November 27 Grey Cup Games

We are grateful that Chris Lawton shared his talent with us today on some great CFL Grey Cups from the past that occurred on November 27.

The 27th of November – A Date 10 different Grey Cups were played including some classics.

We are honored to have a special guest blog writer and CFL expert with us today.
 

Guest Writer – Chris Lawton CFL editor for ninety-nine yards.

The Grey Cup has a long and storied tradition having been first awarded in 1909. With some gaps along the way there have been 107 times the game has been contested. Ten of those contests fell on the 27th of November. But what were those games like? Let's take a look.

1943 Grey Cup: a wartime affair

The 1943 Grey Cup was the 31st edition of the game being played. As it was during the Second World War times were somewhat different. On November 4, 1942, the Winnipeg RCAF Bombers were created and 34 players were selected to the team. Those players came from the Bombers, the RCAF Flyers and Manitoba Bisons. The idea of forming a combined team was to have enough competitive players should the war effort take players away.
The Flying Wildcats had changed their name from Hamilton Wildcats to reflect how many air force personnel were now in the squad. 
The Bombers who had been runners up the year before started favourites. A 30 yard touchdown pass from Joe Krol to Doug Smith for the Wildcats was matched by a 17 yard TD scamper for the Bombers. The Wildcats however went on to score two touchdowns before the end of the quarter.
Hamilton got out to a 21-7 lead before a second Bomber TD in the third on a 42 yard passing TD. But that was that. A goal line stand in the fourth cemented the Wildcat's lead and they added two singles to run out 23-14 winners.

1948 Grey Cup: The undefeated Stampeders

In 1948 the Stampeders became only the second Western Division team to win the Grey Cup. The 1948 Grey Cup was the 36th edition of the game and the Calgary Stampeders beat the Ottawa Rough Riders 12-7 to take home the trophy.
They did so on the back of a remarkable 14-0-1 season. The stamps had gone 12-0 in the regular season. Their only tie had come in the playoffs in a 4-4 tie with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the first leg of a two game semi-final. You can read about them and a few other 'perfect' teams here. 
This was a game that really brought a festival atmosphere to town. Calgary fans descended on Toronto and made it party central. 
The Stamps worked in the sleeper play to perfection in this game. With an unseen Norm Hill standing along the side-line, Keith Spaith connected with him on a wobbly pass for the TD. Hill ran over to the far side-lines and flopped on the field, essentially hiding before the pass. The Sleeper play was banned in 1961. 
The game was ultimately won when Calgary’s Woody Strode grabbed a ball Ottawa thought was dead, and ran all the way to the Ottawa 11 yard line. That set up the winning score and the Stamps had their first Grey Cup.   

1954 Grey Cup: Edmonton's First of three

The 42nd Grey Cup which saw Edmonton win their first title is considered a classic. This was the first of three straight Grey Cup titles for the Esks against the Sam Etcheverry led Montreal Alouettes. 
Etcheverry would be the CFL's first 4,000 yard passer two years later after a season in 1956 that wouldn’t look out of place in the modern game. That year over 14 games he completed 61.9% of his passes for 4,723 yards (10.3 yards per attempt) and threw 32 touchdowns.
But back to this game and a hard fought 26-25 Edmonton win. You can read all about it over on ninety-nine yards.
The key moment of the game was a disputed Chuck Hunsinger fumble recovered and returned 90 yards for a touchdown. A Grey Cup record fumble return that stood until 2017. That Hunsinger fumble remains one of the great, and hotly debated, moments in Grey Cup history.
Montreal lost despite putting up over 650 yards of total offence, and the Als Red O'Quinn set a record with 13 receptions for 316 yards. 

1965 Grey Cup: The Wind Bowl

The 53rd iteration of the Grey Cup would see the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats face off for the sixth time in ten seasons. Going into the game there were predictions for 70 kilometre westerly winds and gusts of up to 90kph. Hardly ideal!
Contingencies were made to adapt the punting game. But in the end the wind played its part. All scoring occurred when either team was playing with the wind at their backs. After one Hamilton led 10-0 following a safety, single, and 7 yard TD pass.
Winnipeg scored 13 in the second period on the back of two running TD's and one conversion. 
In the third Hamilton QB Joe Zuger hit Willie Bethea for a 69 yard score and a 17-13 lead. The Bombers gave up two safeties and a single setting up a 22-13 lead for Hamilton. Winnipeg hit on a Field Goal in the final quarter but the safeties proved the difference in a 22-16 Hamilton win.

1977 Grey Cup: The Ice Bowl

Sticking with the weather theme, the 65th Grey Cup was played in freezing conditions. Cres removed a protective tarpaulin from the field 25 cm of snow fell. After a halftime show rehearsal the snow was compacted and formed and icy playing surface.
The Alouettes got some traction when some players used staple guns to stud their shoes. The game was the third Grey Cup meeting in four years between the Alouettes and Edmonton. In front of a record 68,318 fans in Olympic Stadium Montreal the Alouettes routed the Esks 41-6. 
Despite it being a bitterly cold -8 degree day and Montreal being in the middle of a transit strike fans trekked to the game in droves. 
Although well beaten here this was the first of six consecutive Grey Cup appearances for Edmonton, who would go on to win the next five CFL titles.

1983 Grey Cup - Toronto ends a drought

The 71st Grey Cup, played at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver in front of 59,000+ fans saw the Toronto Argonauts outlast the home team BC Lions 18-17.
The big story was the Argos ending a 31 year title dought. During that time the Argonauts put together a 169-259-8 record and made the Grey Cup twice (1971 & 1982) only to lose on both occasions.
Fan favourite Condredge Holloway was out of sorts with the flu and was benched at halftime. Jo Barnes came on at halftime and led the Argos back from a 17-7 defecit. The Toronto D also blanked BC in the second half.
With the previous two weather games in mind fans and players alike were probably happy that this was the first occasion that the Grey Cup was played indoors. With the game being played at the newly opened BC Place Stadium.

The 1988 Grey Cup: a .500 winner

Over 50,000 fans were on hand in Ottawa to see the first game won by a .500 team (the 9-9 Winnipeg Blue Bombers). 
Predictions had been for 3 degree weather and possible rain. However it was unseasonaly mild throughout a close contest.
A swing in the game came in the third quarter when the BC Lions leading 18-14 went for it on third down from their own 20 yard line. Winnipeg stopped them dead and the turnover led to three points. It was 19-19 after three.
In the final period Winnipeg hit a 30-yard field goal to go in front for the first time in the game. With the score 22-19, BC went on a 75 yard pass but Matt Dunigan's pass was intercepted in the End Zone. 
The BC defence held and Winnipeg gave up a safety for field position. The Lions then went three and out and turned the ball over on downs and the Bombers ran out the clock to become the first .500 winner.

The 1994 Grey Cup: Oh Canada!

The 1994 Grey Cup was during the short US expansion period for the CFL. This game saw the BC Lions roared on by 55,000 partisan fans in their stadium win a close one 26-23 against the Baltimore Stallions. 
The fact that an American team was vying for the Grey Cup for the first time in its history was momentous. They would win it the next year but that cannot play down how huge this game was for the Canadian public. 
The game was won by a 38 yard Field Goal from legendary kicker Lui Passaglia in the last second of the game. 
If you go and take a look at this game you'll hear one of the loudest CFL crowds you can come across.iframesrc="https://www.youtube.com/embed/KUhGdDF4OqI?start=595" 

The 2005 Grey Cup: HDTV in OT

The 93rd Grey Cup in 2005 was the first to be presented in High Definition, the first to feature cable cam, and more importantly on the field, the first Grey Cup game to go into overtime for 44 years.
Montreal and Emdonton have met in the Grey Cup eleven times. This was the most recent and saw Edmonton win at thriller 38-35 in front of over 59,00 fans at BC Place.
Not that the barn-burner it would be was obvious at the half when Edmonton led 10-1. The third period exploded into life with 27 points shared and a 20-18 Edmonton lead. The back and forth continued in the final period and the Als tied it at 28 as time expired. 

The 2011 Grey Cup: The Lions remarkable turnaround

The 99th Grey Cup saw the BC Lions defeated the Blue Bombers 34–23 and became the first team in CFL history to win the Grey Cup after starting the season with five straight losses.
The 99th Grey Cup saw the BC Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers square off for only the second time in the big game. The game was staged at BC Place in Vancouver and had been sold out by mid-July. 54,313 fans were on hand to witness the Lions crown their comeback season.
The Lions had gone from 0-5, and 1-6 to start the season to winning 10 of their last 11 games and going into the playoffs hot. Andrew Harris the Lions tailback, and MVP of the 2019 Grey Cup was voted Most Valuable Canadian. Leos QB Travis Lulay took home the MVP award. 
The Lions were up 14-6 in the third when Lulay hit Kierrie Johnson for a 66 yard TD. By the fourth they were up 24-9 when Lualy found Arland Bruce for a 31-9 lead. It was enough as although the Blue Bombers hit on two touchdowns they never matched the Lions score from here and BC walked away with the 34-23 win. The Lions never say die attitude from an 0-5 start meant this was a remarkable finish to their season.  

The 2016 Cup

November 27, 2016 - BMO Field, Toronto -  the 104th edition of the CFL Grey Cup had the Ottawa Redblacks upset the heavily favoured Calgary Stampeders 39–33 in overtime to win a championship in just their 3rd season of existence!

Again we thank Chris Lawton for his exceptional coverage of thes great Grey Cup Games of November 28. Be sure to check out his other work on the site NinetyNineYards.com.