A student organized rivalry basketball game raised over $50,000 for children’s cancer research, with Queen’s first Tri-Colour Classic being held on Thursday night.
The game looks to build upon the rivalry between Queen’s University’s Faculty of Commerce and Faculty of Engineering, taking cards from the longstanding Cure Cancer Classic hockey game.
Hunter MacKinnon, Commissioner of the Tri-Colour Classic and fourth year commerce student at Queen’s, said on Thursday that seeing the crowd assembled confirmed to him that this could be a yearly event.
“I think we validated that tonight,” MacKinnon said.
“Opening tip off, just seeing the crowd and the enthusiasm… I think it’s going to grow bigger, and bigger, and bigger.”
MacKinnon said that while he and the rest of the organizing team were happy with how things turned out this year, they’ve already identified things they think can improve the game for next year and bring costs down, and that being on the map after the game’s debut should help.
While happy to enjoy what they felt was a success this year, he says work for the next game begins right away.
“We’ve cleared the path, we’ve already learned some valuable lessons now it’s going to be like ‘hey how can we improve for next year,'” MacKinnon said.
“The road for 2023 starts tonight technically.”
MacKinnon said around 4000 tickets were sold in order to raise the $51,000.
Money raised will be donated towards the research of Dr. Donald Mabbott and his team at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, testing a new way to boost cognitive function and improve quality of life for childhood brain cancer survivors.
4th year Commerce Student and member of the team on Thursday Marc Goldthorp said it was great to be able to play some competitive basketball again, and it was a surreal event to be a part of.
“All of us played basketball in high school and we thought that was kind of the end of that,” Goldthorpe said.
“But to get a chance to feel famous for a night is pretty special so I think obviously we want to win, but also just enjoying the whole process of it and making sure this is going to be a night we remember for the rest of our lives.”
The Engineering team won with a final score of 65-57.
