Today's Tidbit... Fog and the 1962 Grey Cup

Back in July, I penned a Tidbit about two-day football games that began on Saturday evening and, for one reason or another, were delayed and did not finish until early Sunday morning. Such games were quite uncommon when lighted football fields were rare, but we have become nonchalant about these games since playing under the lights has become ordinary.

When telling the original story, I failed to mention the 1962 Grey Cup or the Laval Rouge et Or vs. Concordia Stingers contest in the 1998 Dunsmore Cup for the Ontario-Québec Intercollegiate Football Conference championship. (Thanks to John Valentine and Nathan Sager for the heads-up on those games.)

Since the 110th playing of the Grey Cup arrives tomorrow, it is appropriate to look back on the 50th Grey Cup, another two-day game that has become known as the Fog Bowl. I'll return to the Dunsmore Cup soon.

The 50th Grey Cup, which began on December 1, 1962, started like any other championship game. Sort of. Featuring the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the game took place at Toronto's Exhibition Stadium, which sat a Hail Mary pass north of Lake Ontario. The location made it subject to wind, cold, and seagulls, earning the nickname, the Mistake on the Lake. Despite its faults, it was a perfectly suitable stadium on most occasions, but the 50th playing of the Grey Cup was not one of them.

The 1962 Grey Cup was the first broadcast in the U.S. ABC, which did not handle NFL (CBS) or AFL (NBC) games, planned to show the game on a several-hour tape delay as part of an extended episode of Wide World of Sports. It was an opportunity to put the CFL before an expanded audience and may have affected decision-making over the next few hours.