The 60th

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 December 3, 1972, before 33,993 fans at the

Ivor Wynne Stadium Ivor Wynne Stadium (formerly Civic Stadium) was a Canadian football stadium located at the corner of Balsam and Beechwood avenues, two blocks west of Gage Avenue North in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The stadium was the home of the Hamilton Tiger ...

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

. It was the last Grey Cup to be played in December until

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

, which, coincidentally, was also held in Hamilton. The

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Fiel ...

defeated 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 1 ...

13–10.

Box Score

First Quarter Hamilton - TD – Dave Fleming 16 yard pass from

Chuck Ealey Charles "Chuck" Ealey (born January 6, 1950) is a former American Canadian football player for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League. He became the first black quarterback to win the ...

(convert

Ian Sunter Ian Sunter (born December 21, 1952) is a Scottish-Canadian Canadian football place kicker Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. ...

) 4:16
Hamilton – FG – Ian Sunter 27 yards 1:02 Second Quarter Saskatchewan - TD –

Tom Campana Tom Campana (born January 18, 1950) is a former award-winning and all-star slotback who played in the Canadian Football League from 1972 to 1977 with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. A native of Kent, Ohio, and a graduate of his home state Ohio Sta ...

8 yard pass from

Ron Lancaster Ronald Lancaster (October 14, 1938 – September 18, 2008) was an American-Canadian professional football player and coach in the Canadian Football League (CFL). As the starting quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders for 16 seasons, he ...

(convert

Jack Abendschan Jack Abendschan (born December 18, 1942) is a former Canadian Football League offensive lineman and placekicker who played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders from 1965 through 1975. Professional career Jack Abendschan began his career with the Sask ...

) 12:34
Saskatchewan – FG – Jack Abendschan 20 yards 1:41 Third Quarter No scoring Fourth Quarter Hamilton – FG – Ian Sunter 34 yards 0:00

Game summary

An interception of a

pass by Hamilton's

Al Brenner Allen Ray Brenner (November 13, 1947 – February 13, 2012) was an American gridiron football player. He played in the Canadian Football League (CFL) for seven years. Football career Brenner played defensive back for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, W ...

led to a 16-yard touchdown pass from

to Dave Fleming. The score stood despite replays clearly showing that Fleming was out of bounds when he caught Ealey's pass. Later in the first quarter

Bob Krouse Bob Krouse (born February 21, 1943, in Hamilton, Ontario) is a former professional Canadian football linebacker who played thirteen seasons in the Canadian Football League for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He was a part of the Tiger-Cats 1963, 1965, 196 ...

of Hamilton had his first of two blocked punts. Hamilton recovered but had to settle for a 27-yard

field goal. Brenner appeared to have a second interception for a 27-yard touchdown return, but it was called back on a Hamilton offside. In the second quarter, Saskatchewan tied the game with an 8-yard Lancaster to Tom Campana pass and a 20-yard

field goal. With just under two minutes to play in the game and Hamilton on their own 15-yard line, Ealey completed a 27-yard pass to

Tony Gabriel Anthony Michael Peter Gabriel (born December 11, 1948) is a former professional Canadian football pass receiver who played in the Canadian Football League from 1971 to 1981. He played for both the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Ottawa Rough Riders. ...

; it was Gabriel's first catch of the day. Ealey immediately went back to Gabriel for 12 yards, and a play later threw to Gabriel a third time to get to the Saskatchewan 41-yard line with 51 seconds left. Hamilton then ran the clock down while getting close enough for Ian Sunter to kick a 34-yard field goal on the last play of the game for the win.

Notable facts

* Ealey completed 18 of 29 pass attempts for 291 yards; Lancaster was 20 of 29 for 239 yards. Each had a touchdown and two interceptions. * Saskatchewan's George Reed had 93 total rushing yards, 64 of them in the second quarter. Hamilton's

Garney Henley Garney Henley (born December 21, 1935) is an American former professional football player, who played in the Canadian Football League. College career Garney Henley attended Huron College in South Dakota, playing as a running back from 1956 to ...

had 98 yards receiving, the most of any player. * The

Most Valuable Player In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

was Chuck Ealey and Ian Sunter was the Most Valuable Canadian. Sunter was 19 years old at the time. * The Tiger-Cats became the first team in the CFL's modern era to win the Grey Cup at home. * This was the first Grey Cup game played on

AstroTurf AstroTurf is an American subsidiary of SportGroup that produces artificial turf for playing surfaces in sports. The original AstroTurf product was a short-pile synthetic turf invented in 1965 by Monsanto. Since the early 2000s, AstroTurf has m ...

; the previous year's game was played on a competing artificial surface, 3M Tartan Turf. * Prior to this game, the CFL record for successful field goal attempts in a Grey Cup championship game was two. * Until 2021, this was the last Grey Cup game to be played in December. Due to the delay in starting the

2021 CFL season The 2021 CFL season was the 67th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it was the 63rd season of the Canadian Football League. The regular season began on August 5, 2021, and ended November 20, 2021. Each team played 14 regular sea ...

as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...

, the

108th Grey Cup The 108th Grey Cup decided the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship for the 2021 season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 season was cancelled and the start of the 2021 season was delayed, pushing the game to December 12, 2021. The ...

(also held in Hamilton) took place on December 12.

References

* {{1972 CFL season by team Grey Cup

Grey Cup, 60th Grey Cup 60 1972 in Ontario Saskatchewan Roughriders 20th century in Hamilton, Ontario 1972 in Canadian television December 1972 sports events in Canada