Pictured: Áine Humble, who won our very first national championship in any sport (1987-1988). With her is head coach Alan Thom. She was recently inducted into our Wall of Distinction last April.

How the Griffins’ mythical logo has grown with our institution

Ian Smyth, Evan Watt

Photos and logos: Courtesy of MacEwan Athletics

The year is 1974. MacEwan University — currently Grant MacEwan Community College — operates out of rented space in elementary schools on the west end of Edmonton. The school is just three years old by this point, and offers 16 two-year programs. They’re slowly expanding and in a few years will begin to solidify their permanent campus and broaden the programs they offer. 50 years from now, MacEwan will reveal a logo they plan to have hundreds of student-athletes wear with pride as they compete with students from across the country.

But right now, it’s just 1974. The first big step in MacEwan sports history has been made: they’ve joined the Alberta Colleges Athletics Conference (ACAC), the Alberta division of the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA). For the first time, there will be student-athletes playing for and representing MacEwan. And they’ve got a long way to go.

There were 37 MacEwan athletes in that first season in 1974. A badminton team, a men’s and a women’s basketball team, and a men’s hockey team. They weren’t even Griffins yet — the Board of Governors would approve that mascot in the following year. For now, they were just MacEwan students who happened to play sports for the school. Some of the early MacEwan athletes of the year don’t have associated sports mentioned in the record books. 

In 1975, Grant MacEwan Community College’s teams officially got approval to henceforth be known as the Griffins. The first Griffins logo was simple blue line art of a griffin on its hind legs, roaring up at the sky. MacEwan would use this logo for a decade, and some of the greatest moments in early Griffins history would be accomplished while wearing it. The Griffins women’s volleyball team captured MacEwan’s first conference championship and eventually first national medal when they won ACAC gold and CCAA silver in the 1979-80 season. They would end up going back-to-back, repeating the same feat in the 1980-81 season. The 1980-81 Griffins women’s volleyball team was the first of a total of 12 teams in MacEwan Griffins’ history to have an undefeated regular season, and the 1979-81 dynasty was recently inducted into the Griffins Wall of Distinction. 

The rapid growth of the 1980s

For those first ten years of Griffins Athletics, the women’s volleyball team had all the glory. As the school entered the 1980s, both MacEwan and the Griffins were growing rapidly. By 1981, MacEwan had opened a new Jasper Place campus and appointed their second president, Dr. Gerald O. Kelly. It was that same year that wrapped up the volleyball dynasty. By 1982, the number of programs offered had grown to 40. Student enrollment was at an all-time high, and naturally, that led to more athletes in Griffins jerseys. The athletics department was also becoming a force to be reckoned with in the ACAC. 

With a new decade came a new logo. The simple line art was replaced with a more detailed, more fierce griffin mid-flight, with one claw outstretched towards the viewer. This iteration of the Griffin was not abstract or simplistic in its message — this one was coming for you. 

The ’80s Griffins embodied the ferocity of their logo. They ruled over the court. 1984 saw ACAC gold and CCAA silver for the men’s volleyball squad. Basketball’s Rhonda Wolfram became a CCAA All-Canadian in 1984-85 and repeated that the next season. 1987-88 saw men’s basketball win the ACAC and get bronze at nationals. The Griffins had taken flight.

The 1987-88 season was the beginning of something extra special for the Griffins: the beginning of MacEwan’s badminton dominance. 

Ainé Humble kicked it off. She won MacEwan’s first-ever national championship, claiming the title in CCAA badminton women’s singles. From 1988 to 1995, MacEwan badminton was an absolute dynasty. The team won eight national titles in that span, including the men’s singles title being won three years in a row by Wen Wang. Wang soared past the heights of collegiate sports and became North America’s top badminton player and the 20th best player on the planet. Wang was so dominant that when his Griffins team was challenged by the Canadian national team, the national team went home in defeat. He may be the greatest athlete in MacEwan Griffins’ history. 

1989-1990: Photos of Wen Wang, member of MacEwan’s Griffins Wall of Distinction. He is considered to be one of the best badminton players in CCAA history.

These teams played with a logo that was markedly different from the strong and simple line art of past Griffins symbols. A cartoonishly drawn bird was now screaming at the viewer with furrowed brows and a beak that was Griffins’ blue.

All the while, MacEwan the school also grew quickly. And in 1984, the same year as the beginning of court dominance, MacEwan began its journey to centralize its campuses. The school had presented the idea of a downtown campus to the mayor, and the idea was embraced by the city. Breaking ground in 1991, the downtown campus began construction. In the midst of this, the idea of becoming a full-fledged university was planted. Come 1999, MacEwan dropped “Community” from its name, becoming Grant MacEwan College. Something was beginning to change. 

Along with that change came a change in the Griffins logo once again. The griffin now resembled a sphinx. It was regal and distinguished — perfectly representing its now prestigious position within the ACAC program.

“”They wanted a high-profile symbol that we were a university,” said Schildroth, “and athletics was the symbol that they chose.””

U Sports merger

By the 2000s, it had become clear that MacEwan was entering a new era. Their athletics program was outgrowing the ACAC, and it seemed like they simply could not stop winning. Despite the ACAC dominance, by 2009, MacEwan was no longer a college. The school officially changed its name to Grant MacEwan University. They were recognized as an applied studies school and had taken the jump into the top level of academia. According to former director of athletics Ken Schildroth, the school wanted something that would match this new status. 

“They wanted a high-profile symbol that we were a university,” said Schildroth, “and athletics was the symbol that they chose.” 

It was this era when MacEwan fully dropped the blue primary colours they had worn for decades. In its place is the maroon colour we know today. They adopted a new logo with a full-bodied Griffin bearing its claws towards its opponents. It’s the logo we have become accustomed to. And as the logo got its footing, MacEwan was trying to get its footing in university sports. Canada West.

In 2014, the school was granted probationary acceptance into Canada West. They would have to play out the 2014-15 and 2015-16 seasons before once again applying for full-time membership. To begin, basketball, volleyball, soccer and cross-country were brought over. Sports like curling, golf, and most notably hockey were stuck in the ACAC for the time being.

As MacEwan played out their probationary period, the university was growing not just its athletics program, but its academic facilities as well. In the same year as the acceptance from Canada West, MacEwan broke ground on Allard Hall. This marked the university’s final steps towards a centralized campus: an arts building that would move over 900 students, faculty and staff. A new era of MacEwan University was on its way.

The dominance of MacEwan in the ACAC peaked in the 2010s. Swimming won five championships in this era, curling won three, and MacEwan’s golf team — one of the most elite MacEwan sports programs of all time — won a total of 12 ACAC titles. Both MacEwan hockey teams were also the pride of the program.

Natalie Bender was a goaltender for the MacEwan Griffins women’s hockey team from 2017-2022, during the team’s ACAC swan song.

“The experience shaped me in a lot of ways that you don’t even realize they do until you’re done. And I can’t say enough good about the program and my time,” says Bender.

She holds multiple statistical records for the hockey program and was both the last star ACAC Griffins goalie and the first star Canada West Griffins goalie.

While administrative delays left the Griffins’ hockey program in limbo in regard to when they would finally make the jump to Canada West, the teams were making the most of their last few years at the top of the ACAC world. From the 2016-17 season up to the 2018-19 season, the men’s and women’s hockey teams both claimed three straight championships. 

The move became official during the 2019-20 season. This was to be the final season for the Griffins in the ACAC, and the 2020-21 season would be their first as members of Canada West. At least it was supposed to be.

“Unfortunately, our first year that was supposed to be [in] Canada West was actually a COVID year,” says Bender. 

2019 was marred by emotional turmoil among various Griffins programs. While hockey was celebrating the beginning of its time in the highest tier of Canadian collegiate sport, other athletes were mourning their programs. Golf, curling, and indoor track had officially been denied entry into U Sports and, therefore, were axed from the school entirely. In their final ten years of existence, these programs left their marks on MacEwan. Golf hung 12 banners on the wall of the David Atkinson Gymnasium in that span, with track and curling adding five and six of their own, respectively. Those banners are the only physical remnants of some of the greatest Griffins teams in their history.  

The present and the future

MacEwan had been fully accepted into Canada West. They were the conference’s 17th member, and the school finally felt like a full-fledged university. University-level degrees on a university-level campus, with a university-level athletics program. And as the year 2020 rolled around, two big things happened at MacEwan (and no, we’re not talking about the worldwide pandemic). First, the students’ association opened the SAMU building. Second, the MacEwan Griffins women’s soccer team tried on some glass slippers. A small school from Edmonton, a city renowned for its prestigious University of Alberta, defied all odds and took home the U Sports national championship. It was the first championship victory in MacEwan’s U Sports history, and it finally cemented the school’s place in the top level of Canadian university athletics. 

Despite the historic victory, the 2020s have been a mixed bag in terms of team success. Women’s soccer has continued to be the program’s flagship team, but the men’s success has been spotty. Since 2019, the men’s hockey team has consistently improved season by season. But the women’s team has not lived up to their former ACAC glory, despite some truly excellent goaltenders coming through the program. Basketball and volleyball have not seen much progress either. But the program continues to develop. 

Just this year, a plan that’s been five years in the making was unveiled. The Griffins changed their branding for the first time since 2005. Current director of athletics Joel Mrak believes that the logo is a step towards the modernization of the program. 

“We’re thinking that with a new kind of vision, as we want to be a little bit more modern in some of the ways we do things with athletics, that the branding piece was one that was ready for an update,” Mrak says. 

“We want that Griffin to be front and center.”

– Joel Mrak, Director of Athletics

But as the program moves forward along with the logo, Mrak expressed that history would not be forgotten. During 2020, Mrak was at an AHS testing site — the old Millwoods campus. He noticed a logo on the floor of the gymnasium. The classic blue the Griffins wore for decades. Even in 2025, the long history of MacEwan and its sports team can be found in the halls of the former Grant MacEwan Community College, an echo of what once was — and a reminder of the heights that the school can achieve. Through the highs and lows of MacEwan’s 54-year history, one thing has been a constant in the back of every MacEwan student’s mind: the Griffin. And in the words of Mrak, “We want that Griffin to be front and center.”