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  • The Drive for ’95. Football is Saved in Hamilton.

    Tiger-Cats surpass season ticket goal Hamilton Spectator article
    Source: The Hamilton Spectator, 17 December 1994, page 1.

    Sell 12,500 season tickets. Raise $1 million in corporate sponsorship. Build adequate corporate boxes at Ivor Wynne Stadium. Provide stable ownership.

    Those were the four demands set out by the Canadian Football League to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in October 1994. If the Ti-Cats failed to meet those demands by a league-imposed December 23rd deadline, a 125 year old tradition would end. Professional football would be done in Hamilton.

    The so-called “Drive for ’95” was in full swing around this time thirty years ago. Daily, the Hamilton Spectator ran tallies showing how many season tickets were sold for the 1995 season. Hamilton had a meagre 6,400 season ticket holders in 1994. Doubling that figure was a daunting task.

    13,287

    On Friday December 16, 1994, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats announced that they had sold 13,287 season tickets for 1995. What was considered the most “challenging” of the four demands was met…and with time to spare.

    “The people of this city are resilient and they respond” – Ticat Legend Angelo Mosca

    In the weeks to follow, the corporate sponsorship quota was met and the ownership situation became clearer, paving the way for David Macdonald and George Grant to purchase the franchise. As the 1995 season drew closer, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats – for the first time in years – were financially stable. Football was alive and well in Hamilton.

    The Drive for ’95 stands out for me because that was the year I became a season ticket holder myself. My parents bought season tickets for me, my brother, and my sister for Christmas in 1994. I remember my Mom somewhat panicking because she didn’t have anything physically to give us, to show us we were now season ticket holders. So, she wrote each of us a note saying, “You are invited to attend every Hamilton Tiger-Cats home game in 1995.” She also referenced where we would be sitting: Section 23. I look back now and think – wow – we’ve been season ticket holders for 30 years. – RF

  • The First Legal Forward Pass in Canadian Football

    An account of the forward pass. Source: The Calgary Albertan, 23 September 1929, page 6

    It’s hard to imagine, but up until the 1920s the forward pass was an illegal play in Canadian football. Early Canadian football resembled the game of rugby more than the pass happy version of gridiron football we are accustomed to watching today.

    The forward pass, a staple offensive play in gridiron football, was first introduced in American football in 1906. Illegal and experimental forward passes were seen in the Canadian game over a decade later.

    It wasn’t until 1929 that the Canadian Rugby Union formally allowed the use of the forward pass. Eastern teams didn’t use it right away, however. The first official completed* forward pass in Canadian football was thrown on Saturday, September 21, 1929 in Edmonton in a game between the Edmonton Eskimos and the Calgary Tigers. Calgary player Gerry Seiberling (pictured below) threw the historic pass to Ralph Losie. Calgary won the game 33-8.

    Gerry Seiberling
    Source: The Calgary Herald, 23 September 1929, page 6.

    *The first legal attempted forward pass was actually thrown earlier in the day in a game in Winnipeg. The pass by Norm McLeod’s (St. John’s) was intercepted by Ronnie Gay (Tammany Tigers) in the first quarter of the game.

  • Queen’s Over Elks in 1922 Grey Cup

    Queen's Grey Cup win over Edmonton Elks in 1922 article
    Source: The Edmonton Bulletin, 4 December 1922, page 7

    On Saturday December 2, 1922, Queen’s University defeated the original Edmonton Elks 13-1 in the 10th Grey Cup game held at Richardson Stadium in Kingston, Ontario. In those days, the road to the national championship was a convoluted affair featuring playoffs between the champions of multiple leagues across the country. The Wikipedia article “1922 in Canadian football” does a good job illustrating the national playoff picture.

    Edmonton was the champion of the Alberta Rugby Football Union and had defeated Regina and Winnipeg to emerge as the western champion. Queen’s was the champion of the Intercollegiate Rugby Football Union, the conference featuring university teams, and emerged as the eastern representative after defeating the Toronto Argonauts.

    Click on the article below to read a detailed write up of the game that appeared in the Edmonton Bulletin the following Monday.

  • Tiger-Cat Defence Strangles Roughriders

    “Tiger-Cat defence strangles Roughriders” read the headline in The Ottawa Citizen on Monday December 4, 1967. That pretty much sums up Hamilton’s 24-1 win over Saskatchewan in the 1967 Grey Cup game played a couple days earlier.

    1967 Grey Cup action (Ottawa Citizen)
    Source: The Ottawa Citizen, 4 December 1967, page 23.

    1967 – being Canada’s Centennial and all – featured the Grey Cup being played at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa. Tiger-Cats quarterback Joe Zuger (who recently passed away at the age of 84) scored a running touchdown, passed for a touched down, and kicked three singles, leading him to be named Grey Cup MVP.

    The Hamilton Tiger-Cats used this commemorative logo in 1967 to celebrate Canada’s Centennial. (courtesy SportsLogos.Net)

  • Roaring B.C. Lions Surprise Mighty Blue Bombers

    BC Lions first game action (Vancouver Sun)
    Source: The Vancouver Sun, 30 August 1954, page 14.

    On August 28, 1954, the British Columbia Lions made their debut in the Western Interprovincial Football Union narrowly losing to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 8-6 at Empire Stadium in Vancouver.

    Winnipeg halfback Tom Casey (#91) was a key player in the Bombers’ victory.

    The game attracted a crowd of 20,606.