Canadian Football League - Grey Cup

Previous Grey Cup Winners

The first year the Grey Cup was played for was 1909 when Alberta George Grey, the fourth Earl of Canada and ninth Governor General donated the trophy to the Dominion rugby champs.

The first winners were the University of Toronto, and they retained the Cup despite the fact they didn’t win the Dominion championship. The simple expalnation was, it was their’s until someone beat them in the championship. Finally, in 1914, they made it back to the championship game and the Toronto Argonauts by winning had control of the trophy.

In 1915, the Hamilton Tigers won the title, their second Dominion championship, but in their first win in 1908 the Cup wasn’t yet in use. In order to exact revenge on the University of Toronto for holding the Cup for three years when it wasn’t rightfully theirs, members of the team arranged for a winner’s shield to be manufactured showing the 1908 champion Tigers as the initial winners. Part of what makes the Grey Cup one of the most sought after trophies in sport is that the shield remains in place to this day, declaring Hamilton as the inaugural winners.

During the World War I years the Cup was not played for, returning in 1920.

The Cup has a colorfull tradition. In 1928, the sometimes it was stored in the closet of Len Back, then the manager of the Hamilton Tigers. In 1947, the the Toronto Argonauts Rowing Club clubhouse was destryed by a fire, but the Grey Cup survived.

The Cup led a relatively a subdued existence, a least on record, until 1964 when the B.C. Lions left the trophy in their Hotel as they headed for the airport. Thankfully, one of the players noticed the Cup was nowhere to be found and a teammate was able to retrieve the Cup before the plane departed for Vancouver.

The most bizarre story about the Grey Cup came in 1969 when it was stolen from a trophy case at Lansdowne Park, home of the Ottawa Rough Riders. It was December 20 and the following day authorities received a ransom letter demanding a significant sum of money, but the league refused to pay. Likely looking for some extra Christmas money, the thief finally relented and on February 16, 1970, the Toronto Metropolitan Police received a strange call leading them to a phone booth on the corner of Dundas and Parliament. There, they found a key in the change slot that opened a locker at the Royal York Hotel, finding the Grey Cup.

The game itself always seems to have excitment, some twists and turns while producing a deserveing champion. The game itself is uniquely Canadian with 3 downs and featuring a longer and wider field with larger endzones.