The 63rd

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 23, 1975, before 32,454 fans at

McMahon Stadium McMahon Stadium is a Canadian football stadium in Calgary, Alberta. The stadium is owned by the University of Calgary and operated by the McMahon Stadium Society. The stadium is between the downtown core and the University of Calgary, north of ...

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 ...

. In a tight, defensive battle, the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

defeated the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

9–8. Just before the contest began, a young woman was "

streaking Streaking is the act of running, often naked, through a public area for publicity, as a prank, a dare, or a form of protest. Streaking is often associated with sporting events, but can occur in more secluded areas. Streakers are often pursued b ...

" during the coin toss.

Box Score

First Quarter Montreal – FG –

Don Sweet Don Sweet (born July 13, 1948) is a former star football kicker for the Montreal Alouettes and Montreal Concordes of the Canadian Football League. College years Sweet graduated from Washington State University in 1971. He was a Pacific-10 Confere ...

35 yards
Montreal – FG –

47 yards Second Quarter Edmonton - FG –

Dave Cutler David Neil Cutler Sr. (born March 13, 1942) is an American software engineer. He developed several computer operating systems, namely Microsoft's Windows NT, and Digital Equipment Corporation's RSX-11M, VAXELN, and VMS. Personal history Cutl ...

40 yards
Montreal - Single –

32-yard missed field goal Third Quarter Edmonton - FG – Dave Cutler 25 yards
Edmonton - FG – Dave Cutler 52 yards Fourth Quarter Montreal - Single –

19-yard missed field goal

Game summary

Perhaps the defining factor in this low-scoring contest was the chilly weather. The game-time temperature was -15 degrees Celsius, and a 25-kilometre-per-hour wind played havoc with passing and kicking. Alouette coach

Marv Levy Marvin Daniel Levy (; born August 3, 1925) is an American former football coach and executive who was a head coach in the National Football League (NFL) for seventeen seasons. He spent most of his head coaching career with the Buffalo Bills, lea ...

's third-quarter decision to gamble on a 3rd-and-3 inside the Edmonton 10 proved to be a turning point, as a successful field goal would have provided sufficient margin for a Montreal victory. Instead, the Eskimos held and kept the Alouettes off the scoreboard. Nevertheless, the Als still had the win within their grasp. With just 3:49 left to play,

Sonny Wade Jesse "Sonny" Wade (born April 1, 1947) is a former All-American football player at Emory & Henry College in Virginia. He played professionally for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League from 1969 to 1978. High school Wade attend ...

came off the Alouette bench to replace starting quarterback Jimmy Jones. Trailing 9-7 and starting from the Montreal 23-yard-line, Wade threw a 26-yard bullet to Larry Smith. He then faked a reverse to

Johnny Rodgers Johnny Steven Rodgers (born July 5, 1951) is an American former football player. He played college football for the Nebraska Cornhuskers and won the Heisman Trophy in 1972. Rodgers played professionally in the Canadian Football League (CFL) ...

and threw a 46-yard pass to

Joe Petty Joe or JOE may refer to: Arts Film and television * ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle * ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage * ''Joe'' (TV series), a British TV series airing from 1966 to 1971 * ''Joe'', a 2002 Canadian animated ...

. This gave the Als a chance for the game-winning field goal in the final seconds of the game, but Jones mishandled the snap from centre.

's 19-yard attempt went wide for a single point and from there, the Eskimos were able to run out the clock.

Trivia

Edmonton and Montreal have met in 11

clashes. The Alouettes prevailed at soggy

Empire Stadium (Vancouver) Empire Stadium was a multi-purpose stadium that stood at the Pacific National Exhibition site at Hastings Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Track and field and Canadian football, as well as soccer, rugby and musical events, were held a ...

in 1974, in the Ice Bowl of 1977 and in 2002. The Eskimos were victorious in 1954, 1955, 1956, 1975, 1978, 1979, 2003 and 2005. The 1975 game was just the third Grey Cup in which no touchdowns were scored (the others being the 21st Grey Cup and the

25th Grey Cup The 25th Grey Cup was played on December 11, 1937, before 11,522 fans at Varsity Stadium at Toronto. The Toronto Argonauts defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 4–3. Until 2021, this was the latest in the calendar year that any Grey Cup was playe ...

), and it remains the only such game in the modern era. It's also the only

where one player from each team was responsible for all the points scored. Also, for the first time since 1945, all the points were scored by Canadians. This game was the first Grey Cup played in the city of Calgary and the province of

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

; it was also the last Grey Cup game held in Western Canada for eight years. Between 1976 and 1982, the game was held in alternating years in either Toronto or Montreal. This was, until the

2015 Grey Cup The 103rd Grey Cup was a Canadian football game that was played on November 29, 2015 between the East Division champion Ottawa Redblacks and the West Division champion Edmonton Eskimos to decide the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship f ...

, the last Grey Cup championship for the Eskimos that did not involve

Hugh Campbell Hugh Campbell (born May 21, 1941) is a former American football and Canadian football player, coach, and executive. He served as a head coach in three different professional gridiron football leagues: the Canadian Football League (CFL), the Uni ...

in some capacity with the team; he would be hired as its head coach in 1977, and aside from a brief break from 1983 to 1985, won nine Grey Cups (including five in a row from 1978 to 1982) with the team as either a head coach or general manager until his retirement in 2006. This was the first Grey Cup appearance of future prime minister

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...

, then almost four years old, brought to the game by his father,

Pierre Trudeau Joseph Philippe Pierre Yves Elliott Trudeau ( , ; October 18, 1919 – September 28, 2000), also referred to by his initials PET, was a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 15th prime minister of Canada The prime mini ...

External links

* {{1975 CFL season by team Grey Cup

Grey Cups hosted in Calgary 1975 in Alberta Montreal Alouettes Edmonton Elks 20th century in Calgary 1975 in Canadian television November 1975 sports events in Canada