Heroes of the Game: A History of the Grey Cup

John Walker is a professor of Spanish studies at Queen’s University.

The history of the Grey Cup is almost as long as the century. The
trophy, worth a mere $40, was presented in 1909 by then-Governor General
Lord Grey, to be awarded to the Canadian championship team. As Stephen
Thiele reports, the cup has been lost, stolen, abandoned, and broken,
but it has survived—not unlike the game itself in Canada.

Heroes of the Game is divided into 13 chapters that trace in
chronological fashion the evolution of the game, from the first decade
of the century up to the troublesome 1990s, which saw the expansion of
the CFL into the United States, under the guidance of commissioner Larry
Smith. Fans of the game will be enthralled by the opening chapters,
which feature the important role played by such university teams as
Toronto and Queen’s who dominated what was essentially an Eastern
Canada league. Not until the 1920s did the traditional East versus West
rivalry emerge, and even then the eastern teams prevailed, although the
western influence was growing. The Second World War saw service teams
competing for the Grey Cup.

In the postwar years, the CFL emerged, with great heroes like Joe Krol
(Argoes), Jackie Parker (Eskimos), and Sam Etcheverry (Alouettes)
dominating the scene. The 1950s and 1960s, which were regarded as the
golden years of the Grey Cup, saw some of the finest teams and players,
and some of the strangest games—the wind bowl, the mud bowl, the fog
bowl. Although football was still an American-dominated game, Canadian
stars like Russ Jackson and Ron Stewart were coming to the fore.

Thiele’s history is based on old newspaper reports, CBC Radio
footage, and CFL Hall of Fame material. The 1957–67 period belonged to
the Ti-Cats, the 1978–82 period to the Eskimos. The author has
provided 27 pages of statistics (players, teams, games, scores) and lots
of illustrations. Since 1996, the loss of such teams as Ottawa and the
threatened withdrawal of others that cannot survive financially, the CFL
has gone radically Canadian. It may not be enough to save this national
institution.