Video of the first ever Grey Cup game is now on YouTube, allowing fans to get a glimpse of a contest that happened 114 years ago..The game between the University of Toronto Varsity Blues and the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club was played at Rosedale Field in Toronto on Dec. 4, 1909..Although the Canadian Dominion Football Championship had been contested since 1884, winners had never received a trophy. The Varsity Blues won 26-6 for its third title in its fifth appearance in the championship game..The footage was first broadcast by the CBC at halftime during the 1968 Grey Cup. Calgary teacher Tom Elder, who posted the footage on his Calgary Stampeders Classics channel, told Western Standard he was astonished at the find..“I was absolutely speechless,” he said. “I didn’t think footage existed, or it was long lost.”.The segment aired in 1968 was narrated by none other than Dick Irvin Jr., his hair showing no hint of the grey or white the 91-year-old Hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster has today..“Grey Cup time always brings back a lot of memories for football fans and I'm wondering if perhaps somewhere in our audience this afternoon, there’s someone who remembers the very first Grey Cup game ever played 59 years ago back in 1909,” Irvin said..Footage showed Toronto pedestrians the day of the game, whose styles, Irvin noted, were “quite different than the styles we’re used to now. And as you will see when we get going with the football film, the style of football changed, not only the way they played the game, but the uniforms as well.”.Irvin said the total gate receipts from the 3,807 fans in attendance was $2,600, placing the average ticket price at 68 cents..The segment also included footage from a 1925 Western championship game between the Winnipeg Tammany Tigers and Regina Roughriders. Winnipeg won 11-1 before losing the Grey Cup 24-1 to Ottawa at the capital city’s Lansdowne Park..Next, viewers see a record crowd of 19,000 at Toronto’s Varsity Stadium in 1929 to see the Varsity Blues play Queen’s in a two game series. The footage included what Irvin called “a little bit of old time razzle dazzle” and was followed up with footage from the Nov. 23, 1929 contest where Hamilton defeated Queen’s 14-3 to win the eastern championship..“The Hamilton team is featuring the striped uniform and you'll notice that many of their players are wearing peaked caps or no caps at all instead of football helmets. I wonder what some of these fellows think of the well-padded players we see in action today,” Irvin said, before calling a sideline tackle shown twice “football’s very first instant replay.”.The 1930s brought even more changes..“One year later, newsreel billboards proclaim the arrival of the forward pass. It's Queens against Varsity in Toronto. In this film clip, you'll see several passes, something of course very common today. But in 1930, it was revolutionary to the game of football,” Irvin said..Irvin’s final comment in the 3-minute, 45-second segment was especially appropriate, given YouTube viewers would finally see it 55 years later..“The styles have changed, but the enthusiasm was already there. And I wonder how the film of today's game will look to television viewers 30 or 40 or 50 years from now.”
Video of the first ever Grey Cup game is now on YouTube, allowing fans to get a glimpse of a contest that happened 114 years ago..The game between the University of Toronto Varsity Blues and the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club was played at Rosedale Field in Toronto on Dec. 4, 1909..Although the Canadian Dominion Football Championship had been contested since 1884, winners had never received a trophy. The Varsity Blues won 26-6 for its third title in its fifth appearance in the championship game..The footage was first broadcast by the CBC at halftime during the 1968 Grey Cup. Calgary teacher Tom Elder, who posted the footage on his Calgary Stampeders Classics channel, told Western Standard he was astonished at the find..“I was absolutely speechless,” he said. “I didn’t think footage existed, or it was long lost.”.The segment aired in 1968 was narrated by none other than Dick Irvin Jr., his hair showing no hint of the grey or white the 91-year-old Hockey Hall of Fame broadcaster has today..“Grey Cup time always brings back a lot of memories for football fans and I'm wondering if perhaps somewhere in our audience this afternoon, there’s someone who remembers the very first Grey Cup game ever played 59 years ago back in 1909,” Irvin said..Footage showed Toronto pedestrians the day of the game, whose styles, Irvin noted, were “quite different than the styles we’re used to now. And as you will see when we get going with the football film, the style of football changed, not only the way they played the game, but the uniforms as well.”.Irvin said the total gate receipts from the 3,807 fans in attendance was $2,600, placing the average ticket price at 68 cents..The segment also included footage from a 1925 Western championship game between the Winnipeg Tammany Tigers and Regina Roughriders. Winnipeg won 11-1 before losing the Grey Cup 24-1 to Ottawa at the capital city’s Lansdowne Park..Next, viewers see a record crowd of 19,000 at Toronto’s Varsity Stadium in 1929 to see the Varsity Blues play Queen’s in a two game series. The footage included what Irvin called “a little bit of old time razzle dazzle” and was followed up with footage from the Nov. 23, 1929 contest where Hamilton defeated Queen’s 14-3 to win the eastern championship..“The Hamilton team is featuring the striped uniform and you'll notice that many of their players are wearing peaked caps or no caps at all instead of football helmets. I wonder what some of these fellows think of the well-padded players we see in action today,” Irvin said, before calling a sideline tackle shown twice “football’s very first instant replay.”.The 1930s brought even more changes..“One year later, newsreel billboards proclaim the arrival of the forward pass. It's Queens against Varsity in Toronto. In this film clip, you'll see several passes, something of course very common today. But in 1930, it was revolutionary to the game of football,” Irvin said..Irvin’s final comment in the 3-minute, 45-second segment was especially appropriate, given YouTube viewers would finally see it 55 years later..“The styles have changed, but the enthusiasm was already there. And I wonder how the film of today's game will look to television viewers 30 or 40 or 50 years from now.”
