Everything about The Grey Cup totally explained
The
Grey Cup (in ) is both the name of the championship of the
Canadian Football League (CFL) and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. It is Canada's largest annual sports and television event, regularly drawing a Canadian viewing audience of about 4 million.
Much like the
Stanley Cup used in the
National Hockey League, the Grey Cup is reused every year. This makes it unique from other professional sports leagues, which makes a new (but identical) trophy every season for the new champion. Like the Stanley Cup, the Grey Cup has the team's name and players, coaches, & other staff members engraved every year onto the Cup.
History
In
1909, the Grey Cup was donated by the then
Governor General of Canada,
Earl Grey, to recognize the top amateur rugby football team in
Canada. By this time
Canadian football had become markedly different from the
rugby football from which it developed. Over time, the Grey Cup became the property of the Canadian Football League as it evolved into a professional football league. Amateur teams ceased competing for the Cup by
1954; since 1965, the top amateur teams, playing in
Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS), have competed for the
Vanier Cup.
The Grey Cup has long served as an unofficial Canadian fall festival generating a large amount of national media coverage, celebration and fan interest from coast to coast. Many fans travel from across the country to partake in the week of festivities that lead up to the game. Historians date the carnival-like activities associated with the game back to 1948, when fans of the
Calgary Stampeders dressed in western gear, square danced, flipped flapjacks, partied in the streets of Toronto and rode a horse through the lobby of the posh
Royal York Hotel.
With the addition of American-based teams beginning in 1993, the possibility of the Grey Cup being hoisted by a team south of the 49th parallel loomed large. In 1994 the Baltimore CFLs (as they were referred to then because of an injunction issued on the behalf of the NFL to prevent this team from using the COLTS name) played in the Grey Cup in Vancouver against the home B.C. Lions. A late fumble on the goal line by Baltimore quarterback Tracy Ham gave the B.C. Lions a chance and Lui Passaglia connected on a game-winning FG as time expired, driving the sellout crowd at BC Place into a nationalist frenzy. This patriotic nationalism would be tested further in 1995 when the Baltimore Stallions returned to the Grey Cup against the favoured Calgary Stampeders led by
Doug Flutie. Baltimore won the game 37-20 and took the Grey Cup south for a bittersweet parade as
Art Modell, owner of the
NFL Cleveland Browns, announced his move to Baltimore for the 1996 season only one week before the Grey Cup. After the 1995 season, American-based teams, many of whom were running into financial problems, folded. Only Baltimore remained and they relocated to Montreal.
The Grey Cup has been broken several times. The trophy was broken in 1978 when
Tom Wilkinson and
Danny Kepley dropped it, and in 1987 when a celebrating
Edmonton Eskimos player sat on it. It was again broken in 1993 when it was head-butted by Edmonton's
Blake Dermott. During the victory celebration immediately following the
94th Grey Cup game in
2006, the winning
BC Lions accidentally broke the cup from its base, which contains the engraved names of the players on each years' winning team. It was repaired the following Monday. Other notable events include a
1947 fire which almost destroyed the trophy and a
1969 theft in which the trophy was held for ransom.
In November 2006, the CFL confirmed that they were entertaining offers from corporate partners for the
naming rights of the Grey Cup. Though the naming rights would apply to the Grey Cup championship game and not the trophy itself, many objected to the idea, claiming that the league shouldn't compromise a national historic treasure for short-term profit.
Broadcasting
First broadcast on the
CBC in
1952, for many years the Grey Cup has been the largest television event in Canada, regularly drawing a combined Canadian viewing audience in excess of 4 million on the CBC (over-the-air, in English) and
RDS (cable, in French).
Festivities
The Grey Cup game is the centre of a larger week of festivities put on by the host cities, including concerts, gala events, and autograph sessions. Also an important part of the event in the
halftime show which in recent years has included major Canadian and international musical acts.
Champions
Halftime performances
Further Information
Get more info on 'Grey Cup'.
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