The 59th

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 28, 1971, before 34,404 fans at

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

's Empire Stadium. 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 the

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 ...

on a slick, rain-covered field, 14–11.

Box Score

First Quarter Calgary - TD -

Herm Harrison Herman Austin "Ham Hands" Harrison (September 29, 1939 – November 2, 2013) was a tight end with the Calgary Stampeders from 1964 to 1972. College football Herm Harrison played college football at Arizona State University. Calgary Herm Harriso ...

14 yard pass from

Jerry Keeling Jerry Keeling (August 2, 1939 – January 20, 2018) was a quarterback and defensive back in the Canadian Football League, playing fifteen seasons from 1961 to 1975 for the Calgary Stampeders, the Ottawa Rough Riders, and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. ...

( Larry Robinson convert) Second Quarter Toronto - FG - Ivan MacMillan 11 yards
Calgary - TD - Jesse Mims 6 yard run ( Larry Robinson convert) Third Quarter Toronto - TD - Roger Scales 33 yard fumble return (lateral from Joe Vijuk) ( Ivan MacMillan convert)
Toronto - Rouge - Ivan MacMillan 27 yard missed FG Fourth Quarter No scoring

Background

The Argonauts had not appeared in a Grey Cup championship game since

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...

. The Stampeders were making their third Grey Cup appearance in four years, but had not actually won a championship since

1948 Events January * January 1 ** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated. ** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect. ** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...

. The 10-4 Argonauts faced the 9-6-1 Stampeders for the first time in the Grey Cup. Both teams finished in first place in their divisions, but Toronto, led by star rookie quarterback Joe Theismann, was the favourite. The 1971

was the first to be played on

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...

(Tartan Turf).

The game

Field conditions were poor, as a steady downpour left sheets of water over the

at Empire Stadium. Calgary opened the scoring with

making an incredible one-handed grab of a

pass in the end zone for a touchdown. Toronto countered with a big play, a 55-yard pass reception by fan favourite tight end

Mel Profit Mel Profit (born July 30, 1941 in New York, New York) was a football player in the CFL for six years. He was selected originally by the Los Angeles Rams in the 1963 NFL Draft. He starred as a tight end for the Toronto Argonauts. Mel authored a b ...

, but would come away from this drive deep into Stampeder territory with only a field goal from Ivan McMillan. Jesse Mims added another Stampeder major, ending the scoring for the half and for Calgary on the day. The second half saw Joe Theismann replaced by Greg Barton, but the Argos could not move the ball. Their only touchdown came when sure-handed Calgary punt returner Jim Silye dropped a punt which was then recovered by Joe Vijuk. Vijuk had the presence of mind to lateral to Roger Scales, who ran 33 yards for the touchdown. Late in the fourth quarter Dick Thornton, a great two-way player who had already made a fantastic reception, intercepted a Calgary pass and returned it to the Stampeder 11-yard line. Theismann, now back in the game, handed the ball off to

Leon McQuay Leon McQuay (March 19, 1950 – November 29, 1995) was an American football running back. College career McQuay played college football with the now disbanded University of Tampa Spartans (from 1968 to 1970.) He was the second black athlete t ...

, the Argonauts' star running back. As McQuay cut left, he promptly slipped on the soggy turf and fumbled the ball, which was recovered by Stampeder Reggie Holmes. To this day, there is still some dispute about this play, as McQuay dropped the ball when his elbow hit the ground and he had not been contacted by a Stampeder defender, thus bringing up the football adage that "the ground can't cause a fumble." Nevertheless, Toronto still had a chance to pull out a victory. With 1:53 left in the game and Calgary deep in their own end, they punted on third down. Argo returner

Harry Abofs Harry Abofs (April 14, 1948 – August 29, 1993) was a Canadian football running back, defensive back, and return specialist for multiple Canadian Football League teams in the early 1970s. He played high school football at Downsview High School i ...

, in an effort to capture the wet ball, accidentally kicked it out of bounds while reaching down. CFL rules state that when a ball is kicked out of bounds, possession goes to the opposing team, thus giving Calgary possession once again. Had Abofs knocked the ball out of bounds with his hand, Toronto would have had one last offensive series. Instead,

Calgary 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 ...

ran out the clock and captured the 1971

Legacy

Argonaut coach

Leo Cahill Leo Cahill (July 30, 1928 – February 15, 2018) was an American head coach and general manager in the Canadian Football League, much of it spent with the Toronto Argonauts. Early life Cahill was born on July 30, 1928 in Utica, Illinois and lat ...

, who won the 1971 Coach of the Year award, would later say, "When Leon (McQuay) slipped, I fell." He was fired in 1972 after the team, beset by injuries, stumbled to a 3-11 finish. He would return to coach the Argos in 1977, but was fired midway through the 1978 season. Jim Silye was later a Member of Parliament for Calgary. Dick Suderman, the first recipient of the newly-created Most Valuable Canadian award for the game, died the following year and the trophy was renamed in his honour. The 1971 Argonaut team was the focus of an episode of

Engraved on a Nation ''Engraved on a Nation'' is a Canadian sports documentary anthology series commissioned by TSN. The series originally premiered in 2012, with an anthology of 8 documentaries surrounding the Canadian Football League and the Grey Cup, in honour ...

. This was the first Grey Cup game to be played on a Sunday on a permanent basis; the first such game to be played in full on a Sunday came two years earlier.

Videos

External links

* {{1971 CFL season by team

Grey Cup Grey Cups hosted in Vancouver 1971 in British Columbia Toronto Argonauts Calgary Stampeders 1971 in Canadian television November 1971 sports events in Canada 1970s in Vancouver