This isn’t the way the 111th Grey Cup was supposed to be. In sports, that happens.
It wasn’t supposed to be the Toronto Argonauts against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sunday. It was supposed to be the B.C. Lions against…well, anybody.
Why?
Because this is the 60th anniversary of when the Lions first won the $50 mug Earl Grey donated, and the 70th anniversary of the original team, then called the “Vancouver” Lions — a forgettable collection of talent that went 1-15 in its inaugural season.
Because the old dome that’s home, B.C. Place Stadium, is where Sunday’s game is being played and, at the age of 41, there may not be many more opportunities to win a Cup there.
And because perhaps the team’s most secure owner ever, Amar Doman, opened his wallet in mid-season and invited star quarterback Nathan Rourke and star defensive end Matthieu Betts to come home from the NFL, putting all the talent in place.
And then life happened. Football life in Vancouver was, is and shall be the Lions who roared in ’64.
Before the New York Jets had Joe Willie (that’s what everybody called playboy quarterback Joe Namath), the B.C. Lions had Joe AND Willie. Many greats have worn Lions jerseys over those six decades, of course, but the legends’ names always begin with Joe Kapp and Willie Fleming.
Ironically, the Lions won that first Grey Cup without heroics by either legend. Kapp was the quarterback in B.C.’s 34-24 victory over Hamilton on that muddy field in Toronto, and Fleming did sprint for a touchdown, but neither made headlines on the next day’s sports pages. The Lions’ only touchdown pass was thrown by Pete Ohler and the running back who scored two touchdowns was Bill Munsey. Neither of them ever made headlines again.
Ohler’s singular job was to hold the ball for field goals. The first time he had the chance, he fumbled, picked up the ball, passed it to receiver Jim Carphin in the end zone, to turn a broken play into seven points.
Munsey was an all-star defensive back. When Lions’ fullback Bob Swift (he later made his name as an All-Star centre) was injured, Munsey stepped in. He took a handoff and ran 18 yards for one touchdown and, back on defence three minutes later, returned a fumble 65 yards for another one.
Neither Carphin nor Munsey had scored a touchdown all season.
Despite the supporting cast’s accomplishments, any mention of B.C. Lions and Grey Cup automatically stokes memories of the team of Joe and Willie. Ten Lions have had their numbers retired in 70 years, and four are from the ’64 team. There were eight All-Stars, and six Hall of Famers. The front four was known as the “Head Hunters.”
On an old tape I just listened to, of dressing-room interviews recorded that day, one of the Lions shouted:
“In the immortal words of Muhammad Ali, we are the greatest!”
Among the early Lions teams, they were. Maybe they still are. If the current Lions were playing to win just their seventh Cup this weekend, and their first in 14 years, they’d be reviving those memories from ’64.
