The Simon Fraser Clanfootball team has represented Simon Fraser University since the athletic department's inception in 1965. The Clan played by American rules while they competed in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics from 1965 to 2001 against other American teams. Along with other SFU teams, the football program transferred to the CIS and thereby switched to playing Canadian football against Canadian University teams in 2002. While playing in the CIS, SFU won their first and only Hardy Trophy conference championship in 2003 while qualifying for the playoffs twice. After playing eight seasons in the Canada West Conference of the CIS, the Clan football team began competing in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference of NCAA Division II in 2010, and have played the American format of football again since. The team had maintained a cross-town rivalry with the Vancouver-based University of British Columbia Thunderbirds as they are also the only two universities in British Columbia that field football teams. Since 1967, the two teams have competed in the Shrum Bowl, an annual game played at alternating venues with alternating rules. SFU holds a 17–15–1 series lead while also being the most recent champion having won the 2010 game at Thunderbird Stadium. Due to the two schools playing in two different leagues, the scheduling of these games has often been difficult, with no game being played in 2011, the 12th time the game hadn't been played since the game's inception.
Season results
In 2009, two victories were nullified because CWUAA accused SFU for having ineligible players in both games. However, SFU argued that they followed CWUAA's guidelines perfectly and that the player was eligible at the time of the accusation. The Manitoba Bisons also used an ineligible player in a Simon Fraser win, so the game was declared "no contest."
Simon Fraser University holds the record for the most players selected in the Canadian Football LeagueDraft since 1965, when the athletics program first began. Moreover, SFU holds the record for most first round selections with 34 and most first overall selections with five. As of the end of the 2019 CFL season, eight former Clan players are on CFL teams' rosters:
Former Clan wide receiver Victor Marshall was invited to the Seattle Seahawks rookie camp in May 2013 and earned a contract on May 13 to take part in Organized Team Activities and training camp as a tight end. On July 30, 2013 the Seahawks released Marshall during training camp. On April 27, 2018, former Clan DE Nathan Shepherd was selected 72nd overall in the 2018 NFL draft by the New York Jets and made the 53-man roster out of training camp.
