Happy Anniversary!

This date, December 2nd, is special in Tiger-Cats & Grey Cup history.

50 years ago today, the best TiCat team ever or, if not, certainly the best TiCat defensive team ever did not allow an opposition touchdown for the 6th straight game as they convincingly won the Grey Cup 24-1 over Saskatchewan on a cold day in Ottawa. The Cats finished that regular season with a 10-4 record, in first place, 1 pt. ahead of Ottawa. Their final 3 games were won 31-4 @ WPG, 26-4 vs. MTL, and 9-5 @ TOR. After the Rough Riders defeated TOR in the ESF, the TiCats won 11-3 in OTT and 26-0 at home to take the 2-game total-point Eastern Final series 37-3

55 years ago today, was day 2 of the famous fog bowl.

56 years ago today, was the first (and only under the 2 - 10-minute halves extra-time format) ever Grey Cup game to be decided in overtime.

Great stuff ottawacat, thanks for posting! :slight_smile:

I don’t know, Grover, if I should feel fortunate, having attended all 3 (over 4 days, and not clearly seeing much of one) of those Grey Cups or just plain old, on this “anniversary.” Nevertheless, I do cherish the memories, even with losing 2 of the 3.

  1. Yikes, 50 years have gone by that quickly ?? Am I really this old now ?? LOL

I was at that 67 Grey Cup game in Ottawa, and boy was it cold !! Good thing the game was on the Saturday, because we woke up on Sunday morning to a blizzard in Ottawa !!

Without a doubt, that 67 TiCat defence was the best in CFL history, bar none !! :slight_smile:

Glory days. Hard to believe it has been 50 years.

Wow , glory days indeed considering that was our 5th Grey Cup victory in 15 seasons going back to 1953 . It was also our 10th Cup appearance in 15 years .In that span this team also finished 1rst in the East 9 out of 15 seasons , 2nd place 5 times and only missed the play-offs once in 1960 . Eight times the team finished with double digit win totals , 13 seasons at .500+ , 1 season at .500 and only once finished below .500 .

By ways of a comparison let's now look at this team's performance for the latest 15 year span from 2003 to 2017 . Since 2003 ? 2 Grey Cup appearances , 0 wins , 1 1rst place finish , 5 2nd place finishes , 3 3rd place finishes , 6 4th place finishes . Missed the play-offs 7 years , finished at .500 + in only 3 of those years , have had only 2 double digit win seasons , 3 seasons at .500 , 9 seasons of double digit losses .

Here's another fact about that 1967 Grey Cup win and era . The team was officially christened as the team we know now as the Tiger-Cats in 1950 . So just consider this for a moment in the first 18 seasons as a franchise from the 1950 season on up to and including the 1967 season this team was in 10 Grey Cups and won 5 in that 18 years span . Since then though ? In the last 50 years ? only 3 Cup wins in 10 trips . Here's a last eye opener for everyone , this team in their first 18 years won 5 Cups and this team now in that same 18 year span going back to our last Cup victory in "99" has won ? Well we all know the answer to that one now don't we . :cry:

The best consecutive years stretch in TiCat history would have to be 1957 through 1965 -- 8 Grey Cup games in 9 seasons -- winning 3 of them. Or, stretching it out by 2 years, 1957 - 1967 -- 9 Grey Cup games in 11 seasons -- winning 4.

Sounds pretty amazing.

However I just checked, and it appears there was a five-year stretch (1958-62) where we went to the Cup four times and lost to Winnipeg each time. Just curious - were the fans at the time calling for the head of the head coach/GM/QB?

I don’t recall any of that, then. The Head Coach, though, was an outspoken guy, Jim Trimble, and I imagine there would have been some fans questioning his inability to lead the lead his team to Grey Cup victories in 4 straight games, after a convincing win in his first season in Hamilton (1957). His mouth, and running up the score late in that victory, gave the Bombers extra motivation, I’m sure, in the following games. 3 of the following 4 games were very close and the Cats’ biggest margin of defeat was just 14 pts. in '59. Don’t ignore the fact that WPG had a very good coach – Bud Grant. The GM, Jake Gaudaur and QB, Bernie Faloney in Hamilton, throughout that period, were both high profile and I doubt were blamed, for the losses, by the strong fan base.