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History of a Canadian sport

Broadcast Date: Nov. 17, 1980

Looking back over seven decades of scintillating moments, CBC radio broadcaster Alan Maitland narrates the history of the Grey Cup. It began when the fourth Earl Grey, who was Canada's governor general, became intrigued with the game, watching it weekly at the Ottawa Varsity Oval. In 1909, he donated a trophy to be awarded to the amateur rugby football champion of Canada. The idea caught on, and pretty soon there were eight teams across the country vying for the prize.

History of a Canadian sport

• In 1909, the University of Toronto's Varsity Blues beat Toronto Parkdale 26-6 in front of 3,807 fans at Rosedale Field in the first Grey Cup game ever played.

• For the first 22 years, since its official inception in 1909, the Grey Cup was a challenge between a handful of teams in Southern Ontario: the Hamilton Tigers, Toronto Argonauts, the Parkdale canoe club, and Varsity Blues.

• In 1921, the Edmonton Eskimos asked the Canadian Rugby Union if they could compete for the Grey Cup. They became the first western team, effectively opening the door for the national event that it would soon become.

• The teams of the western provinces struggled to keep up in the early years. It wasn't until 1935, when the Winnipeg 'Pegs defeated the Hamilton Tiger Cats, that a western team won the Cup.

History of a Canadian sport

Medium: Radio

Program: As It Happens

Broadcast Date: Nov. 17, 1980

Guest(s): Dick Beddoes, Fritz Hansen, Normie Kwong, Smirle Lawson, Scotty Melville, Red Storey, Annis Stukus

Narrator: Alan Maitland

Duration: 29:23

Photo: Image reproduced with the permission of Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.

Last updated:
May 2, 2008