Steve Milton: Our choices for the five most memorable plays in Grey Cup history
When you're picking the greatest" or top" or best" single plays, it usually depends upon perspective and definition. In picking our top five Grey Cup plays, we've chosen to use memorable" as the required adjective. Which plays are most strongly etched into Grey Cup mythology: sometimes for negative reasons, sometimes for positive ones.
Just missing this tight, highly personal, list were, among others, Brandon Banks' called-back punt return which would likely have won the 2014 Grey Cup for Hamilton, Tony Gabriel's great pass pattern to corral Tom Clements' 1976 winner, fan David Humphrey tripping the Ticats' Ray Bibbles" Bawels on the way to an interception return touchdown in 1957, Ernest Jackson's juggling reception in the Redblack's upset 2016 overtime win, and Russ Jackson's rollout touchdown pass to Jim Mankins in 1969.
5. The Rocket explodes, so does the beer can
1991 Winnipeg Stadium
It's impossible to separate one vision from the other: Raghib Ismail raising his arms in triumph as he hit the Calgary 10-yard line and the beer can hurled from the stands slamming into the turf within inches of him and exploding in a frozen froth.
The Rocket,' the runner-up for the 1990 Heisman Trophy while at Notre Dame, had been brought north by the new Toronto Argonauts' celebrity ownership of Bruce McNall, Wayne Gretzky and the late comedian John Candy. The Argos made news everywhere they went that season, attracted 50,000 to the SkyDome for the previous week's East Final and were clinging to a 22-21 lead, just over three minutes into the final quarter. Ismail - so fast that earlier that year he finished second in NCAA indoor 55 metre championship - scooped up a Stampeder kickoff at his own 23-yard line. He danced and dangled to his right to find an outside lane and dashed the rest of the 87 yards for the touchdown which cracked open a game that would end 36-21 for the Argos. It was the first Grey Cup played in the aptly nicknamed Winterpeg where it was -17 at kickoff and had wind-chilled down to -35 by the middle of the game. Any other year, quarterback Matt Dunigan, somehow playing despite a separated throwing shoulder, would have been the story. But not with The Rocket's spectacular return ... and equally-fabled thrown beer can which would have seriously injured him had it struck him. Mike McCarthy, then GM of the Argos, said another can was thrown into the end zone as Ismail got there but he wasn't hit by, nor did he see, either one.
4. The 13th man: From slogan to swear words
2009 McMahon Stadium, Calgary
This one isn't about athletics, it's about math. And in the flatlands the blown arithmetic still stings.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders, heavy underdogs to Anthony Calvillo's powerhouse Montreal Alouettes, were up 16 points with less than 12 minutes to play. They were up only two when Damon Duval lined up for a 43-yard field goal attempt with five seconds left to play. As it went wide right, the pro-Riders crowd went completely wild, thinking their team had won 27-25. But there were flags everywhere because Saskatchewan had 13 men on the field. A reminder: the legal limit is 12. So, the ball was moved up a punitive 10 yards and Duval drilled it right down the middle for the 28-27 win. One of the club's marketing pitches that year was the 13th man makes all the difference." The 13th man has always been, and generally remains, a positive term in Saskatchewan - a statue outside Mosaic Stadium salutes the fans' contribution to player accomplishment - but on that day it turned from positive to pejorative.
3. Fumble or incomplete pass? Parker becomes a legend.
1954 Varsity Stadium, Toronto
It was the first Grey Cup game broadcast on national TV (CBC) so Jackie Parker's 90-yard fumble return had a much larger impact than any previous game-deciding play. Its magnitude didn't have to be spread by the printed word, single-frame pictures or the oral tradition. It was all there in moving black and white. In places in Western Canada where there was no TV reception yet, fans had travelled across the border because the game was on American TV. Parker, an All-American at Mississippi State, became an instant legend.
With the Alouettes, backed by a pro-eastern crowd of 27,328 at soggy Varsity Stadium in Toronto, driving for a touchdown which would put the game away with three minutes raining, Chuck Hunsinger took a hand-off from Sam Etcheverry five yards behind the line of scrimmage and apparently fumbled. The ball was scooped up at the 20 by Parker, who ran it back 90 yards for a touchdown and a 26-25 win. But the Alouettes always argued, and it appears this way on the grainy film, that Hunsinger had been trying to throw the ball and therefore this was an incomplete pass and Montreal should have retained possession. Parker was in a backfield with quarterback Bernie Faloney, Rollie Miles and Normie Kwong and all four are in the Hall of Fame.
2. Catching the uncatchable
1989 SkyDome, Toronto
Almost every player on the field rose above himself that day, many of them turning in the performance of a career, which is why Saskatchewan 43, Hamilton 40" is often referred to as the greatest Grey Cup - some say even the greatest game - ever played. Staged in a sold-out SkyDome, just five months after it opened, the game was a shootout between Riders quarterback Kent Austin and the Ticats' Mike Kerrigan, spiced up by kickers Paul Osbaldiston and Dave Ridgway. It was Ridgway's 35-yard field goal with three seconds left on the clock that gave Saskatchewan just its second Grey Cup, 23 years to the day after its first one.
That was known as The Kick in Saskatchewan but more widely remembered is The Catch by Tony Champion which had tied the game just 31 seconds earlier. Hamilton was at the Rider 10-yard-line on third down when Champion, working the right side, broke over the goal line and turned his body to look inside. But Kerrigan's throw lofted behind him to the outside. Framed against the massive green backdrop of the end zone, the arcing pass seemed unreachable. But, while moving backward, Champion somehow contorted his body to face the throw, jumped and reached over his head and implausibly made the catch as he was falling to the turf. I can't believe he caught that ball," said the late Ron Lancaster, calling the game on TV. Nobody can, even 32 years later.
1. Eddie Brown goes downtown
1996 Ivor Wynne Stadium, Hamilton
Defensive back Adrion Smith actually made a good defensive play. Eddie Brown just made a better offensive one. The Edmonton receiver's 64-yard catch and run for the first touchdown stands out starkly in the eventual 43-37 Toronto victory, which is saying something because the game was crammed with eye-candy. The wintry conditions left the field looking like some Sun Belt stereotypical idea of Canada, and Brown had to trudge through sloppy snow to flag down Danny McManus's perfectly thrown pass. Smith got a hand on it, deflecting the ball through Brown's hands. But Brown kept his concentration as the ball bounced off his right thigh and onto his left ankle, and then caromed back into his outstretched hands. He appeared almost nonchalant as he squeezed the ball with the tips of his fingers, yanked it up into carrying position and tore across the end zone to the roaring amazement of the pro-Edmonton crowd.
Brown, now coaching with the Carleton Ravens, later said he was frustrated that Smith got his hand on the ball, and was just hoofing at it, but mistimed it and the ball ended back at his fingertips. He said whenever people meet him, that catch is still the first thing they ask about. Not surprising.
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com