VANCOUVER – In the first full fledged UBC Thunderbirds football alumni game in recent memory, a group of T-Bird grads put on quite a show with a come-from-behind 40-35 victory over this year’s football squad.
For more thoughts from Olson, check out his post-game interview
Behind stellar quarterback play of Blake Smelser and Dan DeLong, the Alumni engineered a second-half comeback to finally take the lead with only three minutes remaining.
It appeared the current ‘Birds answered when newcomer Levar Hayden returned the following kick-off for a touchdown but it was called back on a penalty and the young UBC players never closed the deficit.
UBC head coach Shawn Olson was extremely pleased with the game.
“This was a really great chance for us to see what we’ve got on offence, defence, and special teams and we definitely learned a lot about this year’s team,” said Olson, who used every healthy player on his 100-man roster in today’s game.
The T-Birds jumped out to a an early 15-3 lead behind the play of their starting units before the Alumni, which boasted a roster of about 45 players, clawed their way back into the contest.
One of the highlights of the contest came on the first series when Ted Duncan took to the field as the Alumni’s starting quarterback. A member of the 1954 T-Bird squad, Duncan’s last game in the Blue and Gold was the Hardy Cup that season.
This afternoon he was was 1-for-2 through the air, nearly securing a first down before a perfectly thrown pass was dropped by an Alumni receiver.
Duncan, 76, played in the CFL for the BC Lions and Calgary Stampeders before retiring in 1961 to focus full-time on practicing law. He was also an alderman of the city of Calgary from 1960-65.
The modern day T-Birds open their regular season Saturday, September 4 at home against the Alberta Golden Bears. Kick-off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
Source: UBC Athletics
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