December 2, 1962: Bud Grant's Blue Bombers Win the Fog Bowl

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.

Exhibition Stadium, in its 1959-76 configuration

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.

*

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.

October 9, 2011: The Winnipeg Jets Return

And they returned with much better uniforms than the previous version.

October 9, 2011: The new Winnipeg Jets, previously the Atlanta Thrashers, end the Manitoba capital's 15-year exile from the NHL, playing their inaugural game at the new MTS Centre. Nik Antropov scores their 1st goal, but that's all they get, and the Montreal Canadiens beat them, 5-1.

The Winnipeg Victorias had won the Stanley Cup in the amateur era, 1896, 1901 and 1902. The Winnipeg Falcons represented Canada the 1st time ice hockey was played at the Olympic Games, in Antwerp, Belgium in 1920. The Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey, has been won by Winnipeg teams: The 1921 Winnipeg Junior Falcons; the 1923 University of Manitoba Bisons; the 1935, 1937 and 1946 Winnipeg Monarchs; the 1941 and 1943 Winnipeg Rangers; and the 1959 Winnipeg Braves.

The original version of the Winnipeg Jets were founding members of the World Hockey Association in the 1972-73 season, and made the Finals but lost in that season and 1977; but won in 1976, 1978 and 1979. They were then admitted to the NHL, but never did well, winning just 2 Playoff series, 1 each in 1985 and 1987.

But, like most Canadian cities, other than Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, Winnipeg was a small market, without much in the way of suburbs. Add on an NHL Commissioner like Gary Bettman, who hates Canada and loves the Sun Belt, and in 1996, the original Jets were bought and moved to Phoenix, where they became known as the Arizona Coyotes. They didn't do much better there, reaching the Conference Finals only once, in 2012. Meanwhile, back in Winnipeg, the Manitoba Moose became one of the most popular minor-league teams.

In 2004, the MTS Centre opened in downtown Winnipeg, as the new home of the Moose. It was necessary to lure a new team, as the previous version's home, the Winnipeg Arena, was built in 1954, was far from downtown, and had hardly any luxury boxes. In 2011, the Atlanta Thrashers were moved to Winnipeg, and took up residence at the MTS Centre, which was renamed Bell MTS Place in 2017, and the Canada Life Centre in 2021.

The new Jets took until 2015 to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs. In 2018, they reached the Western Conference Finals, losing to the Vegas Golden Knights. They appear to now be perennial Playoff contenders.

UPDATE: In 2024, the Arizona Coyotes failed, and were bought and moved to Salt Lake City. They played the 2024-25 season as simply "Utah Hockey Club," before becoming the Utah Mammoth.

The fact that Salt Lake City was the site of a Winter Olympics doesn't change the perception that, like Phoenix and Las Vegas, it's in the middle of a desert. But it does show that the initial decision to dump Winnipeg in favor of a Sun Belt city was as stupid as it was greedy.

The new Winnipeg Jets have established a team Hall of Fame, including Bobby Hull, Dale Hawerchuk, Tomas Steen, Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson, Lars-Erik Sjoberg, Ab McDonald, Randy Carlyle, Teemu Selanne and Teppo Numminen. They've also retired the uniform numbers of Hull, 9; Hawerchuk, 10; and Steen, 25.

*

October 9, 2011 was a Sunday. A Game 1 was played in the National League Division Series. The Milwaukee Brewers beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 9-6 at Miller Park (now American Family Field) in Milwaukee.

The NBA team owners had locked the players out, so the season did not begin until Christmas Day, December 25. And aside from the Jets' opener, there was only 1 game in the NHL: The Edmonton Oilers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 2-1 in a shootout at Rexall Place, as the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton was then called.

And these NFL games were played:

* The New York Giants lost to the Seattle Seahawks, 36-25 at MetLife Stadium in the Meadowlands.

* The New York Jets lost to their arch-rivals, the New England Patriots, 30-21 at Gillette Stadium in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The New Orleans Saints beat the Carolina Panthers, 30-27 at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

* The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 30-20 at EverBank Field (as EverBank Stadium was then known) in Jacksonville.

* The Green Bay Packers beat the Atlanta Falcons, 25-14 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.

* The Oakland Raiders beat the Houston Texans, 25-20 at NRG Stadium in Houston.

* The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Tennessee Titans, 38-17 at LP Field (now Nissan Stadium) in Nashville.

* The Buffalo Bills beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 31-24 at Ralph Wilson Stadium (formerly Rich Stadium) in the Buffalo suburb of Orchard Park, New York.

* The Kansas City Chiefs beat the Indianapolis Colts, 28-24 at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

* The San Diego Chargers beat the Denver Broncos, 29-24 at Sports Authority Field at Mile High (now Empower Field at Mile High) in Denver.

* The San Francisco 49ers beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 48-3 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

* On ESPN Monday Night Football, the Detroit Lions beat the Chicago Bears, 24-13 at Ford Field in Detroit.

* And the Baltimore Ravens, the Cleveland Browns, the Dallas Cowboys, the Miami Dolphins, the St. Louis Rams and the Washington Redskins each had a bye week.

January 23, 1902: Winnipeg Win the Stanley Cup

January 23, 1902: Winnipeg win the Stanley Cup. Stop laughing: It happened a long time ago, but it did happen. In fact, this was the 3rd time.

This was the era when the Cup was still a challenge trophy: You challenged the holder to a game, or a series, agreed upon the format before playing, and, if you won, you received the Cup. In 1896, the Winnipeg Victorias won the title of the Manitoba Hockey Association, and became the 1st non-Montreal team to win the Stanley Cup.

Their lineup: Goalkeeper George Merritt, point Rod Flett, cover-point Fred Higginbotham (we would call both of those "points" "defensemen" today), and forwards Jack Armytage (who had organized the 1st hockey club in Winnipeg, and was essentially also the head coach and general manager of this team), Dan Bain, Attie Howard and Colin "Tote" Campbell. They beat the Cup holders, the Montreal Victorias, 2-0. The Montreal Victorias took the title back at the end of the calendar year.

The Victorias won the Cup again in 1901, defeating the Montreal Shamrocks in a 2-game-total-goals series, 4-3 and 2-1. In 1902, they faced the Champions of the Ontario Hockey Association, the Toronto Wellingtons, in a best-2-out-of-3 series at the Winnipeg Auditorium. The Victorias won both games by a score of 5-3, both at the Winnipeg Auditorium.

Winnipeg Auditorium

Rod Flett still played point, with his brother Magnus Flett as counter-point. Art Brown was in goal. By this point, there was a position of "rover," who alternated between offense and defense, making for 7 men on a side, hence the Ottawa Senators were originally known as the Silver Seven. Burke Wood was the Victorias' rover. And forward positions had become better defined: The Victorias had Fred Scanlan at left wing, Fred Cadham at center, and Tony Gingras at right wing.

Scanlan and 1896 Victoria player Bain would be elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Two months later, the Montreal Hockey Club took the Cup from the Victorias.

Fred Scanlan

As professionalism took over, the Victorias stayed amateur, and won the Allan Cup in 1911 and 1912. But in the days before air travel, when a train going from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast could take as long as a week, Winnipeg was simply too far from Montreal and Toronto to be a viable city for the National Hockey League when it was founded in 1917.

The Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey, was won by the Winnipeg Junior Falcons in 1921; the University of Manitoba in 1923; the Winnipeg Monarchs in 1935 and 1937; the Winnipeg Rangers in 1941, 1943 and 1946; the Winnipeg Braves in 1959.

The Winnipeg Jets were founded with the World Hockey Association in 1972. They won the league title in 1976, 1978 and 1979, and lost in the Finals in 1973 and 1977. They were among the 4 WHA teams admitted to the NHL in 1979, but went only 2-11 in Playoff rounds before being moved in 1996. They are now known as the Arizona Coyotes. In 2011, the Atlanta Thrashers moved, becoming the new Winnipeg Jets. Through the 2020-21 season, their best performance has been in 2018, reaching the Western Conference Finals, coming within 7 games of the Stanley Cup, which is 5 games closer than the previous Jets ever got.

Of all the cities whose teams have won the Stanley Cup, Winnipeg has gone longer without winning it than any other team: Since 1902. Vancouver has been waiting since 1915, Ottawa since 1927, and Toronto since 1967.

*

January 23, 1902 was a Thursday. No other major sport was then in season in North America. So there were no other scores on this historic day.