Grey Cup 'Quick Kicks': Every Championship Game Played In Calgary
By Chris Lawton
Welcome to a special Grey Cup edition of Quick Kicks. With Calgary preparing to host another Grey Cup, it felt like the perfect excuse to look back at every championship game ever played at McMahon Stadium. Only five have been played, but they’ve delivered everything the CFL does best: controversy, defensive slugfests, last-second drama, unlikely champions, and one of the most infamous penalties in Canadian football history.
So, put the kettle on, find an excessively large winter coat, and let’s head back through Calgary’s Grey Cup history.
The city has hosted the Grey Cup in 1975, 1993, 2000, 2009 and 2019. That’s a wide enough spread to cover some very varied games and teams in that 44-year timespan. In that time Edmonton have won in Cow Town twice, and Montreal once. Both, of course, will want to add to that tally this year. Other previous winners in Calgary have been BC and Winnipeg, so Montreal remains the only East Division team to have won the title on the turf at McMahon.
1975: The One That Finished 9-8
63rd Grey Cup
Edmonton Eskimos 9-8 Montreal Alouettes
McMahon Stadium, Calgary
If someone told a modern CFL fan that a Grey Cup ended 9-8, they’d assume the weather cancelled the second half. Well, the weather did have an impact here. This was the first time the game was played on the Prairies. November weather being what it can be in Canada, the day was bitterly cold (-10 to -15 C), and the weather was a big factor in the game.
In the cold, the 1975 championship delivered one of the most defensive title games in league history. Edmonton and Montreal battered each other for four quarters, producing a scoreline more commonly associated with baseball than football. Edmonton escaped with a 9-8 victory to claim the championship.
What stands out today is how completely different the CFL looked. No offensive fireworks. No quarterbacks throwing for 400 yards. No social media clips.
Just defence, field position, and enough tension to make everyone in attendance progressively more nervous. Calgary’s first Grey Cup host experience was less “festival of football” and more “collective national blood pressure test.”
1993: Edmonton Do It Again
81st Grey Cup
Edmonton Eskimos 33-23 Winnipeg Blue Bombers
Eighteen years later, the Grey Cup returned to Calgary and, once again, Edmonton left with the trophy. However, unlike its notoriously freezing Calgary Grey Cup predecessor, the 1993 game enjoyed a relatively mild temperature of 6°C.
The Eskimos defeated Winnipeg 33-23 in a game that felt considerably more like the CFL we recognise today. The scoring was higher, the pace faster, and Edmonton’s dynasty-era reputation continued to grow. This Grey Cup often gets overlooked because it lacks the controversy of 2009 or the storybook nature of 2019, but it was a significant moment for one of the league’s most storied franchises.
For Calgary, it continued an early trend: McMahon Stadium apparently enjoyed handing championships to the neighbours in Alberta.
2000: The Ultimate Cinderella Story
88th Grey Cup
BC Lions 28-26 Montreal Alouettes
Every league has that one championship nobody sees coming. For the CFL, it might be this one. The BC Lions arrived with a regular-season record below .500 and somehow left as Grey Cup champions after defeating Montreal 28-26. Remarkably, they became the first team with a losing regular-season record to win the Grey Cup.
If there is a lesson here, it is to get into the playoffs and weird things happen. It’s a truth the CFL has proven repeatedly over the years. The regular season matters, right up until somebody gets hot in November and decides conventional wisdom isn’t for them.
The 2000 Lions didn’t steal a championship. They rewrote the rules on who was allowed to win one. Weirdly, for a team that went into the playoffs 8-10, they never trailed once in any of their postseason games. This one was tense too. After the Lions went up 28–26, Montreal immediately marched back down the field for a touchdown with 44 seconds left, only for BC to thwart a two-point conversion attempt and recover the ensuing onside kick.
2009: The Most Infamous Finish in Grey Cup History
97th Grey Cup
Montreal Alouettes 28-27 Saskatchewan Roughriders
Ask CFL fans about Grey Cups in Calgary, and this is the game they’ll mention first. And with good reason. This was the very first time the Alouettes and Roughriders had ever faced each other in a Grey Cup game (they would repeat the feat one year later).
With Saskatchewan leading by one point in the final seconds, Montreal kicker Damon Duval missed what looked like the game-winning field goal. Roughrider players and fans erupted. The Grey Cup appeared over. Then came the flag. Too many men on the field. Saskatchewan had 13 players on the field for the kick. The penalty gave Duval another chance from five yards closer. This time he converted. Montreal won 28-27.
Everybody remembers the ending, but actually Saskatchewan dominated the first 50 minutes of the game and led 27–11 in the fourth quarter before Montreal mounted an 18-point fourth-quarter rally.
Twenty-first-century CFL history can almost be divided into two eras, before the 13th man and after the 13th man.
Even now, mention “too many men” in Saskatchewan, and you will probably get to watch expressions change instantly. It remains one of the most dramatic and heartbreaking finishes Canadian football has ever produced.
2019: The Blue Bombers End The Drought
107th Grey Cup
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 33-12 Hamilton Tiger-Cats
The most recent Grey Cup in Calgary produced one of the best stories of the modern CFL era.
Winnipeg entered the game carrying a championship drought stretching back nearly three decades. Hamilton arrived as the favourite after an outstanding regular season. For about three hours, none of that mattered. The Blue Bombers dominated. Especially the D Line, which took over the game from just about the first snap.
By the end, Winnipeg had secured a 33-12 victory and finally ended a 29-year wait for a Grey Cup championship. For Bombers fans, it was catharsis. For everyone else, it was the beginning of Winnipeg becoming one of the CFL’s dominant modern powers. Bombers running back Andrew Harris ended the game as the first player to be named MVP and Most Valuable Canadian in the same Grey Cup game.
What Calgary's Grey Cup History Tells Us
The remarkable thing about Calgary’s Grey Cup history is how varied the games have been. From A 9-8 defensive slugfest to an Edmonton championship. The on to the ultimate underdog winner, the infamous “13th man” finish, and finally, the end of Winnipeg’s 29-year title drought.
Calgary has given us five games with five completely different stories. That’s probably the most CFL thing imaginable. Because no matter how much analysis we do, how many power rankings we publish, or how confidently we predict November outcomes, the Grey Cup always finds a new way of surprising us.
Calgary’s history as a host city proves exactly that. And if history is any guide, the next Grey Cup at McMahon Stadium will give us something else we’ll still be talking about twenty years from now. Fingers crossed as we all wait and hope for a great and memorable game.
Until next time, CFL fans
CHRIS LAWTON
CFL ANALYST
Chris originally started following the NFL with the ‘first wave’ of fans when it was shown on Channel 4 in the 1980’s. He has been a keen supporter of the Miami Dolphins since 1983. Chris first encountered the CFL in 2016 and instantly fell in love with the Canadian game. He has been writing about the CFL 2017. Chris has a degree in history, postgraduate degree in librarianship and can be found on twitter as @CFLfanUK
