One of the things I never realised before I started working at The Peak is the great history that this paper has. It’s been going strong for 50 years now, and for all but one month, as long as SFU has been around, The Peak has been, too.
Going through the archives for this piece, it’s interesting to see fellow students who have been in my position comment on events with neutrality and facts, events which I have remembered through just emotions and memory. While you could probably write a whole feature on how The Peak covered big, world-changing news events, as Sports Editor, I decided to focus on how the paper covered sports, from way before I was even born up to the recent past.
In the previous SFU publication called The S.F. View, the sports section’s big focus was on Clansmen football, coached by the late Lorne Davies. The second game in their history was mentioned, a contest against Western Washington. It’s interesting that 50 years later, things have come full circle. Despite SFU playing in NAIA, then CIS, and now the NCAA, the Clan are now once again playing Western Washington on a regular basis.
The Canucks played their first ever game on October 9, but it wasn’t covered by The Peak.
The Canucks played their first ever game on October 9, and The Peak was. . . not on the scene. There was no mention of the team’s upcoming first game in the October 7 issue, and none in the October 19 issue. But in their defence, the issue on that day was solely focused on the enactment of the War Measures Act and the FLQ crisis, a pretty big issue at the time to say the least.
The Whitecaps first game was in May of 1974, and was not mentioned at all. The team’s run to the 1979 NASL championship, which I thought would have been covered extensively, again didn’t get any articles on the subject.
Same with the Canucks’ first ever appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1982. No real mentions of it in any issues close to when it happened in May of 1982. It continues a trend in early issues where the focus is solely on SFU Athletics and even intramural sports, and not on any professional sports.
The 1985 BC Lions Grey Cup victory coverage was limited to one line. The writer, Jason Brown, mentioned that the SFU wrestling team was “motivated by the BC Lions’ victory at the Grey Cup game.” And that’s it.
Moving on to when I was alive (though only two months old), the most shocking omission is the lack of coverage on the 1994 Stanley Cup Finals. Though, in the “For Sale” section of the May 30th, 1994 issue there was a classified for someone selling a ticket to the final. So at least there’s that.
Now let’s go to the recent past. The Vancouver Grizzlies’ relocation got its own article in the February 19, 2001 issue of The Peak. In it, writer Conrad Au outlines the reasons for the Grizzlies’ move to Memphis, which includes owner Michael Heisley, the fact that they always sucked, and the “lack of support the community gave to the franchise.” He goes on to comment on the failure of an NBA franchise may affect Vancouver’s 2010 Olympics bid. In hindsight, this makes no sense at all. The Olympics are a prestigious international event with the best athletes in the world; the Grizzlies were a mediocre basketball team that never won more than 25 games in a season.
The 2005 NHL lockout officially ended the entire NHL season on February 16, 2005. In the September 27, 2004 issue of The Peak, Ross Prusakowski issued the prophetic statement that the lockout will “probably wipe out [the] entire season” and the less prophetic one that the CIS could fill the void of the NHL. CIS didn’t fill that void during the lockout — junior hockey did, particularly with Sidney Crosby tearing it up.
The November 8th, 2004 issue featured writer Graeme Ellis voicing his displeasure over the stubbornness of the NHL and the NHLPA. At the time, I remember it was quite frustrating that both sides refused to negotiate with each other. It was like a game of chicken between two sides, playing with the emotions of passionate fans. These sentiments would be repeated amongst hockey fans seven years later.
In an interesting twist, a rebuttal was written for the November 15 issue. Writer Mark-Daniel Hughes outlined the reasons behind his support for why he supported the NHL lockout. In it he outlined that the vast majority of NHL teams are losing money, and that a lockout would be the only way to solve these economic problems. His main argument was that it’s better to lose one year of hockey than lose it all together.
A lot of these issues were resolved because of the lockout, but this pro-owners stance certainly wasn’t very popular in the day.
Finally, to the 2011 Stanley Cup Final. The May 30 issue featured a cover declaring Vancouver a “Canucks City,” and it truly was. Canucks car flags were everywhere, and everyone seemed to be wearing Canucks swag. I don’t think I took off my jersey for the whole final.
The Peak finally got it right with the Canucks’ third trip to the final. Pages 18 and 19 were dedicated to covering it, with a “panel” segment on page 19. Peak Associate Ronil Desai, when asked if we’d seen the last of Roberto Luongo and the soft goals, said “No, however I do believe they will be far less frequent, particularly during clutch situations.” If only we knew.
I could go on for a lot longer about how The Peak covered various other sporting events. The point is, The Peak has covered a wide variety of sports in a wide variety of ways. Sometimes we’ve missed the big events, but it’s indicative of the history of this paper to try things differently, and I hope that continues well into the future.
