The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League, its counterpart being the West Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.
The Toronto Argonauts won the Grey Cup for the second time in five years.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers played in their third consecutive Grey Cup final. A last-second rouge gave Winnipeg its second title in five years.
The only two-game total point series in Grey Cup history was played between the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers. It was Ottawa's first Grey Cup championship since the Senators won back-to-back titles in 1925 and 1926. It was Balmy Beach's fourth and final appearance at a Grey Cup, winning two times in four opportunities.
The Calgary Stampeders had an opportunity to defend their Grey Cup title in 1949, but the Montreal Alouettes returned the trophy to Quebec for just the third time in its history.
The Toronto Argonauts faced the Edmonton Eskimos in the Grey Cup. Although the Argos would hold on to win the game and their tenth Grey Cup championship, an Argo would not sip from the silver mug again until 1983.
The Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) was an early amateur Canadian football league comprising teams in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ORFU was founded on Saturday, January 6, 1883 and in 1903 became the first major competition to adopt the Burnside rules, from which the modern Canadian football code would evolve.
The Edmonton Eskimos upset the Montreal Alouettes to send the Grey Cup trophy back west for the first time since 1948.
The Edmonton Eskimos defeat the Montreal Alouettes in the first Grey Cup held in the west. This was also the first year that the Grey Cup was open to professional teams only, as the amateur Ontario Rugby Football Union was not invited to compete in an inter-union playdown, leaving only the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union and the Western Interprovincial Football Union to compete for the Canadian championship.
The Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers were a Canadian football team based in Toronto, Ontario and a member of the Ontario Rugby Football Union, a league that preceded the Canadian Football League. Spanning three decades, they appeared in four Grey Cup championships, winning twice in 1927 and 1930, and were the longest lasting member of the ORFU.
The London Lords were a professional-amateur Canadian football team competing in the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU), based in London, Ontario. They played their home games at Labatt Park. They won the final ORFU Senior championship in 1960, after which pro-am teams were barred from competing for the Grey Cup, and subsequently continued to play ORFU Intermediate football until the league formally folded in 1974.
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.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen were a Canadian football team based in Kitchener, Ontario and a member of the Ontario Rugby Football Union, a league that preceded the Canadian Football League. Other teams included the London Lords, Sarnia Imperials, Toronto Balmy Beach and Hamilton Wildcats. The Dutchmen played in the ORFU from 1953 to 1959, winning four consecutive ORFU titles from 1954 to 1957, with quarterback Bob Celeri and coach Harvey Johnson. The Dutchmen were the last ORFU team to have competed for the Grey Cup, losing to the Edmonton Eskimos in a semi-final game in 1954. The following year, ORFU teams would discontinue competing for the national championship title after it became apparent that the ORFU could no longer be competitive in those games. The Dutchmen ceased operations after the 1959 season, just one year before senior play in the ORFU would be discontinued.
Norman (Norm) Perry was a Canadian football player in the Ontario Rugby Football Union for the Sarnia Imperials for eight seasons. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1963 and into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1975.
The Hamilton Wildcats were a Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario that played in the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) from 1941 to 1947, and in the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) from 1948 to 1949. The team was formed to play in the ORFU in 1941 to fill the void left by the Hamilton Tigers, who ceased operations that year due to many players joining the army. In 1943 and 1944, the team assumed the name Hamilton Flying Wildcats to reflect the Royal Canadian Air Force personnel on the team. After struggling to compete on a sound financial level with the Hamilton Tigers, who resumed operations following World War II, the two clubs merged in 1950 to form the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
John Newton 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, once as a player and once as an assistant coach, and was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
