100 Grey Cups

by Stephen Brunt

  The play that stands out the most, perhaps, is the only final-minute, game-winning touchdown in Grey Cup history. It was scored by Tony Gabriel on a 24-yard pass from Tom Clements with just twenty seconds left to play in 1976. The win was the last in Ottawa’s long history in Canadian football.

  GREY CUPS WON IN THE LAST MINUTE

  YEAR WON LOST TIME SCORE GAME-ENDING PLAY

  2009 MTL SSK 0:00 28–27 Duval 33-yard field goal on the final play

  2005 EDM MTL O/T 38–35 Overtime shootout: after Fleming’s 36-yard field goal, Edmonton prevented Montreal from scoring

  1998 CGY HAM 0:00 26–23 McLoughlin 35-yard field goal on the final play

  1994 BC BAL 0:00 26–23 Passaglia 38-yard field goal on the final play

  1989 SSK HAM 0:02 43–40 Ridgway 35-yard field goal

  1987 EDM TOR 0:45 38–36 Kauric 49-yard field goal

  1981 EDM OTT 0:03 26–23 Cutler 27-yard field goal

  1976 OTT SSK 0:20 23–20 Clements 24-yard pass to Gabriel

  1972 HAM SSK 0:00 13–10 Sunter 37-yard field goal on the final play

  1961 WPG HAM O/T 21–14 Ploen touchdown run 3:02 into the second 10-minute overtime period

  1947 TOR WPG 0:00 10–9 Krol punt to the deadline from 25-yard line on the final play

  1939 WPG OTT 0:45 8–7 Stevenson punt to the deadline from 8-yard line on the final play

  Other Late Game-Winning Scores:

  2002 MTL EDM 0:19 25–16 Montreal stopped a game-tying Edmonton 2-point convert attempt (Montreal then returned the subsequent short onside kickoff for a touchdown)

  2000 BC MTL 0:44 28–26 B.C. stopped a game-tying Montreal 2-point convert attempt

  1988 WPG BC 2:55 22–21 Kennerd 30-yard field goal

  1983 TOR BC 2:44 18–17 Barnes 1-yard pass to Minter

  1954 EDM MTL 2:30 26–25 Parker 90-yard fumble return and convert by Dean

  1944 MSH* HAM 3:00 7–6 Davey punt to the deadline from 10-yard line

  * Montreal St. Hyacinthe/Donnacona Navy Combines

  In Edmonton, the media and fans weren’t willing to believe that it was all about the shoes – they thought that was merely an excuse for a terrible performance. The criticism left the Eskimos’ players and coaches with chips on their shoulders, with a feeling that they had something to prove as they entered the 1978 CFL season.

  It was a landmark year in Edmonton. The city hosted the enormously successful Commonwealth Games in early August, the first of what would turn out to be a long line of international sporting events. As a happy by-product, the Eskimos gained a new home. Following a final game at Clarke Stadium on August 23, they moved next door to Commonwealth Stadium, a beautiful outdoor facility that was the second-largest in the league – and which would be packed with Eskimos’ fans more often than not.

  During the regular season, the Eskimos established their clear superiority in the west. Wilkinson had found a new commitment to physical fitness, losing twenty pounds, and the rookie Moon showed flashes of brilliance as his backup. In the western final, the Esks knocked off the Stampeders, advancing to the Grey Cup game in Toronto.

  Meanwhile, in the east, the Alouettes had struggled a bit in adjusting to their new coach Joe Scannella, who had taken over when Marv Levy moved to the NFL. They finished second behind Ottawa, beat the Tiger-Cats in the semifinal, and then travelled to Lansdowne Field, where they knocked off the first-place Rough Riders in the eastern final.

  Thus the scene was set for a rematch between the great historic rivals at sunny and frigid Exhibition Stadium.

  It’s the truth in any brand of North American football that quarterbacks get too much of the credit in the good times and too much of the blame in the bad. They’re the ones in the spotlight, the ones who handle the ball on nearly every play. They’re the stars, they get paid the most money, and everyone knows their names and numbers. But it’s also true that, just as the cliché suggests, most football games are won or lost in the trenches, by the dominance of one set of linemen over another, which either allows the quarterbacks and running backs and receivers to make those flashy plays or prevents them from doing so.

  If Wilkinson and Moon and Campbell were the brains of the Eskimo dynasty, its beating heart was found among the ranks of defensive linemen and linebackers, especially two of the CFL’s all-time greats: Dave “Dr. Death” Fennell and Dan Kepley. In the 1978 Grey Cup game, it was they and their defensive teammates who made life very difficult for quarterbacks Joe Barnes and Sonny Wade and Montreal’s exciting young running back David Green. Never would the Als’ offence really get on track, and only an offensive miscue by the Eskimos really kept it close. In the tense final moments, with the game on the line, it was the Edmonton defence that saved the day.

  That said, the play for which the game is best remembered involved neither the Edmonton offence nor the defence, but its special teams. With the Eskimos leading 3–0 in the first quarter, and facing third and two on the Montreal 15-yard line, Campbell sent in the ever-reliable Dave Cutler and the rest of the field goal team. A routine three points seemed in order.

  Warren Moon led the Eskimos to five consecutive Grey Cups.

  But early in the week leading to the Grey Cup, Campbell had added a trick play to the Esks’ repertoire, though the players had only had the chance to practise it once. At a time when absolutely no one suspected it, he made the risky call.

  As always, wide receiver Tom Scott initially lined up behind Wilkinson, the holder, and Cutler, the kicker, waiting for Wilkinson to look over the defence and then direct him to whichever side of the line needed shoring up. Thus instructed, Scott moved up to take his position on the left end, where he faced Montreal linebacker Carl Crennell.

  But then Scott went in motion, moving laterally behind the line and in front of Wilkinson, who called for the snap. Cutler offered up a reasonable pantomime of the kick he knew he wasn’t actually going to make, then moved to the position vacated by Scott, where his job was to try and block Crennell. Meanwhile, from his knees, Wilkinson flipped Scott a shovel pass, and the receiver slipped through a small crack on the right side of the line, gaining eight yards and a first down.

  Two plays later, Jim Germany ran over from the two, and the Eskimos’ lead was 10–0.

  Until the final play of the third quarter, that margin seemed comfortable enough. The Esks led 14–4 at the half, and stretched it to 17–3 not long after the break. Their defence looked impenetrable.

  Then, scrimmaging on his own 10-yard line, Wilkinson attempted a routine hand-off to running back Jim Germany. They never connected, the ball hit the turf, was recovered by the Als, and in the opening moments of the final quarter, Joe Barnes scrambled for the touchdown, narrowing the Edmonton lead to 17–10.

  Things got wild after that. The Alouettes’ own superb defence rose to the occasion, stopping the Eskimos’ offence cold. A late hit by Edmonton’s David Boone knocked Barnes out of the game, forcing Scannella to hand the reins to Sonny Wade. Don Sweet’s field goal narrowed the score to 17–13, but Cutler replied after a botched Montreal fake punt resulted in Wade being tackled at his own 21-yard line.

  LEAD CHANGES AND THE GREATEST COMEBACK EVER

  THROUGHOUT GREY CUP HISTORY, the results of games have often been in doubt up until the last minute, and lead changes are known to be frequent. The three contests that stand out were played in 1987, 1998, and 2005. On six occasions in each of these games, the lead team changed on the scoreboard, and all of these contests saw the winning points scored in the final minute or in overtime. In 1987, the lead changed hands five times in the fourth quarter alone, and Jerry Kauric’s 49-yard field goal, the longest winning kick in Grey Cup history, sealed the game for Edmonton. Calgary’s 1998 win over Hamilton and Edmonton’s triumph in overtime in 2005 also saw the lead swapped back and forth six times.

  The largest-overall winning comeback ever recorded was by the Edmonton Eskimos in 1981. With their run of three consecutive championships on the line and a fourth in rea
l danger, they fell behind 20–0 just 3:14 into the second quarter to the Ottawa Rough Riders (a team that posted a regular-season record of 5–11). The Riders were widely considered to be double-digit underdogs that day, with rookie quarterback J. C. Watts leading their offence. Ottawa scored four times in their first six possessions and held Warren Moon to just nine passing yards and two interceptions in the early going. The Esks’ two-quarterback system paid off yet again, however, as veteran Tom Wilkinson came in to lead the final four series of the first half to settle things down. Moon and the Esks’ defence came out of the locker room after the halftime break and simply blew the Rough Riders away. Moon scored twice himself, led four scoring drives, and completed a game-tying two-point conversion to Marco Cyncar with 4:05 to play. After yet another defensive stop, Moon moved the Eskimo offence on the ground to set up Dave Cutler’s game-winning field goal from 27 yards out with three seconds on the clock, in one of the most exciting Grey Cup games of all time.

  With the score 20–13, the Als had one last gasp. Wade drove them as far as the Edmonton 27-yard line in the game’s dying moments, but the Eskimo defence held firm once more.

  And so the Edmonton dynasty began – but not without a touch of slapstick. As the captains, Wilkinson and Kepley, were carrying the ancient trophy off the field between them, a drunken fan ran into them, knocking the Cup to the ground and breaking it in half.

  Of course, by that point in its history, the old mug had survived far worse.

  Wilkinson was named the game’s most valuable player, though he completed only 15 of 25 passes for an unremarkable 111 yards. True to his character, he acknowledged afterwards that he didn’t really deserve it.

  “I don’t think I should have been named the game’s most outstanding player,” he said. “But I’ll take the car that goes with it.”

  Tracy Ham joined the Eskimos in 1987, after the dynasty years, but managed to lead them to another Grey Cup in his first season with the team.

  Over the next four seasons, the Eskimos would roll on, dominating Canadian football as no team had before, or has since, adding one Grey Cup victory after another: a 17–9 win over the Als in 1979; a 48–10 win over Hamilton in 1980; a 26–23 thriller over longshot Ottawa in 1981, with Wilkinson coming off the bench to ride to the rescue; and finally, a 32–16 demolition of the Argonauts back at Exhibition Stadium in 1982.

  It would never again be quite so good again for Edmonton fans – or for any other fans in professional football – but it was a rare season thereafter when the Esks weren’t at least in contention. (It wasn’t until 2006 that their thirty-five-year streak of qualifying for the Western Conference or Division playoffs was finally broken.) Dunigan arrived in 1983, just as Moon was departing, and in 1985, the year Allen was signed to back him up, the Eskimos were back in the Grey Cup game, losing to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. A year later, it was Allen, subbing for an injured Dunigan, who led Edmonton to a thrilling 38–36 victory over the Argos in the 75th Grey Cup.

  In 1990, with Tracy Ham now their starting quarterback, the Eskimos lost the final to Winnipeg. The following season, Ron Lancaster was hired as the Eskimos’ head coach, the beginning of yet another golden era for Edmonton football. Winning their final eight games of the season, the Esks captured the Grey Cup in 1993, their eleventh championship in franchise history, with Allen named for the second time the game’s most outstanding player. With Danny McManus at quarterback, they lost to Doug Flutie and the Toronto Argonauts on a memorably snowy Grey Cup day in Hamilton in 1996.

  The new century brought more good tidings. After losing the 90th Grey Cup game at home in 2002 to the Montreal Alouettes, the Esks came back the next year to beat them for the championship, the first for Ricky Ray. And then, in 2005, in one of the most remarkable Grey Cup games ever played, they outduelled the Als one more time, 38–35 in overtime.

  Fans of every other team in Canada would have loved to have had it so good for so long.

  1983

  THE ARGOS BOUNCE BACK

  Doug Flutie, one of the CFL’s greatest players, won three Grey Cups through his career and was named the MVP of the game each time.

  It was all a little bit ho-hum. On November 29, 1952, the Toronto Argonauts won the 40th Grey Cup game, defeating the Edmonton Eskimos 21–11 at Varsity Stadium. The western champions struck early with a Normie Kwong touchdown to lead 5–0. But the hometown Argos scored fifteen points in the second quarter, and really, that was all she wrote.

  The victors were hardly a novelty act. The Argos had won the Grey Cup in 1945, 1946, 1947, and 1950 (their great star Joe Krol was part of all of those, plus a wartime win with the Hamilton Flying Wildcats, so the 1952 championship would give him six in his illustrious career). And going back in history, it was the tenth Grey Cup for an Argonauts team, and the twenty-fourth time in the history of the game that at least one of the participants had had “Toronto” in its name.

  No wonder, then, that the post-game scene described by The Globe and Mail’s Gord Walker seemed unusually muted.

  “It was difficult to judge from the first trickle of Argonaut players into their dressing room whether they had won or lost. Billy Bass was first in, tossed off a matter of fact, ‘that’s it’ and went to his locker. Joe Krol followed, wore a slight smile, but didn’t express his thoughts vocally. Then came Doug Smylie, who whipped off his helmet and hurled it savagely at his locker. Al Bruno was the first victory indicator. You couldn’t mistake what his wide grin meant.”

  Sure, they would remember the ’52 Grey Cup game. It was the first one ever televised – though only locally, in Toronto and environs (Annis Stukus started the telecast with a chalkboard talk about strategy, and the picture disappeared for a full twenty-nine minutes in the third quarter before reappearing for the end of the game).

  But another Toronto Grey Cup? Didn’t they all start to blur together? Soon enough, surely, there would be another to add to the long list.

  Lionel Conacher was a star in the NHL as well as CFL. Seen here practising football in his Chicago Black Hawks jersey.

  It is unique in Grey Cup history, the long walk in the desert of one of the oldest and most storied franchises in the Canadian game. The Toronto Argonauts were, in most years, the wealthiest team in the CFL. In the modern era, they would regularly import big-name players and big-name coaches, luxuries unavailable to clubs operating on tight budgets. Each acquisition would, in turn, be greeted as a saviour, as the one to take the Argos back to the same Promised Land where Krol and company had led them in 1952.

  But somewhere along that road to glory, something always went wrong.

  There would be no more Grey Cup appearances in the 1950s.

  There would be not a one in the 1960s.

  Joe Krol was an integral part of the Argo teams that won five Grey Cups in his seven years with them, (1945–53).

  In 1971, a glamorous, star-studded team coached by Leo Cahill and quarterbacked by former Notre Dame star Joe Theismann finally managed to avoid all of the land mines that sidelined all of those other Argonaut teams on the way to the championship game. They arrived at the 59th Grey Cup in Vancouver’s rain-soaked Empire Stadium as favourites over the Calgary Stampeders. The Argos fell behind early, but in the fourth quarter they were poised to finally break the curse. With the score 14–11 for Calgary, Dick Thornton intercepted a Jerry Keeling pass and returned it to the Stampeders’ 11-yard line, which seemed to guarantee at least a tying field goal. What followed instead was arguably the most famous fumble in Canadian football history. The Argos’ elusive and enigmatic running back Leon McQuay took a hand-off from Theismann, slipped to the turf, and dropped the ball. Calgary’s Reggie Holmes recovered. Opportunity lost.

  But that wouldn’t end the torture for Toronto fans. The Argo defence held, and the Stamps were forced to punt from deep in their own end with 1:53 left in the game. Trying to corral a bouncing ball near the sideline, Argos returner Harry Abofs kicked it into touch – and in the process educated almost e
very fan watching about one of the more obscure rules of the Canadian game. If he had knocked the ball out of bounds with his hands, the Argos would have retained possession and would have had one more chance to tie or win the game. But because he kicked it, Calgary was given possession, and they then ran out the clock to seal the victory – breaking their own long drought, with the first Grey Cup win for the Stamps since 1948.

  Back in ancient times – after the 1937 Grey Cup game, in which Toronto squeaked by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 4–3 – fans first talked about the “Argo Bounce,” a lucky break that seemed to come Toronto’s way exactly when required.

  By 1971, though, the phrase was laden with irony. The following season, the Argos went 3–11, Cahill was fired, and after the next season Theismann headed for the National Football League. The franchise’s championship hopes would be mired in futility for the rest of that decade and into the next.

  GREY CUP HIGHLIGHTS

  ASK TWO OR MORE fans to name the greatest play or individual performance in Grey Cup history, and you’re sure to provoke a debate. What follows, however, is a list of plays that went a long way toward influencing or changing the outcome of a Grey Cup game. Most fans should be able to find a play or a game-long effort that they remember having watched live, seen on a highlight reel, or witnessed in person.

  YEAR PLAYER TEAM THE PLAY

  1921 Lionel Conacher TOR Scored 15 of Toronto’s 23 points – in five different ways – before leaving after the third quarter to play all 60 minutes in a hockey game that evening.

  1931 Warren Stevens MTL Threw the first Grey Cup touchdown pass to Kenny Grant (37 yards).

  1935 Fritz Hanson WPG Returned a punt 70 yards for a touchdown without the aid of blocking to give a western club the Grey Cup title for the first time ever.