As announced by Ontario University Athletics (OUA) during their annual Honour Awards ceremony on Wednesday (May 13) night, former University of Toronto Varsity Blues women's basketball head coach Michèle Bélanger received the prestigious John McManus Award.

The John McManus Award is presented annually to a retired OUA coach who exemplifies the highest ideals and qualities of sportsmanship and service while engaged in coaching in university sport. For Bélanger, she receives the recognition following a 41-year career leading the women's basketball program at U of T.

A Canadian university coaching pioneer, Bélanger took over as the women's basketball head coach at the University of Toronto in 1979. She delivered greatness across four decades, from winning U of T's only women's basketball national title in 1986, to helping coach Team Canada to a silver-medal finish at the 2015 FISU Games, in Gwangiu, Korea. A member of the University of Toronto Sports Hall of Fame and the longest tenured women's head coach in university history, she guided the Varsity Blues to nine OUA championship titles and was honoured as the OUA coach of the year on eight separate occasions. She coached 38 athletes to OUA all-star honours and nine players to U SPORTS all-Canadian status, while making 17 appearances at the U SPORTS national championship tournament. She concluded her time at the helm of the Varsity Blues women's basketball program in 2020 with 854 career wins across 1358 total games coached.

In addition to the Honour Award, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues also received the CHAMP Award for Best Webcast, recognizing outstanding achievement in marketing and communications via broadcast production. In partnership with The College of Sports Media (CSM), U of T delivered 94 total broadcasts across the 2025-26 season providing a high-quality stream that featured multi-camera setups, on-screen graphics and scorebug, promotional commercials, ambient mics, multi-camera replays, and play-by-play and colour commentary.