Canada’s Sacred Sports Bonanza

By Chad Klassen
Love of Sports Correspondent

North of the 49th parallel, all football fans can think about is this Sunday’s 96th edition of the Grey Cup in Montreal.

That’s where people from across Canada will converge for the country’s closest thing to the Super Bowl.

There’s no bigger single game in Canadian sports than the Grey Cup, and this year’s classic will be no different. The game will feature the CFL’s top two teams from the regular season, the hometown Montreal Alouettes out of the East and the upstart Calgary Stampeders from the West.

But no matter which teams are facing off for the ultimate prize, this is always a special cultural event that brings people together every Sunday in late November – both sports and non-sports observers. The Grey Cup game let’s us celebrate just being Canadian, given that the CFL is truly our game.

Named after Earl Grey, former Governor General of Canada, the Grey Cup was first awarded in 1909 to the top amateur football team in the country. Interest in the Cup heated up in the 1950s when it started being handed out to the CFL champions (‘54), coupled with the fact the game appeared on CBC beginning in ’52. That passion and excitement for Grey Cup Sunday has only grown in masses since.

For some Americans who are oblivious to the Canadian Football League and its history, the Grey Cup has deep roots. The Love of Sports looks at the top moments from the 95 years of Grey Cup tradition.

A Grey Cup Timeline

1909: The first ever Grey Cup was won by the University of Toronto, 26-6, in front of a hometown crowd of 3,807 fans and later made a splash off the field. The title game captured the attention of the New York Herald, which subsequently invited the Hamilton Tigers and Ottawa Rough Riders to play an exhibition game in New York City that attracted over 15,000 American observers interested to witness Canadian football.

1921: The Edmonton Eskimos became the first Western team to battle for the Grey Cup, but they were beaten handily 23-0 by the Toronto Argonauts. This same year saw a rule change that remains today, reducing the number of players on each side from 14 to 12.

1929: Eight years later, another crucial rule change was brought into effect: the forward pass. The Hamilton Tigers won 14-3 over Regina, and Jack Campbell from Regina threw the Grey Cup’s first ever forward pass. The first touchdown pass in a Grey Cup game interestingly didn’t come until 1931, when Montreal’s Warren Stevens hit Kenny Grant en route to a 22-0 victory over Regina.

1940: While traditionally a one-game showdown, the Grey Cup saw its first and only two-game, total-point series. Ottawa defeated Toronto in those two games, 8-2 and 12-5.

1952: The first ever Grey Cup was shown live on television. The CBC paid $7,500 for the rights to air the game at the time and had been the broadcaster of the championship game every year since, until last season.

1954-56: Marking a ridiculous trend in the 1950s of teams that would be almost guaranteed to meet in the Grey Cup, Edmonton and Montreal faced off three straight times with the Eskimos capturing all three titles.

1957-59: In the subsequent three seasons, and in five of the next six championship games, Hamilton and Winnipeg became bitter rivals. The Tigercats won the first meeting before the Bluebombers swept the remaining four Grey Cup tilts.

1961-62: Amidst the heated battles between Winnipeg and Hamilton, the teams made history in two consecutive Grey Cups. In ‘61, the Tigercats and Bluebombers sent the contest into overtime to decide a winner for the first time; Winnipeg triumphed 21-14 in the extra frame at CNE Stadium in Toronto. In ‘62, fog rolled into Toronto the next year and forced the last 9:29 of the Grey Cup to be played the next day, which has never occurred since. It also marked the first time the game was scheduled on Sunday; Winnipeg won its second straight championship with a 28-27 win.

1977: Also known as “Ice Bowl” (similar to the Packers-Cowboys NFL Championship game in 1967), the Grey Cup was played on an icy surface at the once open-air Olympic Stadium in Montreal – before a record crowd of 68,318 people. The hometown Alouettes, thanks to an innovative idea brought forward by defensive back Tony Proudfoot, stapled their shoes before the game and at halftime. Montreal had an obvious traction advantage and walked all over the Edmonton Eskimos in a 41-6 victory at home in one of the most infamous Grey Cups of all-time.

1978-82: Fresh off their icy defeat in ‘77, the Eskimos went on a championship run unlike we’ve ever seen before in sports history, cruising through the CFL schedule and winning five straight Grey Cups. A large part of Edmonton’s dynasty is credited to quarterback Warren Moon, who, after being initially overlooked by the NFL, came to Canada and lit up the league.

1983: In the inaugural year of its existence, B.C. Place Stadium hosted the first Grey Cup played indoors, one which attracted the largest audience in Canadian sports television history with over eight million viewers. The B.C. Lions entertained their home crowd, but coughed up a lead and fell short in an 18-17 loss to the Toronto Argonauts, who ended a 31-year championship drought in the process.

1989: Saskatchewan’s 43-40 triumph over Hamilton at newly-built SkyDome stands today as the highest scoring game in Grey Cup history. After a back-and-forth offensive shootout, one of the best classics in recent memory, the Roughriders prevailed on a late field goal by Dave Ridgeway. 

1991: Hollywood hits the CFL – and the Grey Cup. Wayne Gretzky and John Candy teamed up with Bruce McNall to become co-owners of the Toronto Argonauts, who won the Grey Cup partially thanks to a dazzling 87-yard kickoff return by “Rocket” Ismail – the first of its kind in the championship game.

1995: In the third season of CFL expansion into the U.S., the Baltimore Stallions became the first and only American team to win the Grey Cup. The Stallions, a year after losing in title game on a last-second kick, handed the Calgary Stampeders a 37-20 defeat at Taylor Field in Regina.

1996-97: With their back-to-back Grey Cup titles, the Toronto Argonauts are the last team to repeat as CFL champions, winning 43-37 over Edmonton in ’96 – a classic game played in the snow at Ivor Wynne Stadium – and pounding Saskatchewan 47-23 in ‘97.