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The Streak is Dead! Long Live the Streak!
One of the most ignominious streaks in Canadian sports history is finally—finally—over. As we mentioned on Monday, the University of Toronto men’s football team snapped its frankly mind-boggling forty-nine game losing skid. It was their first victory since October 13, 2001.
The last-minute, come-from-behind 18-17 win over the Waterloo Warriors likely wasn’t aesthetically pleasing, but no one associated with the long-suffering program is going to care. And while we thought about dwelling on the losing streak one more time, we decided that’d be a bit mean-spirited; after all, as we remarked last season before the Varsity Blues secured its place in the record books, in spite of “the inherent schadenfreude associated with watching a team making a run at an all-time futility mark…we think it’d be even nicer watching them pull off a win.” Now that they’ve done it, we won’t begrudge them their moment in the sun. If history is any indication, there’s a very real possibility they won’t have another one anytime soon.
Instead, we’ll spare a thought for the vanquished Waterloo Warriors. We can’t even begin to imagine how lowly their players are feeling today, possibly because we Canadians don’t really have any context for what they just did: lose to a team which hadn’t won a game in almost seven years. For the Warriors, it’s almost as inauspicious a distinction as the streak itself.
As for the Varsity Blues, a single victory won’t instantly resurrect a moribund program; frankly, there are still way too many structural deficiencies to allow for a quick turnaround. However, the win might be an indication that the team can at least think about competing with some of the OUA’s lighter weight teams. The Streak (R.I.P.) was an historic psychological barrier; now that it’s been removed, it’s possible the Varsity Blues can start making tentative steps towards respectability. For now, “cautious optimism” should be the order of the day. We’ll see if we can reevaluate our position on Saturday, when the Varsity Blues play the Windsor Lancers—who, prior to Monday, were the University of Toronto’s most recent conquest on the football field. For now, all that matters is that the Streak is dead. Long may it live in Canadian sports infamy.
Photo by AmericaninCanada.