Archive for September, 2015

Photo Credit: John Lehmann/The Globe and Mail

The turning point in David Sidoo’s life was his memorable five-year football career with the UBC Thunderbirds. It began in 1978, when the UBC team played in its first ever Vanier Cup. Over the years David set several records and earned many awards that made him a shining star in the league. The crowning glory came in 1982 when David helped captain UBC to win its first Vanier Cup.

Since graduating from UBC, David has had a 5-year career in the CFL, succeeded as a financier and a private investor, and now is president and CEO of a very successful oil and gas corporation. Throughout his impressive career growth, David has remained a faithful supporter of his alma mater and a huge fan of the Thunderbirds Football program.

After almost 10 years of the team racking up countless losses, the TBirds had been facing the very real prospect of being cut from the university’s sports program. The prospect of losing a team so near and dear to his heart was too much for David. He rallied together a group of successful UBC alumni to fund the redevelopment of the TBirds, starting with recruiting a new coach – Blake Nill, a new quarterback – Michael O’Connor, and revamping the much-outdated Thunderbird stadium.

The new life David helped inject into the Thunderbirds is for real. David was excited to attend the TBird’s practice the day before their first exhibition game against against top-ranked Laval, who had only lost one home game in the last 70 years. <insert photo from Aug 28>

The next day, the TBirds beat Laval with an incredible 41-16 score. It was magic!

Though The TBirds went on to lose their season opener to Calgary 16-49, UBC came back the following week and defeated Regina 27-20.

David remains optimistic that the Thunderbirds can carry that wining momentum throughout the rest of this 2015/16 season to make this a year to remember.

For more on this story, read the original Globe and Mail article here.