As an important part of outstanding traditional Chinese culture, the culture of the Grand Canal not only reflects the wisdom and strength of the nation but also carries a rich cultural spirit. In recent years, the state has attached great importance to the protection and inheritance of the Grand Canal culture. This paper explores how to integrate the cultural spirit of the Grand Canal into the ideological and political education of physical education courses in universities, analyzing its value orientation, content dimensions, and practical approaches. By combining theory with practice, it proposes the value of the Grand Canal cultural spirit in physical education courses, including guiding political ideology, shaping moral qualities, and inheriting regional culture. In addition, this paper also explores the innovation of teaching methods and evaluation systems to improve teaching effectiveness and promote the in-depth integration of the Grand Canal cultural spirit into contemporary physical education teaching in universities.