As SCAN is celebrating its 50th birthday, this is a great opportunity to have a look back at Lancaster’s sporting history over the last half-century.
First and foremost, one of Lancaster’s biggest and best sporting successes is the fact that every year we have competed in the biggest varsity competition in Europe: Roses. Other than of course York and the Oxford vs Cambridge Boat Race, no university can say that they’ve consecutively competed in such a large and important annual sporting event. Roses has been going on for the last 52 years meaning that SCAN has been a virtual ever present and has followed the incredible Roses story every step of the way.
In 1973, Lancaster picked up the first ever away win at Roses, and from 1972 to 1977 Lancaster went on a 6 year unbeaten run. Individually, up until 2012, Lancaster’s American Football and Trampolining teams were the only two unbeaten teams as well. The first ever event competed at Roses was a boat race, and this was because the first ever sports society at Lancaster was the Boat Club. This society formed at the same time as the University itself, in 1964 and has gone on to compete in big events such as the annual Head of the River race in London.
This triggered the start of sport at Lancaster, and over the last 50 years many more sports societies and teams have formed, and Lancaster University now have teams competing in 44 BUCS leagues; a remarkable figure for a university which is only just over 50 years old itself. Over the years, SCAN has bought you exclusive coverage of all these societies through match reports and club column. So sport at Lancaster has been an integral part of life at Lancaster over the last 50 years, and in 2011 the £20million sports centre, which is regularly rated as one of the best in the country, was opened.
In terms of college sport, the Carter Shield, the intercollege sports trophy and the George Wyatt trophy, the intercollege pool and darts trophy, have been contested for a large number of years, and this promotes the healthy sporting rivalry within the University.
On an individual level, arguably Lancaster’s most successful sporting alumni is Jason Queally. He may not be the most familiar household name in the sporting world, however his achievements certainly are. Jason was part of Team GB’s cycling team in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he won not one but two medals, one of which was gold in the 1km time trial. His other Olympic medal was an impressive silver in the team sprint. These Olympic medals were followed up by consecutive bronze medals in the team sprint at the Cycling World Championships for the next 4 years, until this became a gold medal in 2005. That’s right, an Olympic and world championships gold medalist came to Lancaster University. Before these exploits, Jason studied Biological Science at Lancaster.
Another alumni who operates within the sporting world is Jennifer Montague, who played hockey and basketball during her time within Bowland College, and then returned to Lancaster as the sabbatical position of Athletic Union President where she organized the 40th Roses event. Now, Jennifer works as a Client Services Coordinator for FIFA, a role which has seen her attend the FIFA World Cup final in Brazil!
Aside from the university, SCAN has regularly followed Lancaster City FC, and arguably their greatest achievement came in 2003 when they became celebrities for a day as they reached the FA cup first round and were drawn at home against Football League giants Cambridge United, and this game was shown live on BBC2.
So sport has always been an important part of life at Lancaster and SCAN has always been there to break sports news of all types.
