Grey Cup

The Grey Cup (in French: Coupe Grey) is both the name of the championship of the Canadian Football League and the name of the trophy awarded to the victorious team. The 2006 Grey Cup game was held in Winnipeg on November 19, 2006. The 2007 Grey Cup game will be held in Toronto. The CFL has confirmed on November 16, 2006 that they are entertaining offers from corporate partners for the naming rights of the Grey Cup. ^[1] Though the naming nights would apply to the Grey Cup championship game and not the trophy itself, many CFL traditionalists have objected to the idea, claiming that the league should not exchange a historical, national treasure for short-term profit.^[2]

In 1909, the Grey Cup was donated by the then Governor General of Canada, the Earl Grey, to recognize the top amateur rugby football team in Canada. By this time Canadian rugby had become markedly different from the rugby union football from which it developed. Over time, the Grey Cup became the property of the Canadian Football League (CFL), which had evolved as a professional league that plays Canadian football. University football teams now compete for the Vanier Cup.

The Grey Cup has long served as an unofficial Canadian fall festival generating a large amount of national media coverage, celebration and fan interest from coast to coast. Many historians date the carnival like activities associated with the game back to 1948, when fans of the Calgary Stampeders dressed in western gear, square danced, flipped flapjacks, partied in the streets of Toronto and rode a horse through the lobby of the posh Royal York Hotel.

The Grey Cup game television broadcast on CBC (over-the-air, in English) and RDS (cable, in French) is the biggest annual television event in Canada and regularly draws a combined Canadian audience in excess of 4 million.^[3]

During the victory celebrations of the 94th Grey Cup game in 2006, the winning BC Lions broke the original cup from the base, the latter which contains the engraved names of the players on each years' winning team. It was repaired the following Monday. ^[4]The Grey Cup has been broken several times. The trophy was broken in 1978 when Tom Wilkinson and Danny Kepley dropped it, and in 1987 when a celebrating Edmonton Eskimos player sat on it. It was again broken in 1993 when it was head-butted by Edmonton's Blake Dermott.

Other notable events include a 1947 fire which almost destroyed the trophy and a 1969 theft in which the trophy was held for ransom.

List of Grey Cup games

Active teams Win/Loss Grey Cup record

Defunct and University teams Win/Loss Grey Cup record

See also

• Grey Cup Most Valuable Player
• Grey Cup Most Valuable Canadian
• Rugby Canada
• List of CFL seasons
• Category:Grey Cup champions

Notes and references

1. ^ http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=901d1bcd-05c6-43f8-940e-a0da58baf1b6
2. ^ [1]
3. ^ William Houston (2006-11-20). Minor rise in Grey Cup ratings good for CBC. The Globe and Mail. Retrieved on 2006-12-03.
4. ^ http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2006/11/20/cup-fixed.html

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