Canadian Football in Gray – A Leo’s World Special

Good Tuesday morning, Uni Watchers! I hope everyone had a pleasant holiday.

UW friend/contributor/author Leo Strawn, Jr. joins us again today after completing an EPIC series entitled “The Good, The Bad, The Oddly” (a seven-parter with links to the other six in Volume 7). Last week Leo came back to take a look at the colorful jerseys of Canadian Football’s three-pitch and 110-yard field sport, and today he has a different look at the CFL, so I’ll just hand it over to Leo Now…

• • • • •

Canadian football in gray
by Leo Strawn, Jr.

I’m Leo…welcome to my world!

I was cleaning out my sports photo files and came across some images that I thought I would share. The 111e finale de la Coupe Gray (what’s my French?) is just around the corner, so I thought I’d share a few vintage Gray Cup photos that you may not have seen yet.

I’ll start at… the beginning. The first Gray Cup was played on December 9, 1909 between the University of Toronto Varsity Blues and the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club. The Blues defeated the Paddlers 26-6. Smirle Lawson of the Varsity Blues carries the ball in the photo below. He would also help the Argonauts win their first GC in 1914.

In 1910 the Blues won for the second straight year, this time over the Hamilton Tigers, 16-7. I love the newsboy caps worn by Hugh Gall and Jack Maynard from the university!

Worth noting, although I unfortunately don’t have a photo, the following season the Varsity Blues would win the first three Gray Cups in another all-Toronto final, this time against another team with roots in rowing, defeating the Argonauts in theirs first GC appearance. Here are the Argos in their team photo from 1914. They would win their sixth Gray Cup that season, their first win in their third Gray Cup appearance, getting revenge on the Blues 14-2. Those are some cute coach sweaters (?) on both ends!

Mr. Vilk would have loved to cheer on the numerous Argonauts at the 34th edition. They defeated Winnipeg 28-6.

In the 1948 Gray Cup, Calgary wore these beauties as they defeated Ottawa 12-7.

The 38th Gray Cup Final in 1950 was chaos – in every sense of the word. Known as the “Mud Bowl,” it may be the only time in history that a player nearly drowned during a football game. The Argos wore trousers that were double blue, light in the front and dark in the back, but it wasn’t long before you couldn’t tell. Because the varsities were so muddy at halftime, Winnipeg switched from dark blue jerseys with northwest stripes to light blue jerseys and Toronto switched from light blue to dark blue jerseys.

In 1953, Hamilton wore solid yellow against the Bombers. Apparently there were a lot of passes at this Gray Cup, an idea that didn’t sit well with some old-school Canadians.

At the 45th GC there was this unusual uniform fight between the Bombers and the Ti-Cats. The game itself was also unusual. Since two-thirds of the Gray Cups have been played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto, it’s no surprise that many Argos fans were in attendance. One such fan named David Humphrey had somehow managed to lurk on the Blue Bomber sidelines. Hamilton DB Ray Bawel intercepted a Winnipeg pass and Humphrey tripped Bawel as the Ti-Cat defender ran past.

In the 1958 final there was another fine duel between Hamilton and Winnipeg.

In 1962, the 50th Cup Final was dubbed the “Fog Bowl.” The fog became so bad that the Blue Bombers and Tiger-Cats had to stop the game with 9 minutes, 29 seconds left in the fourth quarter and abandon the game the next day. This would be legendary coach Bud Grant’s fourth and final Gray Cup victory with the Bombers. I’m sure you know he would go on to coach the last NFL champion not to win a Super Bowl, Minnesota. But did you know that he won another championship as a player with the Minneapolis Lakers before starting his football career with the NFL Eagles and Winnipeg and subsequent coaching jobs with the Blue Bombers and Vikings? The more you know…

The following season, 1963, the Lions played Hamilton in a game that caused some wounds that just wouldn’t heal. Ti-Cat Angelo Mosca allegedly kicked BC’s Willie Fleming on the ground, knocking Fleming out of the game with a concussion. This of course led to bad blood, particularly between BC QB Joe Kapp and Mosca, as seen in the last picture. Nearly half a century later, when both men were in their 70s, the two got into an argument at an alumni meeting.

In 1965, stripes could be seen everywhere, on Hamilton’s sleeves, on the officials’ shirts and the goalposts!

Unfortunately, there will never be another Riders vs. Riders Gray Cup. Ottawa won three of the four games. They won the first meeting in 1951, this rubber match in 1969 and the last meeting seven years later. The only drivers still in existence won the 1966 matchup.

* * *That’s all Canadian Super Bowl (Sorry) Gray Cup Edition. I hope you enjoyed this trip up north!

See you next time…

Cheers!

• • • • •Thanks, Leo!

This year’s Gray Cup takes place this Sunday at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. ET. For us Americans, the game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network. The Toronto Argonauts and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will face off in the 111th Gray Cup. The championship game marks the eighth time in Canadian soccer history that the modern incarnations of the two clubs have played for the iconic trophy (1937–38, 1945–47, 1950 and 2022). I’ll definitely try to watch some of this game before I go to my curling league.

If you have never watched a CFL game or have watched it in a while, I would definitely recommend it! The game is (obviously) similar to that played in the United States, but there are some different basic rules (12 players, 3 downs, rouge, etc.) that actually make it a very entertaining game to watch.

Guess the game based on the scoreboard

Guess the game…

…From the scoreboard

Today’s scoreboard comes from Stafford Walsh.

The premise of the game (GTGFTS) is simple: I post a scoreboard and you simply identify the game pictured. In the past, I don’t know if I did that always completely amazed you (some are easier than others).

Here is the scoreboard. Try to identify the game (date and location and final result) in the comments below. If anything notable happened during the game, please add this (and if you were at the game, bonus points for you!):

Please continue to send these in! Feel free to send me any scoreboard photos (with replies please) and I will keep them running.

Guess the game by the uniform

Based on a suggestion from a long-time reader/contributor Jimmy CorcoranWe’ve introduced a new “game” on Uni Watch that’s similar to the popular “Guess the Game from the Scoreboard” (GTGFTS), except this game asks readers to identify the game by the uniforms worn by the teams.

As with GTGFTS, readers are asked to guess the date, location and final result of the game based on the clues provided in the photo. Sometimes the game should relatively easy to detect, while in other cases it can be quite difficult. It will normally be a visual cue (something strange or unique about one or both uniforms) that allows clear identification of one and only one game. In other cases, there might be something significant about the game in question, such as the last time a particular uniform was ever worn (one of Jimmy’s original suggestions). It’s up to YOU ​​to find out the game and date.

Today’s GTGFTU comes from Johnny Pistone.

Good luck and please post your guess/answer in the comments below.

And finally…

…that’s enough for the early article. Many thanks again to Leo Strawn for the entertaining insight into past Gray Cup universities.

I’ll be publishing a few more articles today, including (definitely) Mike Chamernik’s Question of the Week, and if there’s any breaking university news, I’ll of course have that too. Be sure to check back later!

Have a nice Tuesday everyone and I’ll be back here tomorrow morning.

Peace,

Ph