The First Grey Cup Game: 1909's Canadian Football Milestone

On December fourth, nineteen o nine, Toronto Varsity took on the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club Intercollegiate Rugby Football Union Championship. But what made this championship more special than the previous years was it was the first one being played for the Gray Cup, which has now played for every year and given to the winner of the Canadian Football League. But it had its humble beginnings over one hundred years ago. Today we're going to dive into this first game and how the Great Cup got started today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history, increasing your sports knowledge. As to day, we learn about the first Gray Cup and the trivia question to listen out for today is in what year was the first Canadian football championship played? And the answer will be in the episode and you can listen to all the way to the end to make sure you don't miss it. Now, the Gray Cup is not the very first championship in Canadian football. This actually goes back to eighteen eighty four when the Montreal Football Club took on the Toronto Argonauts at University of Toronto where Montreal won thirty to zero, winning the very first Canadian football championship. That time, it was kind of a mixture. Rugby football is kind of a and the game was different than it is now for Canadian football rules. Now, remember this is Canadian football rules, which are different than American football rules. There are similar games, but there are subtle differences. But just like football is the most popular sport in America, Canada, football is not the most popular sport. But the Gray Cup is the most watched Canadian event every single year. So if the first championship was played in the eighteen eighty four, why was it the first Gray Cup played until nineteen oh nine. Well, the reason is because of Earl Gray. This has nothing to do with Earl Gray. T No, this is Albert Henry George Gray, who was the Earl Gray. And an Earl is a title or rank in the United Kingdom's nobility rankings. His goes King Duke and then Earl, then Barren And we don't have that in America, and they really don't have that in Canada. But Canada is more closely aligned to Britain, as they were a British colony a lot longer than America was and he was the ninth Governor of Canada and he wanted to leave his stamp and leave something for Canadians to remember him by. And just like the Stanley Cup that has played for for the hockey championship, the Great Cup was done for the same reason. Lord Stanley gave the Stanley Cup and Gray wanted to leave an award for hockey as well, but Stanley beat him to it, so he left one for football, and he was leaving it to the Senior Amateur Football Championship of Canada and eventually made his way into being the trophy for the Canadian Football League over time. So he decided to leave this award for the teams, and so they decided to have their normal playoff system where the champions of the Interprovinical Rugby Football Union and the champion from the Intercollegiate Football Intercollegiate Rugby Football Union and the Ontario Rugby Football Union would face off against each other in a playoff. And what's interesting is some of these teams are still around today. The Hamilton Tigers, the Ottawa rough Riders, the Toronto Argonauts. Those teams are still around in the CFL to this day. So each of them had their playoffs and there was a playing game where the Ottawa rough Riders played the Hamilton Tigers and the winner took on the University of Toronto and that was the rough Riders where the University of Toronto beat them thirty seven to seven. And then the Toronto Parkdale took on the Toronto Amateur Athletic Club and the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club ended up winning. They would play off against the University of Toronto. Now, even though it's called a canoe club, it was more of an athletic club. But that I still think it's funny that Canoe cub played for a football rugby championship. But things were very different back in the day and this was a very popular moment as almost four thousand people came to attend this game and the game was held in Toronto at Rosedale Field. And though many thought that the Toronto Varsity Blues as they are known today, yes Varsity Blues just like the movie but very different, would just blow out the game, but they didn't because it started out as a very sloppy game that many teams fumbled and there was lots of changes going back and forth. It took a while before there was the first score, which was a single, which is when you kick the ball into the end zone and no one kicks it out, and that was the first score of the game done done by the Toronto Varsity team, and then they would have a ten score run and then at the end of the first quarter it'd be six to zero Toronto with Toronto Varsity being in the lead. Then in the second one, the Canoe Club would actually return a fumble for conversion, although their convert failed, so they ended up with a score six to five heading into halftime, and that was really when the Toronto Varsity really took over the return to fumble and the league twelve to five, and then they would have four singles for the rest of that third quarter and the Canoe Club would only get one single, and heading into the final quarter it was sixteen to six and there were five more singles done by the varsity team, and they exchanged the series and they ended and the game ended really with a pass a fifty yard run that would be the last score of the game with the final score twenty six to six, and they all celebrated and they were all excited to win the championship. And they were excited because they kind of knew a new trophy, but it wasn't there. See Earl Gray, the one that was donating the Gray Cup forgot to order it and so it didn't show up un till the next year in March. So a very anti climactic win, no trophy to hold up, but they got the championship and they eventually did get that trophy in March of nineteen ten. And that trophy is the same trophy as they still use today and it's very The trophy is very similar to the Standing Cup as it is a tall trophy and they actually engrave each team and players on the trophy and they have to continuously make it larger and larger as there as more and more champions happened. It's an interesting trophy and it goes well with the other Canadian trophy in the Stanley Cup. And if you want to learn more about the CFL, check out to and out CFL Podcast, where the host Travis and Sheldon take you on a focus from fantasy to football news and everything in between to get you all ready for everything you need to know about Canadian football. And we'll put a link in the description below for you to check them out. And if you enjoy today's episode of Daily Sports History, please leave us a like review wherever you're listening. It really helps raise our social proof that when someone finds our show, they know it's a great show to go listen to and come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History. And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question? When was the very first Canadian Championship actually held? Even though the Great Cup was given out in nineteen oh nine, the first Canadian Championship happened in eighteen eighty four. The payment pending when bringing pen painted step