Gray Cup Day In Canada

Football, that is Canadian football with three downs and plenty of action brings nearly all Canadians together for a few hours every year when the West meets the East to see who wins the Gray Cup. People who normally have better things to do then watch football suddenly become interested in this event. It is an old tradition as this will be the 101 year for the contest.

In recent years there has been a renewed interest in our game and Regina will do a great job of making the celebration exciting with a great mixture of cowboys and Indians in the parade where horses take a front row when the game is played out west. The parade is strictly Canadian and it offers our First Nations People an opportunity to show their colourful heritage with special dress and pride in their past during the parade.

The game is important even though many of the key players are American and come here to enhance our game. In early years I attended four Gray Cups and for two of them records were made. One was the fog bowl where the fog came in off Lake Ontario and the game had to be completed the next day and the other game of note was the wind bowl when the wind was so strong that punting the ball into the wind was rewarded with negative yardage. Rules were immediately changed for this one game and play went on.

One year I was in Florida for the Gray cup and noticed a bar advertising the game to be on television. I was excited and travelled some distance to see the game  but when I arrived the game on the TV was Buffalo playing the Jets. It turned out that there were not enough Canadians there to watch the game . I complained bitterly and was made to feel very uncomfortable and was asked to leave. I wasn't that bad but I was causing enough trouble to wake up the forty or so American fans who were sleeping after a few half priced drinks.

This afternoon Canadians will be forgetting their political differences and joining together to just enjoy the great game. West or East...who wins will not matter but will give bragging rights until we do it all over again next year.