanda Parkins, of Kitchener, has more in all of the OUA. She has six.
A pair of Morais’s goals this season have been all-Guelph affairs, assisted by a pair of local sisters in Brittany and Morgan McHaffie, both graduates of Centennial CVI.
Morais played for Western before joining Queen’s this season.
