December 2, 1962: The Winnipeg Blue Bombers win the Grey Cup, the Championship of the Canadian Football League. It is their 4th title in the last 5 years, concluding what passes for a dynasty in the CFL.
Harry Peter Grant Jr. was born on May 20, 1927, the day Charles Lindbergh took off from Long Island, in Superior, Wisconsin, across the Saint Louis River from Duluth, Minnesota, where the river flows into Lake Superior. His mother called him "Buddy Boy," and this was shortened to "Bud."
After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, playing for the Great Lakes Naval Training Center football team coached by Paul Brown. He starred in baseball, football and basketball at the University of Minnesota, and was a member of the Minneapolis Lakers' 1950 NBA Champions. He left basketball for football, and played 2 seasons for the Philadelphia Eagles, and 4 for the Blue Bombers. In 1957, he retired as a player to accept their post as head coach.
In 1958, just his 2nd season with them, he led them to a 13-3 record, winning the Western Interprovincial Football Union title. In the Grey Cup, held at the Empire Stadium in Vancouver, the Blue Bombers beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 35-28, winning the Bombers their 1st title in 17 years.
The Ticats led 14-0 in the 1st quarter, before the Bombers closed to within 14-13. Instead of downing the ball before halftime, Hamilton coach Jim Trimble elected to punt the ball away on the last play. The punt was blocked, and recovered in the end zone by Norm Rauhaus to give the Bombers a 20-14 halftime lead. Angelo Mosca of the Ticats, one of the greatest linemen in CFL history, admitted: "We should have won the 1958 Grey Cup, but there was a bad coaching error before halftime."
In 1959, in a 2-legged West Final, they beat the Edmonton Eskimos, 19-11 in Edmonton and 16-8 at Winnipeg Stadium. That set up the Grey Cup, on neutral ground at the brand-new Canadian National Exhibition Stadium, home of the Toronto Argonauts, and eventually to be home of baseball's Toronto Blue Jays. The Bombers beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, 21-7. The key play came early in the 4th quarter: Roger Savoie hit Hamilton running back Gerry McDougall, causing him to fumble. Bud Tinsley recovered. A 41-yard pass from Ken Ploen to Farrell Funston set up a 2-yard touchdown run by Charlie Shepard, who was named the game's Most Valuable Player.
Four months' later, Bombers' running back Gerry James played on the right wing for the Toronto Maple Leafs as they lost the Stanley Cup Finals to the Montreal Canadiens. He remains the only man to play in the Grey Cup and the Stanley Cup Finals in the same season, and is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.
The Bombers didn't make it back in 1960, and the Ottawa Rough Riders beat the Edmonton Eskimos, 16-6. In 1961, Grant was asked by Max Winter, founding owner of the NFL's expansion Minnesota Vikings, to be the team's 1st head coach. He turned the offer down, and Winter hired recently retired star quarterback Norm Van Brocklin.
Grant again coached Winnipeg to a 13-3 season, winning the newly-renamed Western Football Conference. Again playing Hamilton at Exhibition Stadium, the Grey Cup went to overtime for the 1st time, and Ploen ran the winning touchdown in himself, giving the Blue Bombers a 21-14 win.
Ken Ploen
They got back in 1962, again facing the Tiger-Cats at Exhibition Stadium. But when the teams took the field on December 1, both hoping to win on the day, it turned out that no one would. By the 2nd quarter, a thick fog started to roll in over the field, a combination of cold, moist, humid air from Lake Ontario. Much as would happen in a 1988 NFL Playoff game on Chicago's Lake Michigan, which would also be nicknamed "The Fog Bowl," in this game, the fog was thick enough that fans could not see the action on the field, receivers lost sight of the ball after it left the quarterbacks' hand, and punt returners could not find punts until they hit the ground.
The fog became worse as the afternoon wore on, and, with 9 minutes and 29 seconds left in the 4th quarter, the game was suspended, with Winnipeg leading, 28–27. The game was resumed the following afternoon, but there was no further scoring, thus securing the Bomber win.
The 1962 Grey Cup was the first CFL contest to be broadcast by an American TV network, when ABC Wide World of Sports carried it on tape delay at 4:00 PM Eastern Time, while Canadians got to see it on CBC starting at 12:30 Eastern. Although ABC aired WWOS on both Saturdays and Sundays, they, unlike CBC, opted not to show the resumed game the next day.
The Blue Bombers had now won 4 titles in 5 seasons, as yet an unmatched run of success. Teams had won 3 straight Grey Cups, but not 4 in so few years. Then the quasi-dynasty went into a tailspin, going 7-9 in 1963. Grant was given the general manager's duties, on top of the head coaching duties, for 1964, and the team finished 1-14-1. He got them to a rebound season in 1965, going 11-5 and reaching the Grey Cup again, but losing to the Tiger-Cats, 22-16 in Toronto. He got them back to the Playoffs in 1966, but lost the West Final.
In 1967, Winter and his general manager, Jim Finks, fired Van Brocklin, and again made an overture to Grant. This time, he accepted, and led the Vikings to the 1969 NFL Championship, and the 1973, 1974 and 1976 NFC Championships. But they lost all 4 Super Bowls.
Still, to this day, he and Marv Levy are the only coaches to lead teams into both a Grey Cup and a Super Bowl. Grant, Levy and Steve Owen are the only coaches to win Coach of the Year in both the CFL and the NFL. And he and Levy are the only coaches to be in both the Pro Football and the Canadian Football Halls of Fame. The only player in both is Warren Moon.
Both the Blue Bombers and the Vikings have elected Grant to their team halls of fame. The Blue Bombers have dedicated a statue to him outside their new Princess Auto Stadium.
For the 1963 season, the CFL adopted an official policy for postponements of postseason games: Play may be stopped for up to 3 hours, and then resume. After 3 hours of stoppage, play is terminated at least for the day. A Playoff or Grey Cup game must then be resumed the following day, at the point where it left off. Through the 2022 season, this policy has never had to be invoked.
Since Grant left the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, they took until 1984 to win the Grey Cup again, a 22-year gap. They have since won in 1988, 1990, 2019 (a 29-year gap) and 2021.
UPDATE: Bud Grant died on March 11, 2023, at the age of 95, in Bloomington, Minnesota, the suburb of Minneapolis where Metropolitan Stadium, home of the NFL's Vikings and baseball's Twins from 1961 to 1981, stood.
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December 2, 1962 was a Sunday. These games were played in the NFL:
* The New York Giants beat the Chicago Bears, 26-24 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Washington Redskins, 37-14 at District of Columbia Stadium (later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Stadium) in Washington.
* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 19-7 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh.
* The Detroit Lions beat the Baltimore Colts, 21-14 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.
* The Green Bay Packers beat the Los Angeles Rams, 41-10 at Milwaukee County Stadium.
* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Minnesota Vikings, 35-12 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of
Bloomington, Minnesota.
* And the Dallas Cowboys beat the Cleveland Browns, 45-21 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
There were 3 games in the AFL:
* The Buffalo Bills beat the Dallas Texans, 23-14 at War Memorial Stadium in Buffalo.
* The Houston Oilers beat the Denver Broncos, 34-17 at Jeppesen Stadium (later Robertson Stadium) in Houston.
* And the San Diego Chargers beat the Oakland Raiders, 31-21 at Balboa Stadium in San Diego.
Baseball was out of season. There were 2 games played in the NBA. The Boston Celtics beat the Cincinnati Royals, 128-127 in overtime at the Cincinnati Gardens. And the St. Louis Hawks beat the San Francisco Warriors, 122-116 at the Cow Palace outside San Francisco in Daly City, California. Cliff Hagan scored 43 points for the Hawks. For the Warriors' Wilt Chamberlain, it was just another day at the office: He scored 59 points and grabbed 24 rebounds.
And the NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:
* The New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 4-2 at the old Madison Square Garden.
* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3 at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit.
* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at the Chicago Stadium.
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