The Waterloo Warriors are celebrating the anniversary of one of the greatest teams to ever don the black and gold.
The Warriors announced that they will raise a pair of banners commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 1995-96 Queen's Cup championship team in a pregame ceremony on Saturday night, November 28.
The event, as part of the Alumni Weekend celebrations, will include a banner-raising commemorating the OUA West division championship, to go along with the OUA Queen's Cup championship banner that already flies from the rafters of the Columbia Icefield Arena. The Warriors finished the season with a 21-5 record, and defeated UQTR 5-1 in the Queen's Cup final, before eventually losing 3-2 to Acadia in the CIAU University Cup national championship game.
In addition, the Warriors will raise to the rafters the All-Canadian banner of defenceman John Wynne. The Calgary native is a Warriors athletics hall-of-famer, and his outstanding career peaked in 1995-96 when he was named a first-team all-star, first-team All-Canadian, and OUA West MVP. Capping off his outstanding season, he became just the second Warrior ever to win the Sen. Joseph A. Sullivan Award as the CIAU National Player of the Year. All told, Wynne sits sixth all-time in team scoring with 140 points, and 2nd all-time in assists, with 106.
As part of the anniversary, gowarriorsgo.ca has also published Black and Golden: The Complete Oral History of the 1995-96 Waterloo Warriors. The special six-part series tells the whole story of the team's march to immortality, all in their own words.
