Steve Milton: Grey Cups that provided more than a game
The Novembers of 1969 and '70 were not the only times the Grey Cup was able to successfully distract a nation from huge and worrisome issues. The national championship has also helped divert, however momentarily, anxieties over global warfare, the Great Depression and a U.S. presidential assassination.
By 1942, three years into the Second World War, so many athletes had committed to the military that the two major Canadian leagues, the Big Four in the East, and the Western Interprovincial Rugby Union, curtailed operations. But, the Canadian Rugby Union officials decided that an annual Grey Cup game should still be played, to help boost national morale and, just as importantly, to lift the spirits of Canadian military service people abroad.
Because so many football players had enlisted, the armed forces were able to muster strong teams and some, like the Toronto RCAF Hurricanes, played in good leagues like the Ontario Rugby Football Union which were still active. The Hamilton Tigers ceased operations for the war but loaned equipment to the Hurricanes. The Hamilton Wildcats played in the ORFU and were allowed to use some Tiger players but not their colours and in 1943 and '44 changed their nickname to Flying Wildcats," because they had eight players from the nearby Hagersville flight training base.
In his 2012 book, 100 Grey Cups," Hamilton writer Stephen Brunt cited legendary sportswriter Scott Young's account of Canadian Armed Forces personnel stationed in London, England during the 1942 Grey Cup: All who were able clustered around radios, dispersal huts and auxiliary service canteens to hear a half-hour condensed broadcast account of the game ....some of the more nostalgic perched themselves on the back of chairs, which they called bleachers,' eating a variety of food, all of which they nicknamed peanuts.'"
The armed service teams' era encompassed 1942, '43 and '44. In 1943, nine - 10 if you count the Flying Wildcats - of the 14 teams across the country eligible for the Grey Cup were military squads.
In 1942, the Toronto RCAF Hurricanes beat the Winnipeg RCAF Bombers at Varsity Stadium. The next year 16,423 people jammed Varsity to watch the Flying Wildcats beat the same Winnipeg Bombers. Hamilton featured all-everything Joe Krol in his debut pro season and 20-year-old Hamilton Central High grad Mel Lawson at quarterback
In 1944, Hamilton's Civic Stadium hosted its first Grey Cup but the Wildcats were upset 7-6 by St. Hyacinthe-Donnacona Navy. The previous seven Cups in Hamilton had all been at the HAAA Cricket Grounds.
The HAAA hosted the 1935 Grey Cup, won by the Winnipeg Pegs 18-12 over the Hamilton Tigers. That game marked the introduction of American stars, particularly the legendary Fritz Hanson to the Cup, and was the first win by a Western team. That provided a massive psychological boost to western Canada, the hardest hit part of the country during The Depression, and to Winnipeg, where the widespread food shortages and civic unrest were peaking that year.
The HAAA also hosted the Tigers' 14-3 win over Regina in the 1929 Grey Cup, just five weeks after the Great Crash of the stockmarket triggered a decade of worldwide recession. The crowd was small but appreciative of the diversion.
And, the 1963 Grey Cup provided some emotional relief for a country still in mourning for its neighbours to the south. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated on Nov. 22 and two days later, the Tiger-Cats completed a two-game total-point victory over Ottawa in the East Final and advanced to the Grey Cup in Vancouver the following Saturday.
The Ticats beat the B.C. Lions, playing in their first Grey Cup, and the game knocked everything else from the headlines and broadcast reports after Angelo Mosca's controversial hit forced Lions' star Willie Fleming from the game.
It all flared up again 48 years later when Mosca and '63 Lions quarterback Joe Kapp got into a physical battle at an alumni function at the 2011 Grey Cup in Vancouver which went viral on social media.
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com