The Gaels compete at the U Sports football level, within the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) conference.

[1] The program has had three Hec Crighton Trophy winners, Larry Mohr and Tommy Denison, who won it twice.

Queen's has competed continuously since 1882[2] and the team began organized play in 1883 when the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) was first founded.

As a member of the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU), Queen's qualified to play in the Grey Cup championship, and went on to win three straight in 1922, 1923 and 1924.

Howes had a plethora of football knowledge as being a 5-time grey cup champion and being a long time assistant to Doug Hargreaves.

With a decent staff that saw many holdovers from the Hargreaves era including legendary defensive co-ordinator Bob Mullen.

They technically have a ceremonial Dunsmore cup victory in 1997 as U Ottawa was found to have ineligible players and their season was forfeited.

The team went on to have strong seasons in 2011, 2012, and 2013, with two semi-final finishes and culminating with a Yates Cup berth; unfortunately, they would lose to Western 51–22.

The team finished fourth in the OUA in 2015, being beaten by the Carleton Ravens in the semi-final game.

The team finished in seventh place in 2016 with a 3–5 record and missed the playoffs due to a tie-breaker with Guelph, whom they lost to earlier in the season.

In 2021, he led the team to a perfect regular season in the OUA and a berth into the Yates Cup Final (which they lost to Western 29–0).

Snyder's era has seen a youth movement on the coaching staff, and a revitalized interest in football in the community, hence the back-to-back hosting of the Vanier cup in 2023 and 2024.

3 straight top four finishes has shown the success Snyder has brought to the program with his own personal touch.

Frank Tindall began coaching the Queen's Gaels football team in 1939, following his playing career with the Toronto Argonauts.