Warren Moon won five Grey Cups in Six Seasons in the CFL
“The Gateway To The North” Cards for the 1981 Edmonton Eskimos for Retro SOM Pro Football
The Grey Cup has actually gone through a few changes in its long history.
The Grey Cup
The Grey Cup (French: Coupe Grey) is the trophy awarded to the champion of the Canadian Football League (CFL) playoffs. First presented in 1909 by Governor General Earl Grey, it was not a pro football award; initially it represented the amateur football championship. The early years saw dominance by university teams, but by the mid-20th century, professional teams took over. The trophy has a rich history, including being stolen twice and surviving a fire, and is a major cultural symbol in Canada.
The Grey Cup is thus 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 between the winners of the CFL's East and West divisional playoffs and is one of Canadian television's largest annual sporting events. The Grey Cup was first won by the Toronto Varsity Blues of the University of Toronto. Play was suspended from 1916 to 1918 due to the First World War and in 1919 due to a rules dispute. The game has typically been contested in an east-versus-west format since the 1920s. The Toronto Argonauts have won the most Grey Cup championships (19), followed by the Edmonton Eskimos (now Elks) (14) and Winnipeg Blue Bombers (12). The 1981 Grey Cup between Edmonton and Ottawa was the 69th such contest, and it capped the CFL’s (officially) 24th season.
1981 Edmonton
It was a record setting year for coach Hugh Campbell’s 1981 Edmonton as they finished with their best regular season record (14-1-1) and their fourth straight Grey Cup, beating Ottawa 26-23. In doing so they became the first team in CFL history to win the Grey Cup four consecutive times. Down 20-1 at halftime, Warren Moon led the comeback with two rushing touchdowns and Dave Cutler kicked the championship-winning field goal.
Commonwealth Stadium seated 56,000 people and was the largest open-air stadium in Canada 🇨🇦 in 1981.
Moon had actually been benched at one point in the second quarter, and reserve QB Tom Wilkinson had come in to restore order and calm the team down. But that’s one of the benefits of a deep roster, a CFL Hall of Famer who can come in off the bench to quarterback in relief. That’s how good Edmonton was back then.
Tom Wilkinson also won five Grey Cups; not a bad reliever coming off the bench.
The team also had also had a 22-16 comeback against a feisty B.C. squad, which led 16-9 at halftime on the road in the Western Finals. Both games had controversies. The first game included a controversial officiating call on BC’s Devon Ford on a kickoff return for a Lions touchdown where he was incorrectly ruled out of bounds. The Lions had to settle for a FG after having had a first and goal at the three following a holding penalty on a run the Lions actually scored on. In the Grey Cup, Ottawa TE and CFL Hall of Famer Tony Gabriel made a spectacular catch late in the game while the Rough Riders were trying to rally in a 20-20 tie game; a highly rare dual pass interference penalty was called on both Gabriel and DB Gary Hays, negating the play. Gabriel, hobbling throughout the playoffs, had his knee badly injured during the effort and never played again. He had made the game winning catch five years earlier in the 1976 Cup.
The next year the Eskimos set the current CFL record of five Cups in a row, the only team ever to do this. It’s important to note that this type of domination in the CFL style of play requires both luck and a high degree of skill across both squads and special teams, at every level of play. The 1981 Eskimos delivered on these counts.
Commonweath Stadium rocked during the 1981 regular season, as defensive backs Ed Jones and Larry Highbaugh had seven interceptions each, while James Parker led the way with 18.5 sacks. Warren passed for 3,959 yards and Brian Kelly had 1,665 receiving yards.
Esk Linebacker Dan Kepley was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player for a third time in his career.
Three Aces- Smith, Scott, and all-Canada Kelly, all 1,000 yard receivers.
The 1981 Edmonton CFL All-Stars included David Boone, Dave Fennell, Jim Germany, Hank Ilesic, Ed Jones, Brian Kelly, Dan Kepley, James Parker, Hector Pothier, Bill Stevenson. Germany set the then- CFL season total major score record with 19, tying B.C. Lion runner Larry Key. The team boasted three 1,000 yard receivers in Kelly, Tom Scott and Waddell Smith. Coach Campbell won a Grey Cup as a player in 1966, and famously coached the Eskimos, the LA Express of the USFL, and with the Houston Oilers of the NFL.
Players’s Aids:
Schedule and QB starter sheet game by game:
QB List 1, the SOM splits for each 1981 CFL quarterback:
Fred J. Bobberts
Initial Date of Publication: 7-26-2025
No comments:
Post a Comment