The UNBC Timberwolves basketball teams have a new hardcourt home.
The Indigenous-themed $170,000 replacement of the wood floor gym now known as Brownridge Court was unveiled Friday morning, featuring the work of Gitxsan artist Trevor Angus.
The Northern Sport Centre project is a partnership between UNBC, the City of Prince George and Brownridge Insurance.
The locally owned insurance business owned by Gordon Brownridge has agreed to a six-year sponsorship arrangement to secure naming rights for the court.
Angus, a former UNBC student who lives in Vancouver, designed the large wolf that dominates the court's floor. Lightly stained in Timberwolves colours - green and gold with black and white - the logo was painted on top of blonde-coloured floorboards to create a purposely-faded look.
The court sidelines feature a gold-on-black border which includes the UNBC motto “en cha huna," a Dakelh (Carrier) term that in English is “respecting all forms of life.”
Angus also produced the Timberwolves' Indigenous third jerseys which earned widespread recognition around the Canada West basketball and soccer leagues for their striking design.
“I think it’s important to us as an institution to be a leader in that,” said UNBC president Geoff Payne. “UNBC has always been aspirational and (has a) commitment to truth and reconciliation and acknowledging the traditional lands of which our Prince George campus as well as other campuses are on. But I wanted, in our new strategic plan, to act on truth and reconciliation, so being action-oriented and really being able to demonstrate that we don’t just have words but we have actions that are meaningful. We should all be embracing this, so if we can be inspiring and have other players, other universities, even other communities, looking at what UNBC is doing and (saying) we want to do that as well, that is really important. I’m proud of that at UNBC.”
Brownridge has long been a sponsor of UNBC athletics. He also finances the participation of UNBC business school students in JDC West competitions.
Former UNBC basketball player Emily Holmes, who played for the school from 2015 to 2020 and now works at Brownridge Insurance as a commercial account executive, represented the company at Friday’s unveiling.
“This is incredibly special to me in a lot of ways,” said Holmes. “Given my journey with the UNBC Timberwolves for five years, I’ve played on this court since I was a kid. This place is like a second home to me. Incorporating the Indigenous art just speaks to so much of who our community is and what we stand for and it continues to put our program on the map.”
The Northern Sport Centre opened in September 2007 and the gym floor was refurbished in 2018, when it was damaged while hosting wildfire evacuees.
“What a place, we have a new floor, done for the next 20 years,” said Mayor Simon Yu.
“This is a showcase of what we can do as a community when private industry, when the city, when the university, when the First Nations get together. It’s beautiful.”
