Grey Cup
The Grey Cup (French: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners of the CFL's East and West Divisional playoffs and is one of Canadian television's largest annual sporting events. The Toronto Argonauts have the most Grey Cup wins (18) since its introduction in 1909, while the Edmonton Elks (formerly the Edmonton Eskimos) have the most Grey Cup wins (11) since the merger in 1958. The latest, the 110th Grey Cup, took place in Hamilton, Ontario, on November 19, 2023, when the Montreal Alouettes defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 28–24.
For a list of individual Grey Cups by year, see List of Grey Cup champions.Awarded for
Winning the Canadian Football League championship
Canada
110
Toronto Argonauts (18 titles)
Montreal Alouettes (8th title)
The Grey Cup game is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 4 million.[1][2] Two awards are given for play in the game: the Most Valuable Player and the Dick Suderman Trophy as most valuable Canadian player.[3] Then a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Andrew Harris was the first player to win both the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian and Most Valuable Player the same year, which he did in 2019.
The trophy was commissioned in 1909 by The Earl Grey, then Canada's governor general, who originally hoped to donate it for the country's senior amateur hockey championship. After the Allan Cup was later donated for that purpose, Grey instead made his trophy available to the winner of the Canadian Dominion Football Championship, the national championship of Canadian football. The trophy has a silver chalice attached to a large base on which the names of all winning teams, players and executives are engraved. The Grey Cup has been broken on several occasions, stolen twice, and held for ransom. It survived a 1947 fire that destroyed numerous artifacts housed in the same building.
The Grey Cup was first won by the Toronto Varsity Blues of the University of Toronto. Play was suspended from 1916 to 1918 due to the First World War and in 1919 due to a rules dispute. The game has typically been contested in an east-versus-west format since the 1920s. The game was always played on a Saturday until 1968, but since 1969 (except for 1970) has always been on a Sunday. Held in late November (in some years in early December, most recently in 2021), and mostly in outdoor stadiums, the Grey Cup has been played in inclement weather at times, including the 1950 "Mud Bowl", in which a player reportedly came close to drowning in a puddle, then the 1962 "Fog Bowl", when the final minutes of the game had to be postponed to the following day due to a heavy fog, and the 1977 "Ice Bowl", contested on the frozen-over artificial turf at Montreal's Olympic Stadium. Most recently, in the 2017 game snow fell, at times heavily, throughout the game.
The then-Edmonton Eskimos formed the Grey Cup's longest dynasty, winning five consecutive championships from 1978 to 1982. Competition for the trophy has been exclusively between Canadian teams, except for a three-year period from 1993 to 1995, when an expansion of the CFL south into the United States resulted in the Baltimore Stallions winning the 1995 championship and taking the Grey Cup south of the border for the only time in its history.
History[edit]
National championships before 1909[edit]
Serious efforts to organize a national governing body and eventually a Dominion championship for what at that time was still a game called and practically identical to rugby union began in the early 1880s, culminating in the creation of the Canadian Rugby Union in 1891 and the first CRU-recognized national championship the following year. After that, national championship games were held every year prior to the creation of the Grey Cup except 1899, 1903 and 1904.
Languages[edit]
English and French are the official languages of the game.
Grey Cup festival[edit]
Each year, the host city organizes numerous events as part of the annual Grey Cup festival. Gala concerts, parties, and fan festivals are held in the days leading up to the championship game.[103] The CFL hands out its annual awards during the festival, and an annual Grey Cup parade is held. Historically, the festival also featured the "Miss Grey Cup" beauty pageant; this was discontinued in 1992.[104] The game itself includes a performance of the Canadian national anthem (usually sung in both English and French, the official languages of the game) and a halftime show, often featuring performances by well-known Canadian musical acts such as Nickelback, who performed at the 2011 game.[105] In recent years, a former football player, a celebrity, or another special guest participates in the coin toss ceremony to recognize their community involvement or significance.
Nicknamed Canada's "Grand National Drunk",[106] the Grey Cup party originated in the 1948 championship when hundreds of Calgary Stampeders fans descended on Toronto for their team's first appearance in the game.[107] Bringing chuckwagons and horses, the fans organized a pancake breakfast – a staple of the Calgary Stampede – for bewildered Torontonians. According to historian Hugh Dempsey, "The Grey Cup was just another game until Calgary went down to Toronto with chuckwagons and everything and turned it into an event."[108] The Stampeders won the game on the strength of the "sleeper play", a touchdown scored by Norm Hill after he hid himself from the Ottawa defence by lying down on the sidelines, as if asleep. He received the pass from quarterback Keith Spaith while still on his back.[109] The victory completed the only undefeated season in the history of Canadian professional football.[110] The boisterous celebrations that followed the win gave rise to the legend of Calgary alderman and future mayor Don Mackay riding his horse into the lobby of the Royal York Hotel.[111] This event was repeated in the 2012 Grey Cup game in Toronto to much of the delight of the fans of both teams. The Calgary Grey Cup Committee maintains the tradition of organizing a pancake breakfast at each year's championship.[112]
A 2012 survey found that Canadians consider the Grey Cup to be the most important annual event to attend.[113] Fans of all teams converge at the game venue,[106] including some who have attended 60 or more Grey Cups.[114] The influx of people from across the country is estimated to have an economic impact of over $120 million for the region hosting the championship game.[113]
Venue[edit]
Host cities[edit]
The city of Toronto has hosted the most Grey Cup games with 48, including 30 of the first 45 games played.[51] The first game was held on December 4, 1909, at Rosedale Field.[7] Hamilton and Ottawa hosted several early games while Sarnia and Kingston each hosted one as the game's early years were dominated by teams in southern Ontario.[51] The Grey Cup game and champion first left the province in 1931, when Montreal hosted the event and the Montreal AAA Winged Wheelers won the 19th Grey Cup.[119] The game did not leave central Canada until 1955 when the 43rd Grey Cup was played in Vancouver.[120] That contest achieved what was at the time an all-time Canadian football attendance record of 39,491.[121] It was the first of 16 games hosted by the British Columbia city, second among all host cities.[51]
The four highest attended Grey Cup games have been held at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal,[51] with an all-time record of 68,318 set in 1977.[27]