The Winnipeg Blue Bombers were top of the class in the CFL regular season, but if history matters, the Bleu et Or would be well advised to do some more studying.
The Bombers will face the Toronto Argonauts in the 109th Gray Cup championship on Sunday at Mosaic Stadium in Regina.
The Argos have never lost to the Bombers in the big CFL game. They are 6-0 against Winnipeg.
You have to go back to 1950 to find the last time these two teams met in the Gray Cup. That year, the Bombers were also the crème de la crème of the CFL before finding themselves knee-deep in mud and on the losing side of a CFL classic.
The 38th Gray Cup, played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto on November 25, 1950, is infamously known as the Mud Bowl.
A heavy snowfall the day before the game led league officials to bring in heavy equipment to clear the pitch. But the machinery was grinding the grass. Temperatures soared the next morning, turning snow to water and the field to soup.
The Argos won 13-0 in a contest that looked more like hog wrestling than football and made it difficult to differentiate between players as all uniforms were uniformly grey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egci7cXzYE
Toronto also edged out the Bombers in the 1945, 1946 and 1947 Gray Cup games, as well as the 1937 and 1938 championships.
Winnipeg has the most Gray Cup appearances with 26, but Toronto has won the most championships, with 17.
Toronto’s Gray Cup record is league best 17-6. The Bombers are 12-14 in the big game.
The Argos have won the last six Gray Cups they have played in, the last beating Calgary in 2017. They clinched their ticket to this year’s championship game after beating the Montreal Alouettes 34-27 in the final. of the East Division on Sunday.
Hours later, the Bombers defeated the BC Lions 28-20 in the West Final.
The Bombers are now aiming for their third consecutive Gray Cup title, which would be the most consecutive championships since Edmonton clinched five from 1978-82.
But one of the biggest stories on Sunday is the return of Argos running back Andrew Harris, a Winnipegger and former Bombers star.
After suffering a torn pectoral muscle in August, Harris’ season was expected to be over. But he was back in Double Blue for the Eastern Final and scored the game’s first touchdown while leading the team with 42 rushing yards.
Harris also returns to the Gray Cup game for the third straight time, but this time against the team that let him go.
During five years with the Bombers, Harris led the CFL in rushing three times. He helped the Bombers out of the CFL basement, where they had struggled for years with losing records and possessed a 29-year Gray Cup championship drought.
The Bombers broke that skid in 2019 and after the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bombers defended their title in 2021. Both wins came against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
The first title came when the Bombers became the underdog with an 11-7 regular season record against the 15-3 Tiger-Cats. This season, the Bombers had a 15-3 season and Toronto 11-7.
Harris led the CFL in rushing for three of his five seasons with Winnipeg and in that 2019 championship he became the first player in Gray Cup history to win the Most Valuable Player and Player trophies. most useful Canadian.
He signed with Toronto in free agency after the 2021 season, saying he wanted to stay in Winnipeg but “felt I was unwanted” after little communication from Bombers management about a new contract in the offseason.
Now he comes back with a chip on his shoulder. But Harris won’t tell.
When asked by TSN reporter Claire Hanna after his team’s win — and before the Bombers-Lions game started — which team he’d like to face in the Gray Cup, Harris replied, “I don’t care. .”
This isn’t the first time he’s faced the Bombers in a league game. He was named Most Outstanding Canadian at the 2011 Gray Cup as his BC Lions beat the Bombers 34-23.
The Argos have another connection to Winnipeg. Head coach Ryan Dinwiddie spent three seasons as backup quarterback with the Bombers, from 2006 to 2008.
His very first CFL start came in his sophomore year, but it was unexpected and it turned out to be the Gray Cup game, after Bombers starting quarterback Kevin Glenn or broke his arm in the Eastern final. (Winnipeg had a brief stint in the Eastern Division.)
Dinwiddie came on to finish that game, ending Toronto’s season, but losing the Gray Cup to Saskatchewan.
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