The 36th

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

was played on November 27, 1948, before 20,013 fans at

Varsity Stadium Varsity Stadium is an outdoor collegiate football stadium located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is home to the Toronto Varsity Blues, the athletic teams of the University of Toronto. Athletic events have been hosted on the site since 1898; the ...

Toronto 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 ...

. The

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-old ...

defeated

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...

12–7. The game is remembered fondly for being the year in which Calgary fans brought pageantry to the Grey Cup, as much as it was Calgary's first Grey Cup victory. Stamps fans created a party atmosphere by staging pancake breakfasts on the steps of City Hall, riding horses into the lobby of the prestigious Royal York Hotel, and starting parades, dances and parties everywhere.

Game summary

The Calgary defence was able to stop the favoured Rough Rider drives at the 8, 10 and 22 yard lines and hold them scoreless. On one of these Ottawa had successfully faked a punt. On the next possession they ran the fake punt again but Howie Turner was stopped short and Calgary took over at their 46-yard line. They quickly drove into Ottawa territory and scored on a "sleeper play" pass from

Keith Spaith Keith Spaith (April 8, 1923 – March 1, 1976) was a Canadian football player for the Calgary Stampeders from 1948 to 1954. Early life Spaith was born in Dinuba, California. He played college football with Saint Mary's College of California an ...

Norm Hill Norman Charles Hill (November 8, 1928 – January 18, 2020) was a Canadian football player who played for the Calgary Stampeders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. He won the Grey Cup with the Stampeders in 1948. He previously played football at and ...

in the end zone, which meant that Hill ran over to the far sidelines and flopped on the field, essentially hiding. Everybody in the stadium, except the Rough Riders on the field, saw this coming. Hill slipped before he had possession of the ball but he fell on his back and the ball dropped into his hands. Hill's score is sometimes called the "sit-down touchdown".

Bob Paffrath Robert William Paffrath (July 3, 1918 – May 21, 2005) was an American former professional football player who was a halfback. He played for the Miami Seahawks and the Brooklyn Dodgers of the All-America Football Conference, for the Ottawa ...

scored a touchdown for the Riders and they also scored a single. In the final quarter Ottawa's Pete Karpuk fumbled a lateral. Calgary's

Woody Strode Woodrow Wilson Woolwine Strode (July 25, 1914 – December 31, 1994) was an American athlete and actor. He was a decathlete and football star who was one of the first Black American players in the National Football League in the postwar era. Aft ...

recovered and returned it to the Ottawa eleven yard line. Karpuk did not attempt to recover his own fumble, believing that the whistle had blown.

Pete Thodos Peter Nickolas Thodos (November 11, 1927 – December 25, 2011) was a Canadian football player who played for the Calgary Stampeders, Montreal Alouettes, BC Lions, Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders. He won the Grey Cup with the Sta ...

scored the winning touchdown on an end rush that opened a large hole in the Ottawa defence while Dave "Baldy" Tomlinson successfully punted in the last winning points.

Victory celebration

The summary of the victory celebration by Calgary Stampeders supporters at the Royal York Hotel after the game was reported by journalist Jim Coleman.

Trivia

*The "sleeper play" was made illegal in the

CFL 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 ...

in 1961. *The Calgary Stampeders were undefeated in all 15 games that they played this season, and as of 2018, the only team in the history of what is now the CFL to do so. *Calgary's line up was: Archie McGillis (Manager),

, Dave Tomlinson, Johny Aguirre, Paul Rowe, Keith Spaith, Dave Berry, Chick Chikowsky, Bill Pullar, Harry Anderson, Jim Mitchener, Chuck Anderson, Rod Pantages, Jack McGill, Jack Grogan (Past President), Rube Ludwig, Bert Iannone, Harry Hood,

Fritz Hanson Melvin "Fritz" Hanson (July 13, 1914 – February 14, 1996) was a Canadian football player for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Calgary Stampeders. Hanson was signed by the Blue Bombers for $125 a game and free room and board, which was a conside ...

Normie Kwong Norman Lim Kwong (born Kwong Lim Yew; ; October 24, 1929 – September 3, 2016) was a Canadian football player who played for the Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was also an active businessman ...

, Tom Brook (President), Les Lear (Coach), Pete Thodos, Bill Wusylk, Cliff Kliewer, Dave Adams, Rudy Singer, Bob Leatham, Fred Wilmot, Frank Porteous (Trainer), Bill Sherriff (Equipment Manager), Harold Geddes (Asst. Equipment Manager), Norm Carter, Cedric Gyles, Norm Hill, Jim Dobbin, Harry Irving. *Among members of the Stampeders who went on to notoriety outside football, Normie Kwong served as

Lieutenant Governor of Alberta The lieutenant governor of Alberta () is the viceregal representative in Alberta of the . The lieutenant governor is appointed in the same manner as the other provincial viceroys in Canada and is similarly tasked with carrying out most of the m ...

from 2006 to 2010, and Woody Strode became an actor, appearing in films such as ''

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance ''The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance'' () is a 1962 American Western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne and James Stewart. The screenplay by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck was adapted from a 1953 short story written by ...

''.

References

External links

* * {{1948 Canadian football season by team Grey Cup

Grey Cups hosted in Toronto 1948 in Ontario November 1948 sports events in Canada 1940s in Toronto Ottawa Rough Riders Calgary Stampeders