Jackie Parker
November 27, 1954: The first Canadian Football League season comes to a conclusion, with the Championship of Canadian football, the Grey Cup, being played, on neutral ground at Varsity Stadium in Toronto – in effect, Canada’s national stadium at the time. (From 1909 to 1953, the governing body was the Canadian Rugby Union.) It was broadcast nationwide over CBC, the 1st time the Grey Cup was on television.
The Montreal Alouettes were the Champions of the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union. The Edmonton Eskimos were the Champions of the Western Interprovincial Football Union. The game was played on a very muddy field, which contributed to some sloppy play.
In the 1st quarter, the Eskimos, or "Esks" for short, opened the scoring on a 4-yard touchdown pass from Rollie Miles to Earl Lindley. At the time, the CFL awarded 5 points for a touchdown, not 6. The Alouettes, or "Als," tied the game when Sam Etcheverry threw a 90-yard touchdown pass to Red O'Quinn.
The Eskimos retook the lead on a 1-yard run by Bernie Faloney, but, this time, Bob Dean missed the point-after-touchdown. Early in the 2nd quarter, he kicked a field goal to make it 16-7 Edmonton. But Montreal took an 18-14 halftime lead on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Etcheverry to O'Quinn and an 8-yard touchdown run by Chuck Hunsinger.
The only score of the 3rd quarter came when Ray Poole missed a 17-yard field goal attempt, and the Eskimos did not return it. Under the rules of Canadian football, this is called a "single" or a "rouge," and is worth 1 point. Therefore, the Als ended the 3rd quarter up 19-14. And in the 4th quarter, Etcheverry threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Joey Pal. The Als led, 25-14.
The Eskimos' next drive ended with a Glenn Lippman reverse-field dash, 14 yards for a touchdown. With 1st & 10 on the Eskimos' 10-yard line and 3 minutes remaining, Etcheverry handed the ball off to Hunsinger, who was almost immediately corralled about 5 yards behind the line of scrimmage. In the game's most famous and controversial play, he apparently fumbled, and Jackie Parker recovered the ball on the 20-yard line, and ran 90 yards for the touchdown, with Etcheverry in full but futile pursuit. With Dean's conversion, the Eskimos led, 26-25.
Many Montreal fans believed that the "fumble" was actually a forward pass attempt, to an ineligible receiver, in which case it would not have been a touchdown for Edmonton, as the pass would have been incomplete.
There were still 3 minutes left in the game, and Etcheverry moved his team downfield. He passed to O'Quinn at the Eskimos 35-yard line, but he was hit, and the result was another fumble recovered by the Eskimos. The 26-25 lead held, and the Eskimos had won the Grey Cup for the 1st time.
It was the 1st of 3 straight titles for them. They went on to win the Grey Cup in 1954, 1955, 1956, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1987, 1993, 2003, 2005 and 2015. In 2021, due to racial concerns, the name "Eskimos" was dropped, and the team changed its name to the Edmonton Elks, allowing them to keep the initials and their "EE" logo.
Parker, a Tennessee native, was later voted the Number 3 player in CFL history. He lived until 2006. Etcheverry, from New Mexico, was voted 26th, and coached the Alouettes to the Grey Cup in 1970. He lived until 2009.
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November 27, 1954 was a Saturday. Actress Patricia McPherson, best known as KITT's mechanic Bonnie Barstow on Knight Rider, was born.
Baseball was out of season. Among the college football games played that day were these:
* Number 1 Ohio State had completed their regular season the week before, defeating then-Number 12 Michigan. This won them the Big Ten Conference title, and sent them to the Rose Bowl.
* Number 2 University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) had completed their season the week before, defeating their intracity rivals, the University of Southern California (USC). This won UCLA the Pacific Coast Conference title. However, the PCC's no-repeat rule meant that they could not go to the Rose Bowl for the 2nd straight season, preventing a de facto National Championship game.
* Rivalry: Number 3 Oklahoma beat Oklahoma A&M, 14-0 at Lewis Field (now Boone Pickens Stadium) in Stillwater, Oklahoma. This was during Oklahoma's 47-game winning streak, still a college football record. They won the Big Seven Conference, which had a no-repeat rule, so 2nd-place Nebraska were invited to the Orange Bowl instead. In 1958, when A&M was renamed Oklahoma State, they joined the league, making it the Big Eight.
* Rivalry: Number 4 Notre Dame beat Number 17 University of Southern California, 23-17 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. Notre Dame did not accept bowl bids at the time, so an early-season loss to Purdue cost them the National Championship. Since USC finished 2nd to UCLA in the PCC, they got the PCC's Rose Bowl berth. Ohio State beat them, to win the National Championship.
* Rivalry: Number 6 Navy beat Number 5 Army, 27-20 at Municipal Stadium (later John F. Kennedy Stadium) in Philadelphia. The Air Force Academy fielded its 1st varsity football team the next season. Navy were invited to the Sugar Bowl.
* Rivalry: Number 7 University of Mississippi beat Mississippi State University, 14-0 at Hemingway Stadium (now Vaught-Hemingway Stadium) in Oxford, Mississippi. This clinched the Southeastern Conference title for "Ole Miss," and earned them the accompanying berth in the Sugar Bowl, where they lost to Navy.
* Rivalry: Number 8 Wisconsin beat Number 20 Minnesota, 27-0 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.
* Number 9 Baylor were upset by Rice, 20-14 at Baylor Stadium in Waco, Texas.
* Two days earlier, on Thanksgiving Day, Number 10 Maryland beat Missouri, 74-13 at Byrd Stadium (now SECU Stadium) in the Washington suburb of College Park, Maryland.
* Rivalry: Number 11 University of Miami beat Florida, 14-0 at Florida Field (now Ben Hill Griffin Stadium) in Gainesville, Florida.
* Rivalry: Number 12 West Virginia beat Virginia, 14-10 at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia.
* Number 13 Arkansas beat the University of Houston, 19-0 at Rice Stadium in Houston. This clinched the Southwest Conference title for Arkansas, and earned them the accompanying Cotton Bowl berth.
* Rivalry: Number 20 Duke beat North Carolina, 47-12 at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This clinched the Atlantic Coast Conference title for Duke -- a tie with Wake Forest cost Maryland the title -- and they were invited to the Orange Bowl, where they beat Nebraska.
* Rivalry: Georgia Tech beat Georgia, 7-3 at Sanford Stadium in Athens, Georgia. Tech were invited to the Cotton Bowl, where they beat Arkansas.
* Rivalry: Boston College beat Holy Cross, 31-13 at Fenway Park in Boston.
* Rivalry: Vanderbilt beat Tennessee, 26-0 at Dudley Field in Nashville.
* Rivalry: Louisiana State University (LSU) beat Tulane, 14-13 at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
* Rivalry: Southern Methodist University (SMU) beat Texas Christian University (TCU), 21-6 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
* While these 2 Catholic schools in the Northeast weren't exactly rivals, their game was the biggest college football game in New York City that Thanksgiving Weekend: Philadelphia-based Villanova beat Fordham, 41-0 at the Polo Grounds. Both teams had a bad season: This was 'Nova's only win, and Fordham had only beaten Rutgers. Just under 10,000 fans attended.
* And both New Jersey teams, Rutgers and Princeton, finished their seasons the week before.
There were 3 games in the NBA:
* The New York Knicks lost to the Syracuse Nationals 80-74 at the old Madison Square Garden.
* The Rochester Royals beat the Boston Celtics, 107-101 at the Edgerton Park Arena in Rochester, New York.
* And the Fort Wayne Pistons beat the Minneapolis Lakers, 97-81 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
There were 2 games in the NHL. The New York Rangers lost to the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-1 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. And the Montreal Canadiens beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at the Montreal Forum. The Boston Bruins and the Chicago Black Hawks were not scheduled.
And in English soccer, Arsenal welcomed the defending Football League Champions, Birmingham-area team Wolverhampton Wanderers, to the Arsenal Stadium, known as Highbury for its North London neighborhood, and played "Wolves" to a 1-1 draw.
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