Time capsule

THE YEAR 1984

The Gryphons football squad was an underdog in Canadian university competition in 1984. But after winning the coveted Vanier Cup as the best varsity team in the country, the red and gold were thought of as a team of destiny.

The Gryphons beat four-time Vanier Cup winner Western Mustangs to win the Yates Cup, becoming champs of Ontario. Then, on Nov. 24, U of G rallied to defeat the Mount Allison Mounties 22-13 at Toronto’s Varsity Stadium, in front of a crowd of 19,842.

Gryphon receiver Parri Ceci, who went on to a professional career in the CFL, was the game’s MVP. He made two receptions in the game, both for touchdowns. One was carried 89 yards, the longest in Vanier Cup history to that point.

ON CAMPUS

+ Burt Matthews, an OAC grad, became U of G’s fourth president. + New head football coach John Musselman replaced Tom Dimitroff.

Musselman would coach the Gryphons to a Vanier

Cup victory. + Macdonald Stewart Art

Centre got the go-ahead to begin landscaping work on the expansion of the Donald Forster

Sculpture Park. + The J.D. MacLachlan

Building was named after

U of G’s first president. OFF CAMPUS

+ The Soviet Union boycotted the Summer

Olympics in Los Angeles, in retaliation for the U.S.led boycott of the 1980

Moscow Games. + The space shuttle

Discovery’s inaugural flight lasted Aug. 30 to Sept. 5. + China and Britain reached agreement to return Hong

Kong to China. + Canadian film director

James Cameron released his critically acclaimed film The Terminator, starring bodybuilder

Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Last look

Antique cannon long a campus message board

A COLOURFUL CAMPUS TRADITION FOR MORE THAN A CENTURY

A British naval cannon affectionately known as “Old Jeremiah” or simply “the Cannon” has spent more than 100 years on the grounds of the University of Guelph and its founding colleges. It is the target of one of the most intriguing, creative and colourful traditions on campus.

Rumoured to have been fired in the War of 1812, the imposing antique weapon has been pacified in modern times. Each academic year, it is repeatedly painted after dark in vivid colours and assorted messages.

The cannon has announced U of G events, programs, fraternities and community causes, and occasionally been dive-bombed with political statements. It’s delivered marriage proposals and giggle-inducing lines like “Have you been debugged lately?” (from the School of Computer Science).

Over the years, the message board has been transformed into a Canada goose, penguin, dragonfly, giraffe and squirrel, and even the Titanic.

Old Jeremiah was last fired in 1913 before its barrel was sealed. Pranksters can no longer wheel it around campus, as it is now permanently anchored to the ground. Dozens of times each year, it receives a new coat of paint.

In 2011, Dawn Johnston, a master of fine art student, stripped the cannon of about 30 years’ worth of paint for an art project.

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