Monument to the crash
December 9, 1956: A plane crash casts a shadow over Canadian football and its postseason all-star game.
Since 1925, the Shriners Hospital for Children has sponsored a postseason fundraising all-star game for American college players, known until 2019 as the East-West Shrine Game, and since as the East-West Shrine Bowl. For most of its history, it has been played in or around San Francisco, although most of its 21st Century contests have been held in Florida.
Likewise, starting in 1955, the Shriners started an all-star game for professional players in Canada, the week after the national championship game, the Grey Cup. This was before the founding of the Canadian Football League in 1958, and the teams were drawn from players from the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU), representing the East, and the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU). As the former's name implies, Canadian-style football bears more resemblance to rugby, a forerunner to it and to American football, than American football does.
The 1st game was played at the closest thing Canada then had to a national stadium, Varsity Stadium on the campus of the University of Toronto. and ended in a 6-6 tie. The next season's edition was held on December 8, 1956, and, since the East hosted the previous year, it was held at a Western site, Empire Stadium in Vancouver. This time, it was no contest: The West won, 35-0.
The next day, Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810-9, a Canadair North Star, based on America's Douglas DC-4, took off from Vancouver International Airport at 6:10 PM Pacific Time, intending to reach Calgary, then continuing to Regina, Winnipeg and Toronto. This was before regular jet service made such multi-stop flights unnecessary.
At 6:55, the pilots reported an engine fire. They were given clearance to return to Vancouver. At 7:10, the pilots reported that they were passing Hope, British Columbia. A minute later, the Vancouver control tower lost contact with them.
As George R.R. Martin would say, it was a song of ice and fire that brought the plane down: Fire in the engine, and icing on the wings. The plane slammed into Mount Slesse, outside Fraser Valley, British Columbia, about 85 miles east of downtown Vancouver, and almost within walking distance of the U.S. border -- if there were a walking path. In fact, the area is hard to reach by any means, and it took days to bring the bodies home: 62 people on board, all of them dead. They included 5 men who had played in the Shrine Game:
* Mel Becket, age 27, from Chicago, a center for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
* Mario DeMarco, 32, from Boonton, New Jersey, a guard for the Roughriders, who had played for the Detroit Lions in 1949.
* Calvin Jones, 23, from Steubenville, Ohio, who, as a guard for the University of Iowa, became the 1st college football player on the cover of Sports Illustrated. He was awarded the 1955 Outland Trophy as college football's "outstanding interior lineman." Drafted by the Lions, he refused to sign with them, because they refused to pay black players the same as white ones. Instead, he signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
* Gordon Sturtridge, 27, from Winnipeg, a defensive end for the Roughriders, who had previously played for the Blue Bombers. And...
* Ray Syrnyk, 22, from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, an offensive lineman for the Roughriders.
The Roughriders have retired the numbers of their players killed in the crash: Becket's 40, DeMarco's 55, Syrnyk's 56 and Sturtridge's 73. The Blue Bombers have never retired a uniform number, but the University of Iowa have retired Jones' 62. He and 1939 Heisman Trophy winner Chuck Long, Number 24, who also died in a plane crash, are the only numbers they have retired.
A monument to the crash and its victims is on a road on the mountain. The actual crash site is so hard to reach, pieces of the plane have still been found in recent years.
The Shrine Game was held again in 1957 and '58, but was poorly attended both times, due to the Canadian cold in that era before domed stadiums, and was dropped from the schedule. It was resumed in 1970, with the former pattern of the NHL All-Star Game: At the start of the season, and the defending Champions taking on a team made up of players from the rest of the League. Attendance remained weak, and the game was discontinued after the 1978 effort, with a one-shot return in 1983, and another in 1988. It has not been played since.
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December 9, 1956 was a Sunday. These NFL games were played that day:
* The New York Giants lost to the Cleveland Browns, 24-7 at Yankee Stadium. They ended up winning the NFL Championship 3 weeks later, anyway.
* The Washington Redskins beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 19-17 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.
* The Detroit Lions beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 45-7 at Briggs Stadium (later Tiger Stadium) in Detroit.
* The Chicago Bears beat the Chicago Cardinals, 10-3 at Wrigley Field in Chicago.
* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Baltimore Colts, 31-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
* And the day before, the San Francisco 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers, 38-20 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco.
There were 2 games played in the NBA. The Rochester Royals beat the Boston Celtics, 109-108 at the Boston Garden. And the Philadelphia Warriors beat the Syracuse Nationals, 101-92 at the Convention Hall of the Philadelphia Civic Center. In 1962, the Warriors moved to San Francisco. The following year, the Nationals moved to take their place, as the Philadelphia 76ers.
And the NHL's entire "Original Six" were in action:
* The New York Rangers beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-2 at the old Madison Square Garden.
* The Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins played to a tie, 1-1 at the Boston Garden.
* And the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 2-1 at the Chicago Stadium.
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