The Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers were a

Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...

team based in

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 ...

and a member of the

Ontario Rugby Football Union The Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) was an early amateur Canadian football league comprising teams in the Canadian province of Ontario. The ORFU was founded on Saturday, January 6, 1883 and in 1903 became the first major competition to adopt th ...

, a league that preceded the

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 ...

. Spanning three decades, they appeared in four

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 ...

championships, winning twice in 1927 and

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will be ...

, and were the longest lasting member of the ORFU.

History

The Beachers were runners-up to the national title in their first season of play in 1924 when they lost to Queen's University in the

12th Grey Cup The 12th Grey Cup was played on November 29, 1924, before 5,978 fans at Varsity Stadium at Toronto. Queen's University defeated the Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers The Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers were a Canadian football team based in Toronto, O ...

game. They would go on to win the Grey Cup three years later in 15th Grey Cup, defeating the

IRFU The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) ( ga, Cumann Rugbaí na hÉireann) is the body managing rugby union in the island of Ireland (both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland). The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ...

Hamilton Tigers The Hamilton Tigers were a professional ice hockey team based in Hamilton, Ontario. They competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1920 to 1925. The Tigers were formed by the sale of the Quebec Bulldogs NHL franchise to Hamilton intere ...

. After another three years, the Beachers would again return to the Grey Cup and were once again victorious, winning the

18th Grey Cup The 18th Grey Cup was played on December 6, 1930, before 3,914 fans at the Varsity Stadium at Toronto. The Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers defeated the Regina Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team base ...

1930 in Canadian football Canadian Football News in 1930 The Winnipeg Rugby Club was formed on May 14 at the annual meeting of the MRFU. The team played as the Winnipegs and adopted the colours of green and white. On September 29 in the first game played in Canada under ...

over the

Regina 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 ...

. The Beachers would go on to win the ORFU championship 10 times in their history. Due to the dominance of the

Sarnia Imperials The Sarnia Imperials were a football team from Sarnia, Ontario and a member of the Ontario Rugby Football Union, a league that preceded the Canadian Football League and contested for the Grey Cup until 1955. In their history, the Imperials appe ...

, the Beachers otherwise had very little success in the 1930s, qualifying for the playoffs three other times that decade, only to lose the ORFU Final to the Imperials. It wasn't until 1940 that the team made it back to the Grey Cup, when they lost to the

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 ...

in the

28th Grey Cup The 28th Grey Cup was played as a two-game series with the first game played on November 30, 1940, before 4,998 fans at Varsity Stadium in Toronto. The second game was played on December 7, 1940, with cold weather and snow contributing to a smal ...

game, the only Grey Cup to be played as a two-game series. They would continue to see futility as the team would not return to the Grey Cup for the remainder of their history. On April 20, 1948, it was announced that the Beachers would merge with the

Toronto Indians The Toronto Indians were a football team from Toronto, Ontario and a member of the Ontario Rugby Football Union, a league that preceded the Canadian Football League. After the Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers moved to the Interprovincial Rugby Footbal ...

and assumed the name Toronto Beaches-Indians for that one season. The amalgamation took place due to the difficulty that the two teams were having in competing for fan support, in addition to the competition from the IRFU's

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 ...

. The team finished in 2nd place that year with a 5-4 record, but lost to the

(who had transferred to the ORFU from the more competitive IRFU that year) in the ORFU Finals. On January 4, 1949, the club announced that the amalgamation would end and the Toronto Balmy Beach Beachers would resume play while the Indians would fold. In 1953 they won the ORFU Championship and played in the Grey Cup semi-final against the

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fiel ...

, losing in a hard fought game. The team struggled in the 1950s as the "Big Four" eastern teams and the five "Western Conference" teams began importing American players. The Beach was unable to pay the big salaries of the other two leagues and maintained an all-Canadian team which became increasingly less competitive. Despite a winning record (6-4) in 1956, their 1957 season was a disaster, losing all twelve games by a combined score of 570-35; the team folded at season's end. Many Canadian Balmy Beach players played with the "Big Four" and "Western Conference" teams and have since entered the

Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about t ...

Canadian Football Hall of Famers

Ab Box Albert George "Ab" Box (March 8, 1909 – July 30, 2000) was a Canadian professional football halfback, quarterback and punter. Born in Toronto, Box attended Malvern Collegiate Institute where he played on the football team and later on the ...

Dean Griffing Orrin Dean Griffing (1915 – 1998) was an American gridiron football player, coach, and executive. He played as a center and linebacker for the Kansas State University in 1933 and 1934, for the Regina Roughriders from 1936 to 1943, for Toronto B ...

Ted Reeve Edward Henry Reeve (January 6, 1902 – August 27, 1983) was a multi-sport Canadian athlete and sports journalist. He was on two Grey Cup winning teams as a football player, a Mann Cup championship as a lacrosse player and three Yates Cup cha ...

Mike Rodden Michael James Rodden (April 24, 1891 – January 11, 1978) was a Canadian sports journalist, National Hockey League referee, and Canadian football coach, and was the first person elected to both the Hockey Hall of Fame (1962) and the Canadian Foo ...

Annis Stukus Annis Paul Stukus (October 25, 1914 – May 20, 2006) was a Canadian football player, coach and general manager, and ice hockey general manager. Stukus was born in Toronto. He played for the Toronto Argonauts from 1935 to 1941, leading the te ...

Bill Zock William Zock (January 26, 1918 – April 29, 1988) was a professional Canadian football offensive lineman who played for the Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as t ...

Season-by-season

References

{{18th Grey Cup Ontario Rugby Football Union teams

Bal Bal may refer to: * Bal (surname), a Dutch, Indian, and Turkish surname * Bal, Iran (disambiguation) * Bal, Zira, a village in Punjab, India * ''Bal'' (film), a 2010 Turkish film * Bäl, a settlement on the Swedish island of Gotland * 8678 Bä ...

Defunct Canadian football teams Sports clubs established in 1924 Sports clubs disestablished in 1957 1924 establishments in Ontario 1957 disestablishments in Ontario