Canada Talks to air the 108th Grey Cup live from Tim Horton’s Field
The 108th Grey Cup game kicks off Sunday, December 12th at Tim Horton’s Field in Hamilton, the first time the CFL’s Championship contest between East and West has graced “the Hammer” since 1996. And, as if to reward the city for this quarter-century snub, the league is giving it right back to them again in 2023, after next year’s stop-over in the Green Rider territory of Saskatchewan. So, two Grey Cups in three years for Hamilton after a 25 year hiatus and as Tiger Cat fans will tell you ….”Oskee Wee Wee.”
The Steel City of Hamilton has actually hosted the Grey Cup ten times in the past; the last three at venerable old Ivor Wynne Stadium, so this will be the first contest at the somewhat newly erected Tim Horton’s Field. And although there hasn’t been a great number of Grey Cups played in Hamilton, some of them have been most memorable.
None more so than that last one in 1996, now forever dubbed the “Snow Bowl.”
With reports that the league was in financial peril, there were country-wide concerns that the 84th Grey Cup game would be the last one ever played, as tractors rolled up and down the field clearing away a heavy snow to help players and fans alike see the yard markers. As it turned out, even in that tough weather, 80 points would be scored as the Doug Flutie-led Toronto Argonauts held off a late charge by Danny McManus and the Edmonton Eskimos to take home the title by a score of 43-37. Flutie would take home the MVP with place-kicker Mike Vanderjadt named as the number one Canadian.
The 60th Grey Cup, played at Ivor Wynne in 1972, would also be a memorable one as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats nipped Saskatchewan by a score of 13-10 with Ian Sunter kicking a field goal as time expired to send hometown fans to the exits happy. But it’s the great names in that game that stand out more than the play itself … quarterbacks Ron Lancaster and Chuck Ealey, Hall of Fame receivers Tony Gabriel and Garney Henley, Rider running back superstar George Reed, as well as the aforementioned Sunter. Perhaps the greatest memory of all is that of Angelo Mosca hoisting the Grey Cup, his fifth Championship title, in what would be the final game of his outstanding career.
Much of Grey Cup weekend’s festivities will take the time to honour Mosca, who passed away in November at the age of 84. That is certainly fitting because when you think of Hamilton and the Grey Cup, you can’t help but think of big number 68, Angelo Mosca. Big Ang was one of a kind.
OK, CFL fans. Let’s get ready to rumble.
The 108th Grey Cup from Hamilton can be heard on Canada Talks (Ch.167) beginning with pre-game coverage at 5 pm.
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