The Frank Gnup – Football Wall of Honour: Created to honour the many former players and builders who have made outstanding contributions to the UBC football program. Candidates are considered on the basis of exceptional playing ability, sportsmanship, character, and exemplification of the spirit and ideals of the Thunderbird football program.
The primary criteria of selection is determined by football championships, individual awards/records, conference honours, and national recognition while competing for the Thunderbirds.
The recognition ceremony is to be held each fall in conjunction with the final regular season home game. There is no official limit to the number of alumni honoured each year, however, a minimum period of five years following graduation from the program will be observed prior to eligibility. The committee does recognize the current UBC Sports Hall of Fame members as exceptional and we will profile those individuals as well.
This impressive 2020 induction class will consist of a builder, a championship team, and 11 individual players from 1972-2011.
Frank Theodore Gnup: Head Coach, 1955-1973
The former ORFU and Canadian Football League All-Star was the head coach at UBC for 18 years. One of UBC’s most colourful, admired, and recognizable campus figures, Gnup was known and fondly remembered as a mentor, provider, and character-builder, as well as a promoter of UBC. Included among his 54 career victories are three Hardy Cups championships (1959, ’61, ’62), while sending 17 of his players to professional football. Since that time, Gnup’s name has been remembered through the Frank Gnup Scholarship for first-year student-athletes, the Fank Gnup Golf Tournament, his induction into both the UBC Sports Hall of Fame and the BC Football Hall of Fame. The AAA provincial football championship is named after him, and the Frank Gnup Memorial Award is presented to the Canada West football Outstanding Player of the Year.
