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Date | December 4, 1909 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Stadium | Rosedale Field | ||||||||||||||||||
Location | Rosedale, Toronto | ||||||||||||||||||
Referee | W.B. Hendry | ||||||||||||||||||
Attendance | 3,807 | ||||||||||||||||||
The 1st Grey Cup was an inter-league championship game played on December 4, 1909, between the Intercollegiate Rugby Football Union champion Toronto Varsity and the Ontario Rugby Football Union champion Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club. The University of Toronto won the game, 26–6. [1] [2] [3]
While the Canadian Dominion Football Championship had been contested since 1884, this was the first such game that was awarded the Grey Cup trophy. [4] This was the University of Toronto's third Dominion Championship and their fifth appearance in the national championship game. This was Toronto Parkdale's first appearance in a Dominion Championship game.
According to the rules set by the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU), the champions of the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union, Intercollegiate Rugby Football Union, and Ontario Rugby Football Union engaged in a playoff to determine the Dominion champion. [5] Upon the creation of the Grey Cup itself, it was believed that the trophy would be awarded to the winners of an Interprovincial-Intercollegiate game. [5] However, since the CRU had stated that the ORFU was a senior league, based on this year's rotation, the winner of the Interprovincial-Intercollegiate game had to play the champion of the ORFU, on their home field, for the Grey Cup. [5] The rotational bye and subsequent hosting of the championship game had been in place since the creation of the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union in 1907. [5]
In the Dominion Semi-Final, Toronto Varsity hosted the Ottawa Rough Riders at Rosedale Field on November 27, 1909. [6] The game itself was the most attended game in football history in Canada at the time, with close to 10,000 paid tickets and over 12,000 fans in attendance, including standing room. [6] Varsity defeated the Rough Riders convincingly, by a score of 31–7, and earned their place in the championship final. [6]
While some had thought that Varsity would win handily, potentially by a score of 40–0, Parkdale kept the score close in the first half. [3] [6] After a series of fumbles and exchanges, Hugh Gall opened the scoring with a 65-yard single. [7] Thereafter, Parkdale fumbled near their 10-yard line and Gall ran around the end for a try, with the convert failing. [7] In the second quarter, deep in their own end, Varsity quarterback Billy Foulds lateralled back to Gall, but the pass missed and Parkdale's Tom Meighan jumped on the ball for the try. [7] There was no more scoring in the half and Varsity held a 6–5 lead over Parkdale. [3] [7]
Early in the second half, Parkdale's Moore fumbled, which was dribbled by Varsity's Murray Thomson and recovered for a try. [7] [3] The convert by Bill Ritchie made the score 12–5. [7] [3] After a series of singles, mostly by Gall, the score was 16–6 for Varsity at the end of the third quarter. [7] The fourth quarter featured five more singles for Varsity after a series of exchanges and the score became 21–6. [7] Near the end of the game, Foulds passed the ball to Smirle Lawson who ran 50 yards for a try, just as the whistle was blown to signal the end of the game and no convert was attempted. [3] [7]
Toronto Varsity won their third Dominion championship after falling short in the previous year. [3] [7] Hugh Gall kicked eight singles which remains a Grey Cup record. [8]
Toronto Varsity (26) - TDs, Hugh Gall, Murray Thomson, Smirle Lawson; cons., Bill Ritchie; singles, Gall (8), Lawson (2).
Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club (6) - TD, Tom Meighan; single, Percy Killaly.
First quarter [7]
Second quarter [7]
Third quarter [7]
Fourth quarter [7]
While this was the first Dominion Championship to be awarded the Grey Cup, no trophy was presented at the game itself. [3] [4] Allegedly, Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey, the Governor General of Canada, who was donating the trophy, forgot to place the order to have the Grey Cup made. [4] Two weeks prior to the game, silversmiths were notified to craft the sterling silver cup, on a wooden base, but it was not ready in time for the game. [4] Instead, the Grey Cup was presented to the University of Toronto in March 1910. [4]
The Grey Cup 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 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.
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Toronto Parkdale was an amateur Canadian football and hockey club based in the Parkdale neighbourhood in the west end of Toronto. As a branch of the Parkdale Canoe Club established in August 1905, the club's hockey and football teams were nicknamed the Paddlers. They were also known colloquially as the West Enders, and as the Green and White, after the team colours.
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The 43rd Grey Cup game was played on November 26, 1955, before 39,417 football fans at Empire Stadium in Vancouver.
The Hamilton Tigers were a Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario that played in the Ontario Rugby Football Union from 1883 to 1906 and 1948 to 1949 and in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union from 1907 to 1947. The club was a founding member of both the ORFU in 1883 and the IRFU in 1907. Throughout their history, the Tigers won five Grey Cup Championships and two Dominion Championships, including the 1908 title, the year before the Grey Cup was first awarded. After struggling to compete on a sound financial level with the Hamilton Wildcats, who had joined the ORFU in 1941 and later the IRFU, the two clubs merged in 1950 to form the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Dr. Alexander Smirle Lawson was a Canadian football halfback who played for three years for Toronto Varsity and four years for the Toronto Argonauts. He was a two-time Grey Cup champion and an inaugural member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
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The 1933 Toronto Argonauts season was the club's 47th season since its inception in 1873 and its 24th season in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union. The team finished tied with the Montreal Football Club for first place in the IRFU with an identical record of four wins and two losses, resulting in a two-game, total-points tiebreaker series which the Argos won by an aggregate score of 20-9. By virtue of this victory, the club secured its 7th IRFU championship and qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 1922. The ten-year drought was, and continues to be, the longest playoff drought in franchise history.
The 1921 Toronto Argonauts season was the 35th season for the team since the franchise's inception in 1873. The team finished in first place in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union with a perfect 6–0 record and qualified for the playoffs for the second consecutive season. The Argonauts defeated the defending champion Toronto Varsity Blues in the Eastern Semi-Final before winning the Eastern Final over the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club. The Argonauts faced the Edmonton Eskimos in the 9th Grey Cup game, which was the first time that a Western Canada Rugby Football Union team competed for the Cup. The Argonauts completed their first and only perfect season and won the franchise's second Grey Cup championship by a score of 23-0 in the first ever shut out in a Grey Cup game.
The Toronto Varsity Blues football team represents the University of Toronto in the sport of Canadian football in U Sports. Dating back to 1877, the Toronto Varsity Blues football program initially competed for the Canadian Dominion Football Championship and won six national titles, including the first Grey Cup game ever held in 1909, as well as winning in 1895, 1905, 1910, 1911, and 1920. After intercollegiate teams no longer competed for the Dominion Championship, the team won the first Vanier Cup ever held in 1965, and then again in 1993 as Canadian national football champions.
The 1908 Dominion Championship was a Canadian football game that was played on November 28, 1908, at the Rosedale Field in Toronto, Ontario, that determined the Senior Rugby Football champion of Canada for the 1908 season. The Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) champion Hamilton Tigers defeated the Canadian Intercollegiate Rugby Football Union (CIRFU) champion Toronto Varsity 21–17 to claim their second Dominion Championship. This was the last Dominion Championship played before the establishment of the Grey Cup trophy for the 1909 Dominion Championship game.
The 1907 Dominion Championship was a Canadian football game that was played on November 30, 1907 at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec that determined the Senior Rugby Football champion of Canada for the 1907 season. This was the first championship game to feature the newly created Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) champion, which was the Montreal Football Club. Montreal defeated the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) champion Peterborough Club in a 71–10 blowout victory to win their second Canadian Championship. This was the eighth appearance in the title game for Montreal and the first and only appearance for Peterborough. Notably, referee Russell Britton admitted after the game that there was a scoring error when a touch-in-goal was given to Montreal when it should have counted as a try. While the score should have been 75–10, it was officially recorded as 71–10. This was the highest scoring Dominion championship/Grey Cup in Canadian football history.
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Harry Crawford Griffith was a Canadian football player, coach, and administrator who was the head coach of the Toronto Varsity for three seasons and also served as president of the Canadian Rugby Union. He won the first two Grey Cup games as head coach of Toronto Varsity and served as a coach and headmaster for Ridley College. He was an inaugural member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and was inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.