Guelph Gryphons football

Football
The Guelph Gryphons football team has been in competition since 1950 and is considered to be the biggest sport at the university. The football team has an eight-week schedule which starts in early September to the last week of October, Followed by the OUA playoffs which run within the first three weeks of November. Unlike other sports, there are only ten schools which compete in OUA football, so there is only one division. The team usually has 60 to 80 varsity athletes however, not all will have the opportunity to play for the team. The recruitment process is very similar to other major sports at the University of Guelph. Players are generally hand-picked by coaches and scouts while they play for their respective high school teams.

The football team has won one Vanier Cup national championship in 1984, which is also their only appearance in the title game. The Gryphons are the only team with a perfect record in the Vanier Cup. The team has also won three Yates Cup conference championships, in 1984, 1992 and 1996. The team can trace their roots back to 1950 when the team played in the Intercollegiate Intermediate Football Union. Through numerous league evolutions, the Gryphons landed in the Ontario University Athletics in 1980 as a founding member and continue to play there to this day. Their current head coach is Stu Lang, who is in his second year with the team after former head coach Kyle Walters joined the Canadian Football League's Winnipeg Blue Bombers as their special teams coach.

The program has remained largely in the middle of the standings for the past eight years as the team has been at or within one game of .500 for six of those years. Recently, the team saw its best success in 2007 when they won their first two playoff games before losing the Yates Cup to the Western Ontario Mustangs. Despite making the playoffs eight times in the past 11 years, the 2007 season was the only one in which Guelph won any of their post-season games.

The Football program received a boost of energy during the winter of 2009 with the new hire of Stu Lang as head football coach.

Recent playoff results

 * 2001 Lost to Ottawa Gee-Gees in OUA quarter-finals 38-15
 * 2002 Lost to McMaster Marauders in OUA quarter-finals 71-11
 * 2003 Missed Playoffs
 * 2004 Lost to Ottawa Gee-Gees in OUA quarter-finals 33-9
 * 2005 Lost to Ottawa Gee-Gees in OUA quarter-finals 35-21
 * 2006 Missed Playoffs
 * 2007 Defeated McMaster Marauders in OUA quarter-finals 25-21 Defeated Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks in OUA semi-finals 38-31 Lost to Western Ontario Mustangs in Yates Cup 34-21
 * 2008 Lost to Ottawa Gee-Gees in OUA quarter-finals 42-37
 * 2009 Lost to Western Ontario Mustangs in OUA quarter-finals 37-18
 * 2010 Lost to Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks in OUA quarter-finals 42-10
 * 2011 Missed Playoffs
 * 2012 Defeated Queen's Golden Gaels in OUA semi-finals 42-39 Lost to McMaster Marauders in Yates Cup 30-13

Guelph Gryphons in the CFL
As of the start of the 2012 CFL season, two former Gryphons players are on CFL teams' rosters:
 * Ryan Bomben, Montreal Alouettes
 * Rob Maver, Calgary Stampeders