When The Grey Cup was stolen and ransomed
A crime that didn't pay
Next to the Stanley Cup, no trophy is more respected and loved in Canada than the Grey Cup. It is a symbol of football dominance for our CFL teams and winning the Grey Cup is a major bit of pride for a city.
The trophy was commissioned in 1909 by Earl Grey, Canada’s Governor General. He originally wanted it to be the trophy given to the country’s senior amateur hockey championship. After the Allan Cup filled that void, Grey instead made the trophy available as the Canadian Dominion Football Championship.
The first Grey Cup was won by the University of Toronto in 1909, and the team didn’t receive the trophy to celebrate with until 1910. They kept the trophy for another few years deciding they didn’t have to return it until another team beat them for it. That finally happened in 1914.
In 1947, the Grey Cup was nearly destroyed in a fire at the Toronto Argonaut Rowing Club. While the office was destroyed, the cup was only slightly tarnished.
In 1964, the Grey Cup was left at the hotel when the B.C. Lions went to the airport.
The Grey Cup was also broken by the Edmonton Eskimos in 1987, the Toronto Argonauts in 1991 and Edmonton once again in 1993.
In 1967, the Grey Cup was stolen by pranksters who abandoned it three days later.
The next time it was stolen, two years later in 1969, was far from being a prank.
In the 1969 CFL season, the Ottawa Rough Riders faced the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the 57th Grey Cup. The game was held in Montreal for the first time since 1931, and Ottawa emerged victorious by defeating Saskatchewan 29 -11.
Ottawa did not get long to celebrate with the Grey Cup. Less than a month later, on Dec. 20, 1969, the Cup was stolen from the Lownsdowne Park Clubhouse.
A ransom demand was put forward by the thieves but the CFL decided not to pay it.
League officials noted that the Grey Cup had priceless sentimental value, but that as a trophy, it was only actually valued at about $50. The league also promised that either the trophy would be back for the next season or they would have a replica made for the 1970 Grey Cup game.
Two Toronto companies offered to donate a silver copy but the league executive instead chose to wait for the possible return of the original.
That is exactly what happened.
On Feb. 16, 1970, the trophy turned up in a storage locker at the Royal York Hotel. An anonymous telephone call told Detective-Sergeant Lennox of the Metro police emergency task force that he could find the key to the lock in a pay phone booth at Dundas and Parliament Streets.
When it was recovered, George Fulton, CFL secretary-treasurer, stated “We don’t want it swiped again.”
When the police turned it over to the CFL, the spot where it should have said Ottawa Rough Riders, instead had a sticker that said “Metro Police ETF” as a joke from the detectives.
As for the thieves, they were never caught.
The CFL decided not to let something like this happen again. The CFL announced that a replica cup would be commissioned so that a stand-in could be used in certain circumstances.
In the Nov. 28, 1970 Grey Cup game in Toronto, the rescued trophy was won by the Montreal Alouettes, who defeated the Calgary Stampeders 23 – 10.
The Grey Cup was stolen once more, in 1997, when Toronto kicker Mike Vanderjagt left it at a bar, but it was thankfully recovered the next day.