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. Founded in 1873, the team is the oldest existing professional sports team in North America still using its original name, as well as the oldest-surviving team in both the modern-day CFL and East Division.''Canadian Football League Facts, Figures & Records.'' (2009). pg. 23 The team's origins date back to a modified version of rugby football that emerged in North America in the latter half of the 19th century. The Argonauts played their home games at Rogers Centre (originally known as SkyDome) from 1989 until 2016, when the team moved to BMO Field, the fifth stadium site to host the team.

The Argonauts have won the Grey Cup a record 18 times and have appeared in the final 24 times. Most recently, they defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 24–23 in the 109th Grey Cup in 2022. The Argonauts hold the best winning percentage in the championship game (75%) and have the longest active winning streak in games in which they have appeared, at seven. The Argonauts have faced every current western CFL team at least once in the Grey Cup, while their most celebrated divisional rivalry has been with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

The team was founded and owned by the Argonaut Rowing Club for its first 83 years, and has been owned by a series of business interests since 1956. The Argonauts were a fixture on the Toronto sports scene for decades, with attendance peaking in the 1970s. In May 2015, a consortium of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment's Larry Tanenbaum (via the Kilmer Group) and Bell Canada were to acquire the team. The sale included a scheduled move to the MLSE-run BMO Field for the 2016 season, which has long been proposed given poor attendance at Rogers Centre. MLSE announced in December 2017 that it had agreed to purchase the team outright, with the deal finalized on January 19, 2018. The previous owners continue to indirectly own stakes in the Argos, as Bell Canada and the Kilmer Group respectively hold 37.5% and 25% stakes in MLSE.

Given the length of franchise history, dozens of players, coaches, and management have been honoured in some form over the years. The team recognizes a select group of players with retired numbers - early greats Joe Krol and Dick Shatto, stalwart offensive lineman Danny Nykoluk, and Michael "Pinball" Clemons, who has been the most recent face of the team.

Name and colours

Since the team's foundation in 1873, "the Argonauts" name has been in continuous use, a record in North American professional sports. The Chicago Cubs (1870) and the Atlanta Braves (1871) franchises of Major League Baseball are older, but both teams have changed their name more than once, and the Braves have also changed cities. The Argonauts are the oldest professional football team in North America.

The name "Argonauts" is derived from Greek mythology: according to legend, Jason and the Argonauts were a group of heroes who set out to find the Golden Fleece aboard the ship '' Argo'' sometime before the Trojan War. Given its nautical theme, the name Argonaut was adopted by a group of amateur rowers in Toronto in 1872. The Argonaut Rowing Club, which still exists today, went on to found the football club with the same name a year later. Given their roots in a rowing squad, the team is often referred to as the "boatmen" and less often the "scullers".

In the 19th century, the most renowned rowing teams in the world were from the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in England. The Toronto rowers, many of whom had associations with the English schools, adopted uniforms incorporating the light blue of Cambridge and the dark blue of Oxford. In turn, the footballers adopted the colours and the phrase "double blue" became synonymous with the team. Blue has become the traditional colour of top-level teams in Toronto (e.g. the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Blue Jays).

The team's other official colour is white. Its current helmet design features an Oxford blue background, with an Oxford blue and Cambridge blue round shield inscribed with a white, capital letter ''A''. For most of the team's history, the logo featured some form of a boat, often incorporating a football.

Franchise history

1873–1906

The first recorded game of what would become known as Canadian football was played in Toronto on November 9, 1861, featuring University of Toronto students. At the time, the game was a modified version of English rugby, which gained popularity throughout the 1860s. Rugby itself was still an infant game having evolved out of association football (soccer) in the 1830s. Seeking a way to keep fit after summer, the Argonaut Rowing Club (ARC) formed their own rugby-football squad on October 4, 1873. The Argonauts Football Club played their first game against Hamilton on October 18 of that year (a victory), beginning a storied rivalry. H.T. Glazebrook was their first captain and head coach. Establishment of the football team was formalized by the ARC on September 17, 1874, with a subscription fee of one dollar charged per player.O'Leary & Parrish (2007). ''Double Blue''. pp. 23–28.

The football team played a handful of challenge matches—one team inviting another to play—as an amateur squad against university and city teams every year throughout the 1870s, with one dormant year in 1879, likely due to injuries. In 1883 the Toronto Football Club, other city teams from Ontario and university squads from Toronto, Queens University and Royal Military College formed the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU); it was the first rugby football organization with a league and playoff structure in North America. The Toronto Football Club were league victors in the first year. Starting in 1884, a " Dominion Championship"—a precursor to the Grey Cup—was held, pitting the victors of the country's two organized leagues, the ORFU and Quebec Rugby Football Union (QRFU), against each other; it was organized nationally by the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU) from 1892 onwards. In the first true national championship, the Montreal Football Club defeated the Toronto Football Club on November 6, 1884, by a score of 30–0. Argonauts lost the Dominion Title in 1901 to Ottawa College. The Ottawa Football Club and the Hamilton Football Club were frequent opponents in this era.

Over the thirty years from 1880 onwards, rule changes were incrementally introduced into the game, including the adoption of the line of scrimmage, scoring that began to resemble the modern version, and the down and yardage structure. Popular personalities of the era included player-coach Joe Wright Sr., one of the best all around Canadian athletes at the turn of the century.O'Leary & Parrish (2007). ''Double Blue''. pg. 32. One major outstanding issue within the CRU at the time was the role of professional versus amateur players; this dispute caused the Argonauts to withdraw from the league in 1903 and eventually led to the establishment of a new league, The Big Four or Interprovincial Rugby Football League. Alongside the professionalism dispute, there was serious disagreement over the adoption of the Burnside rules, with Ontario, Quebec, and the intercollegiate league often not in alignment. Among other critical innovations, the Burnside rules reduced the number of men per side to 12 and introduced the ten yards in three downs structure that is central to the modern game.

The Argonauts merged with the Toronto Football Club in 1905, and W. A. Hewitt was manager of the Argonauts until 1907.; He was also vice-president of the ORFU for the 1905 and 1906 seasons, and sought for ORFU to have uniform rules of play with the CRU, with a preference to use the snap-back system of play. When the CRU did not adopt the snap-back system, his motion was approved for the ORFU to adopt the CRU rules in 1906.

1907–1952

In December 1906, ''The Gazette'' reported that a proposal originated from Ottawa for the ORFU and the QRFU to merge, which would allow for higher calibre of play and create rivalries. Hewitt helped organize the meeting which established the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) in 1907. Seeking looser rules regarding the employment of professional players, Toronto and other cities split from the ORFU and formed the IRFU, along with Hamilton, Ottawa, and Montreal.

The IRFU continued under the larger auspices of the Canadian Rugby Union. Beginning in 1909, the CRU champion was awarded the Grey Cup, with the Big Four competing against university squads and eventually teams from Western Canada. The Argonauts first competed for the Cup in 1911, losing 14 to 7 to the University of Toronto in front of a then record 13,687 spectators at the newly opened Varsity Stadium. The team claimed their first championship in 1914, exacting revenge on U of T with a 14 to 2 victory. Their star runner and kicker in their first championship year was Jack O'Conner, who scored a league record 44 points.

After play was halted during World War I, the Argos again achieved success in the early 1920s on the back of one Canada's greatest ever sportsmen. Lionel Conacher, the "Big Train," led the team to two perfect 6–0 seasons in 1921 and 1922. In the first season he accounted for 85 of his team's 167 points, and 15 of the points in the Grey Cup game, a 23–0 drubbing of the Edmonton Eskimos. It was the first east-west Grey Cup championship in Canadian history.

The 1921 Grey Cup victory was their last until 1933, at which point the Argonauts became the dominant team of an increasingly nationwide sport. They put together a number of Grey Cup dynasties in the 1930s and 1940s, winning eight of twenty Grey Cups between 1933 and 1952. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers were most often on the receiving end of Argo Grey Cup victories in this era. From 1933 to 1941 Lew Hayman coached the team with a still unparalleled winning ratio of 45–15–2. Their first back-to-back Grey Cups came in 1937 and 1938. This was also the era of the famed Stukus brothers— Annis, Bill, and Frank—who proved a potent all-purpose trio in the Argonauts' championship years.

Joe "King" Krol and Royal Copeland, the so-called 'Gold Dust Twins', were the best-known players of the 1940s. In an era where players still played multiple positions, they were a threat in every capacity: running, passing, catching, kicking, and playing defence. Often connecting with each other for points, they led the Argos to a Grey Cup threepeat between 1945 and 1947. In 1948, the team broke a cultural barrier with the signing of Ken Whitlock as not only their first import player in quite some time but also their first ever black player. Whitlock played only 4 games as a halfback & punter before getting released from the team, but his signing also ushered a new era for player acquisitions. 1949 and 1950 marked a watershed in Argonauts history as the team began large scale importation of American players for the first time. In 1950, the Argos signed their second ever black player after Whitlock, Ulysses "Crazy Legs" Curtis. Curtis played five strong years with the team as their featured running back.

Frank Clair was brought in as coach in 1950 and left his mark on the revamped roster; he led the team to Grey Cup wins in 1950 and 1952. The first of these was a 13–0 victory over Winnipeg in the notorious Mud Bowl. A November snowstorm followed by mild conditions turned Varsity Stadium into a bog and the play was a shambles; one Winnipeg player is reported to have almost drowned in the muck.

At some time during this period, the phrase "Argo Bounce" came to refer to the Argonauts' propensity to receive a lucky bounce of the football. The phrase may date to the Grey Cups of the 1930s, all of which featured improbable bounces and fumbles favouring the Argos; the phrase was popularized in print by Annis Stukus in the 1940s. It is still in use today, with a number of fortunate on-field happenings attributed to the "bounce".

1953–1988

The three decades after the 1952 Grey Cup victory have been called the Argonauts' Dark Ages.O'Leary & Parrish (2007). ''Double Blue''. pg. 81. A year after winning the Grey Cup, the Argos crashed to dead last in the Big Four. It was the start of a 31-year stretch without a Grey Cup, and for the first 19 of those years, they only got as far as the second round of the playoffs. Part of the reason was a salary cap introduced in 1953 that cost them many talented players. For the first time in decades, they were a fixture at or near the bottom of the East. The management style under new owner John Bassett has also been blamed: young talent was traded or allowed to leave and the team could not form a nucleus of championship players; coaches came and went rapidly. Two notable events occurred off-field at the end of the 1950s. In 1958 the Argonauts became a founding member of the Canadian Football League and a year later found a new home at Exhibition Stadium.

The Argonauts did have some standout players in the 1950s and 1960s. The stalwart of the era was Dick Shatto, an Ohioan who played twelve seasons from 1954 to 1965. Listed as a running back, Shatto was a dual threat to run and receive and continues to hold the team regular season records for touchdowns (91) and total yards gained (6,958). Living in Toronto year round, Shatto set down deep roots in the city and eventually became the Argonauts' general manager. Another American, Tobin Rote, set numerous passing marks in three years at quarterback from 1960 to 1962. Known for his good living off the field, Rote still holds the Argos single game passing record with 524 yards against Montreal on August 19, 1960. A pillar on the offensive line was Danny Nykoluk at tackle, whose career spanned an incredible 17 seasons from 1954 to 1971, including one stretch of 12 years where he didn't miss a single game. Despite the presence of these veterans, the era was marked by losing seasons and high attrition on the roster. By the 1960s, the annual (and often desperate) mid-season addition of American imports had become known as the "Argo airlift"; American imports often did not last a game before being cut.

Eventually, the team became competitive again under head coach Leo Cahill in the late 1960s. They scored a coup over the National Football League (NFL) with the signing of a young Joe Theismann (and other American stars) in 1971. The team also saw an attendance bounce, consistently selling out Exhibition Stadium. The Boatmen's best chance to end their Grey Cup drought came that year, when they faced the Calgary Stampeders in the 59th Grey Cup, the first to be played on artificial turf. In a defensive struggle at Vancouver's soggy Empire Stadium, a now infamous late fumble by Leon "X-Ray" McQuay and a possession-changing kick out of bounds by Harry Abofs sealed a 14–11 Stampeder victory.

Aside from 1971, the 1970s were tumultuous for the team, with numerous hirings and firings of head coaches and consistent losing records. There were stellar players over this era, including defensive all-stars such as Jim Stillwagon, Jim Corrigall, and Granville "Granny" Liggins, but the team could not return to winning form. High-profile moves such as hiring Canadian football icon Russ Jackson as head coach in 1975 or signing running back superstar Anthony Davis the next year turned into busts. Ironically, the Argos reached historic attendance highs in this losing decade—regular season average per game attendance reached 47,356 in 1976. The enlargement and reconfiguration of Exhibition Stadium over 1975 and 1976 in anticipation and preparation of the Blue Jays expansion baseball team (who began play in 1977) allowed for these massive crowds.

The Argos reached an all-time low in 1981 when they finished 2–14; this despite having such talented players as quarterback Condredge Holloway, running back Cedric Minter, and receiver Terry Greer. The team began the year 0–10 and there was talk of a "perfect" losing season. The team had been inept so long by this point (29 seasons without a Grey Cup win) that the notion of an "Argo Bounce" had become inverted; now "it was the unluckiest bounce in the world, the one that usually arose from the Argos' uncanny ability to lose critical games in the dying minutes by committing an improbable blunder."

However, with the 1982 season came the hiring of Bob O'Billovich as head coach and Mouse Davis as offensive co-ordinator. Davis implemented the run and shoot offense, and the Argos enjoyed a turnaround, going 9–6–1 that year; Condredge Holloway was the CFL's most outstanding player. The team ultimately fell short in their quest for a Grey Cup, losing 32–16 in a driving rainstorm to the mighty Edmonton Eskimos (in the last of their five consecutive Grey Cup titles) in the final in front of a disappointed crowd at Exhibition Stadium. The 1983 season finally brought the championship home. The Argos finished 12–4 and Terry Greer set a CFL record with 2,003 receiving yards. Joe Barnes and Condredge Holloway were a potent duo at quarterback. The Double Blue returned to the Grey Cup, this time facing the BC Lions at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver. Despite the hostile crowd, Toronto defeated BC 18–17 to win their first Grey Cup since 1952. The Argos were generally competitive for the remainder of the 1980s, thanks in large part to talented players such as Gill "The Thrill" Fenerty and Darrell K. Smith, but a return to the glory of 1983 proved elusive (outside of an appearance in the 1987 Grey Cup game, in which they lost in the last minute to the Edmonton Eskimos 38–36).

1989–2015

The 1989 season saw the Argonauts move into SkyDome, a multi-purpose downtown stadium with a retractable roof. It marked the beginning of an eventful few years. In 1990, one of the most beloved figures in Toronto sporting history emerged on the team: Michael "Pinball" Clemons set a CFL record for all purpose yards with 3,300 in his first full year, a record he broke in 1997 with 3,840.

In 1991 Hollywood prestige arrived in the form of a new ownership trio. Bruce McNall, owner of the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, bought the team. One of his players, hockey great Wayne Gretzky, became a minority owner, as did Canadian-born comedian John Candy. The group stunned the league with the signing of Raghib "Rocket" Ismail for an unheard of $18.2 million over four years. Ismail immediately impressed, particularly on kickoff returns, and was named player of the game in the 1991 Grey Cup, which the Argos won 36–21 over the Calgary Stampeders. Clemons and quarterback Matt Dunigan (who played the final with a broken collarbone) were the other critical pieces to the championship.

However, the Argos slumped to 6–12 only a year later, beginning a slide that only accelerated when Dunigan and Ismail left after the season. The 1992 season was the first of four consecutive losing seasons; while they made the playoffs in 1994, they were promptly eliminated by the Baltimore Stallions in the division semi-finals. Trouble also struck off the field: McNall was convicted of conspiracy and fraud at the end of 1993, while Candy died prematurely the next year, shortly after he sold his stake in the team. With Gretzky's salary dependent upon McNall, the team was effectively left without owners before Labatt Brewing Company, parent of league broadcast partner The Sports Network, bought it in the spring of 1994.

Attendance also began to slide in the mid-1990s, raising questions over the team's viability that persist to this day. The per game average was just above 16,000 in 1994 and 1995, much less than half the team's 1970s peak.

Championship material did eventually reemerge in 1996. The team hired Don Matthews, who was fresh off a Grey Cup victory with the Baltimore Stallions to be the team's new head coach and signed Doug Flutie, one of the greatest quarterbacks in CFL history, to a contract and surrounded him with key personnel. The team included linebacker Mike O'Shea, veteran wide receiver Paul Masotti, and running back Robert Drummond.O'Leary & Parrish (2007). ''Double Blue''. pp. 171–172. Derrell "Mookie" Mitchell was added at receiver in 1997. The Boatmen took the Grey Cup in both 1996 and 1997. Flutie set team records for single season passing yards with more than 5,500 in each year and for touchdowns thrown with 47 in 1997 (one less than his CFL record of 48) before crossing the border to join the Buffalo Bills the next year. Masotti retired in 1999 as the team's all time pass reception yardage leader. Clemons ended his own successful career in 2000 before returning to coach until 2007.

The years after their back-to-back championships saw a return to mediocrity for the Argos. Ticket sales remained flat, and there were changes in ownership. Gimmicks to attract fans were greeted with criticism. The Argos seemingly bottomed out in July 2003 when the CFL stripped control over the team from owner Sherwood Schwarz. The team had amassed debts of over $20 million, including $17.4 owed to Schwarz himself.

New ownership under David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski

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