Grey Cup an annual rite for diehard fans
Unlike ‘corporate’ Super Bowl, CFL’s showcase event remains pure Canadiana, say longtime aficionados
Carl Martz’s “welcome to the Grey Cup” moment occurred only a few minutes after stepping off the train from Winnipeg in November 1975.
“I got out at the CP station in Calgary, and all I could do was marvel at how high the Calgary Tower was,” Martz says. “And there was a guy standing beside me. He was so out of it that he looked up and he fell flat on his back. We had to help him up.”
Edmonton’s 9-8 win over Montreal at McMahon Stadium that year was Martz’s first Grey Cup, and even though it was one of the coldest CFL championship games, he didn’t stop attending them.
“I would say around 25 or 26,” Martz says.
Martz, 64, has seen a Grey Cup in every city’s stadium, and he can’t wait to visit Ottawa, Hamilton and Regina to experience it in their new stadiums.
Winnipeg’s Gord Barnsley experienced his first Grey Cup when it was held in the Manitoba capital for the first time in 1991. He’s seen three in Winnipeg and has made it to four in other CFL cities. His first out-of-town Grey Cup was Toronto in 2007 after the Bombers upset the Argos in the East final. Nothing was going to stop Barnsley from watching his beloved Blue and Gold in the big game.
Barnsley enjoyed that week so much that he tries to put the Grey Cup trip in his annual budget as often as possible. He went to Montreal in 2008, and made it to Vancouver in 2011 and 2014.
This year’s Grey Cup in Winnipeg will be Barnsley’s eighth, and he says the week has changed significantly for the better since his first one nearly a quarter century ago.
“It’s more commercialized with all the companies involved now, and that’s a good thing because there’s a lot more events going on,” Barnsley said. “Compared to ’91, basically it was the game and you go to a few socials at the Convention Centre. Nowadays it’s sometimes a challenge in figuring out your schedule for the week with everything going on.
“There’s free events for the family and obviously there’s stuff involving the drinking, but there’s definitely an assortment of stuff to do.”
Speaking of drinking, Martz and his merry band of Grey Cup travellers were priming in an Ottawa hotel room on the Sunday morning before the 1988 game when a mechanical failure nearly prevented them from getting to Lansdowne Park.
“The lock on the door in the hotel that we were in broke,” Martz says. “We were locked in our hotel room on the sixth floor in downtown Ottawa. We had to call the fire department to get us out.”
The firefighters saved the day, allowing Martz and Co. to witness Winnipeg’s 22-21 victory over the B.C. Lions.
Martz recalls “the original Trudeau” doing the ceremonial kickoff before the ’ 75 game, not to mention the streaker who braved the -10 C temperature for his moment of glory.
Martz and Barnsley both mentioned, how much they appreciate the fact the Grey Cup hasn’t gone corporate. It remains pure Canadiana, which is why they try to go as often as they can.
“The whole week is still about the fans,” Barnsley says. “There are more companies involved and a lot more going on. I’ve never been to the Super Bowl, but you hear the stories that it’s companies first. The Grey Cup is about the fans.
“You run into players throughout the week at different events or the hotel or out at the restaurants. They’re obviously approachable, so that’s always a nice thing.”