From the Provincial Institute of Textiles, to the Hamilton Institute of Technology (H.I.T.), to Mohawk College… our tremendous athletic history reflects our local heritage and academic growth.
Our original athletic programs in the early 1950’s at the Provincial Institute of Textiles were primarily pick-up/drop-in events with no formal organization but lots of participation. Formal athletics started to grow in the late 1950’s as demand increased among students.
Academically, in 1958, we were known as H.I.T. and structured teams began to develop under our nickname ‘Hawks’ in many sports on the Wentworth Campus. During those days, a young Technology Instructor with a love for sport named Joe Marko was the coach and organizer of many of these teams.
Marko was eventually moved to full-time in the early 1960’s to co-ordinate H.I.T.’s competitive teams in football, basketball, hockey and volleyball. An Athletic Directorate was formed consisting of student leaders, which later became the Students’ Athletics Committee (SAC), the elected voice of the student body. Prominent names during these times in athletics were Terry Macklin, Doug Harrison and Al Arnold.
In 1967 H.I.T./Mohawk celebrated their very first provincial championship in men’s volleyball, winning the Ontario Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championship over Waterloo Lutheran (now Laurier). Following the provincial gold, they also became the school’s first team ever to compete at a Canadian Championship in Calgary, finishing in fifth place.
With the transition from H.I.T. to our new Fennell campus in 1967-68, we became Mohawk College, a reflection of local Indigenous roots. Over the next few years our nickname “Hawks” would also transition to reflect our new home, the Mohawk Mountaineers.
Mohawk College was the first Ontario community college to have their own gymnasium as part of their original campus. Our first athletic director, Joe Marko, was instrumental in developing and promoting athletics in our gym and campus playing fields.
While the Fennell campus slowly opened in 1967-68, Mohawk and six other colleges across Ontario formed the Ontario College Athletic Association (OCAA) in June 1967. The six other institutions include Algonquin College, Centennial College, Fanshawe College, George Brown College, Northern College and St. Clair College.
This was historic in the growth of Athletics at Mohawk and Marko sat on the first OCAA Executive Committee. Over the next three years the OCAA grew to 30 members. In our first year in the OCAA, Mohawk captured championships in men’s basketball and men’s volleyball. The Canadian College Athletic Association (CCAA) was formed in 1974 and Mohawk’s first ever Canadian Championship was won by Wendy Mabson & Brad Paul in Mixed Doubles Badminton in 1987.
Many amazing students and teams have represented Mohawk both provincially and nationally over the years. In 1989 our first recipients in the Mountaineer Hall of Fame were enshrined, led by our ground-breaking leader, Joe Marko, and our first athlete Lisa Buscombe, a provincial and world champion archer, who actually learned the sport at Mohawk under Mr. Marko.
Since Steve McCoy brought the first national medal back to Hamilton in 1967 (men’s singles badminton), the Mountaineers have gone on to claim three more CCAA gold in badminton mixed doubles (1986-87), men's soccer (1989-90) and men's basketball (2011-12). Beyond the four gold medals in program history, the Mountaineers have also captured five CCAA silver medals and five CCAA bronze medals.
While the Mountaineers take great pride in sport performance, striving for excellence in the classroom is held to an equally high-standard. Over the years, the varsity program has amassed 110 CCAA Academic All-Canadians while averaging over 40 OCAA All-Academics per year over the past three seasons.
The Mountaineers have found national success on the individual level as well with 42 Mountaineers being named CCAA All-Canadians since Brian Eves' received the first in '78. Men's basketball and men's volleyball both lead the way with eight total CCAA All-Canadians while basketball leads the way on the women's side with five.
As the Mountaineers begin a new decade that is spearheaded by a culture of high-performance, the program now offers ten sports at the varsity level.
