The 85th Grey Cup (

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

championship) was held in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

before 60,431 fans. The heavily favoured

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

won the game over the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in ...

with a score of 47–23.

Game summary

Toronto Argonauts (47) - TDs,

Doug Flutie Douglas Richard Flutie (born October 23, 1962) is an American former football quarterback whose professional career spanned 21 seasons. He played 12 seasons in the National Football League (NFL), eight seasons in the Canadian Football League (CF ...

Adrion Smith Adrion "Pee Wee" Smith (born September 29, 1971) was a football player in the CFL for twelve years. Smith played defensive back for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Memphis Mad Dogs and Toronto Argonauts from 1994–2005. He was a CFL All-Star four ti ...

, Robert Drummond,

Mike "Pinball" Clemons Michael Lutrell "Pinball" Clemons (born January 15, 1965) is an American-Canadian sports executive and former running back and return specialist who serves as general manager for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He i ...

Derrell Mitchell Derrell Lavoice "Mookie" Mitchell (born September 16, 1971) is a former Canadian Football League slotback with the Toronto Argonauts and Edmonton Eskimos and former wide receivers coach for the Edmonton Eskimos. Junior College Career Mitchell at ...

; FGs,

Mike Vanderjagt Michael John Vanderjagt ( ; born March 24, 1970) is a Canadian former football placekicker who played in the National Football League (NFL) for nine seasons, primarily with the Indianapolis Colts. He served as the Colts' placekicker from 1998 to ...

(4); cons., Vanderjagt (5). Saskatchewan Roughriders (23) - TDs,

Reggie Slack Reginald Slack (born May 2, 1968) is an American former Canadian and American football quarterback. After spending his collegiate career with Auburn, Slack was selected in the 12th round (321st overall) in the 1990 NFL Draft by the Houston Oile ...

, Mike Saunders,

Shawn Daniels Shawn Daniels (born May 14, 1979) is a former American professional basketball player. He played in the Philippine Basketball Association with Air21, Burger King, and Talk 'N Text and last played with the London Lightning basketball team in Nati ...

; FGs, Paul McCallum; cons., McCallum (2). First Quarter
SSK—FG McCallum 28-yard field goal (SSK 3-0)
TOR—TD Mitchell 34-yard pass from Flutie (Vanderjagt convert) (TOR 7-3)
Second Quarter
TOR—TD Drummond 6-yard pass from Flutie (Vanderjagt convert) (TOR 14-3)
TOR—FG Vanderjagt (TOR 17-3)
SSK—TD Daniels 3-yard run (TOR 17-9)
TOR—FG Vanderjagt 12-yard field goal (TOR 20-9)
Third Quarter
TOR—TD Smith 95-yard run off the kickoff (Vanderjagt convert) (TOR 27-9)
TOR—TD Flutie 10-yard run (Vanderjagt convert) (TOR 34-9)
TOR—TD Clemons pass from Flutie (Vanderjagt convert) (TOR 41-9)
Fourth Quarter
TOR—FG Vanderjagt (TOR 44-9)
SSK—TD Saunders 51-yard pass from Slack (McCallum convert) (TOR 44-16)
TOR—FG Vanderjagt (TOR 47-16)
SSK—TD Slack 1-yard run (McCallum convert) (TOR 47-23) The game started well for Saskatchewan, with Shannon Baker returning the opening kick-off 74 yards deep into Toronto territory. Five plays later, the Roughriders scored a 28-yard field goal from Paul McCallum. After the two teams exchanged interceptions, the Argonauts engineered a 32-yard drive culminating in a touchdown strike from quarterback

to put Toronto in the lead, 7–3. Doug Flutie then marched the Argos down the field again and hit Robert Drummond with a 6-yard touchdown pass to stretch the margin to 14–3. Saskatchewan edged closer with 3-yard touchdown plunge from Shawn Daniels, but the convert failed, leaving the score 14–9. Then Toronto kicker

kicked two field goals, one on the final play of the first half, to extend the lead to 20-9 going into the locker room. The turning point in the game came on the first play of the second half. Toronto kick returner

caught the ball on his own 15-yard line, started toward the right sideline for a record 95 return for a touchdown. Shortly after an interception, Flutie engineered a 73-yard drive, and called his own number from 10 yards out to score again. Still in the third quarter Flutie spotted

open in the end zone for the third touchdown in the quarter. The score after three quarters was 41–9. Saskatchewan scored in the fourth quarter when Mike Saunders hauled in a 51-yard touchdown pass from scrambling quarterback

. Vanderjagt added two more field goals for Toronto and Slack plunged in from 1 yard out to round out the scoring.

Trivia

* Doug Flutie, who threw for 350 yards, claimed Most Valuable Player honours along with a brand new

Dodge Dakota The Dodge Dakota, known as the Ram Dakota for the final two years of production, is a mid-size pickup truck from Chrysler's Ram (formerly Dodge Truck) division. The first Dakota was introduced in late 1986 as a 1987 model. From its introduction th ...

, while

Paul Masotti Paul Masotti (born March 10, 1965) is a former professional Canadian football player and current front office executive with the Canadian Football League Toronto Argonauts. Masotti played the wide receiver position for 12 seasons with the Toronto ...

was named Most Valuable Canadian. While on air live, and upon being named

Grey Cup MVP The Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is awarded annually since 1959 to the player of the winning team who deemed to have had the best performance in the Grey Cup Game, the Canadian Football League's championship game. This award is pres ...

, Flutie handed the keys to the Dakota over to Masotti. When his generosity was acknowledged by the announcer, Flutie remarked "I have one (a MVP truck) from last year." (When he was also MVP.) * The game was originally slated to be held at Memorial Stadium in

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, but the

Baltimore Stallions The Baltimore Stallions (known officially as the "Baltimore Football Club" and previously as the "Baltimore CFL Colts" in its inaugural season) were a Canadian Football League team based in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States, which played ...

' relocation to

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

to become the new Alouettes a year earlier along with the ownership situation struggle in Montreal made it impossible to hold the game in that city. The league then awarded the game to

at the 1996 Grey Cup weekend. Had the Stallions still been in operation in 1997, it would have marked the first Grey Cup game to be held outside of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

1997 CFL Playoffs

West Division

* Semi-final (November 2 @

Calgary, Alberta Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

)

33-30

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-o ...

* Final (November 9 @

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anch ...

)

31-30 Edmonton Eskimos

East Division

* Semi-final (November 2 @

)

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the East Division of the Canad ...

45-35

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first seas ...

* * Final (November 9 @

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

)

37-30

''* Cross over from West Division''

External links

* {{1997 CFL season by team Grey Cup Grey Cups hosted in Edmonton 1997 in Alberta 1997 Canadian Football League season Saskatchewan Roughriders Toronto Argonauts 1990s in Edmonton 1997 in Canadian television November 1997 sports events in Canada 1997 in Canadian football