Grey Cup Programmes, 1949-1959

Until about 1948 or 1949 (a gap in the Hall of Fame's set makes it hard to say which year!), the Grey Cup programmes rarely consisted of much more than a lineup card, listing little more than the surnames and numbers of the players. The remainder of the four, occasionally eight, pages would be filled with miscellaneous advertisements and occasionally a photograph of a player or a team logo image. The stock of these publications is often very lightweight, and often high in acid content, thus leading to very fragile paper sixty or more years later. While collectors often seem obsessed with these old bits of memorabilia (though few have ever seen copies!), they are practically useless for gaining any insight into the contemporary football happenings of the day.

The Grey Cup programmes from 1950 through 1970 are some of the more useful programmes published: in the 1950s, they usually took the form of a CRU year book, having articles of about a page on each team, with token mentions of junior and intermediate teams to keep the CRU purists happy; those of the 1960s are of varying detail, generally having little beyond the scope of the game itself and the participating teams until about 1967. (Those published by the B. C. Lions are especially bad for this shortcoming.)

It is not until 1968 that four-colour printing is used in any quantity throughout the programme: prior to that date, the contents were generally black and white, with occasional single colour ornamentation on select pages. Programmes of this era were contracted out either by the host venue or the CRU; the 1970 programme marks the first published by the CFL's official CFL Illustrated magazine. Since 1970, all Grey Cup programmes have been printed by a CFL-sanctioned publisher; I find these generally to be lifeless and relatively uninformative publications, especially those of the 1980s and 1990s, as they were largely printed well in advance of the event and have tended in recent years to adopt a more visual than documentary approach, which I find rather frustrating. Some day (i.e. when I run out of earlier GC programmes to obtain and sort through) I may take enough interest in the more recent programmes to seek them out and create a similar listing, but for the moment I'd prefer to stick with this era.

I am actively looking for a number of pre-1965 Grey Cup programmes, if anyone is interested in selling. (Specifically pre-1951, 1956, 1960, 1963 & 1964.)

1949

1950

1951

19.8 cm x 27.2 cm
Printed by Garden City Press, 44 pages

Letters of Greeting (pp. 3, 5)
CRU Governors, 1951 (p. 7)
Grey Cup Time--A national event, by Ted Reeve (pp. 11, 38-39)
Gossip From The Gridiron, by Harry Savage (pp. 15, 18, 30-31)
The Holy Grail of Football, by Vern DeGeer (p. 16)
Ottawa & Saskatchewan Coaches (p. 21)
Lineups (pp. 22-24)
Football Language (p. 27)
The Illustrious Mr. Dobbs (p. 29)
1951 Club Rosters (pp. 32-33, 40)
Rouge--Lipstick--Powder! (p. 35)
Stars of Tomorrow (pp. 36, 41)
Junior Champions (p. 39)

1952

19.8 cm x 27.2 cm
40 pages

Grey Cup "Doings" Last Year--photographs (p. 3)
Message of greting from Allan Lamport, Mayor of Toronto (p. 5)
CRU 1952 Executive (p. 7)
The Grey Cup (p. 8)
The Grey Cup Parade, by Ross McCreath (pp. 8, 27
Grey Cup Classic: A national event, by Bob Moir (pp. 11, 30)
Gossip from the Gridiron, by Harry M. Savage (pp. 15, 18)
The West is Leading, by Harvey Dryden (pp. 16, 18)

A description of the WIFU statistical system.
Rosters of teams in the playoffs: Argos, Edmonton, Hamilton, Balmy Beach, Sarnia, Winnipeg (p. 22)
WIFU Team Statistics, through game 11 (p. 23)
East or West, by Annis Stukus (pp. 24, 40)
Football is Big Business, by Larry O'Brien (p. 28)
1952 Club Rosters: IRFU, WIFU, ORFU (pp. 32-33, 37, 39)
Stars of Tomorrow (p. 35)

The Grey Cup programmes of 1950, 1951 and 1952 all share the same general cover art, and are similar in the general scope of their contents. Unlike most programmes from 1953 onward, those from 1952 and earlier appear to have only been sold at the stadium, thus making them somewhat harder to find than later years.

1953

19.8 cm x 26.8 cm
Canadian Athletic Program Service, 62 pages

CRU Governors (p. 5)
The Colourful Cup Trimmings, by Ted Reeve (pp. 7, 27, 54-55)
Les Alouettes Sont La!, by Lary O'Brien (pp. 10-11)
Looking Back Over 1953, by Al Vickery (pp. 13, 59)
Argonaut Rowing and Football Clubs, by H. E. Kaysmith (pp. 14-15, 56)
The Greatest Passer--Jack Jacobs, by Bob Moir (p. 17)
The Gold and Blue Bombers, by Al Vickery (pp. 18-19)
The Eskimos--Past and Present!, by Stan Moher (pp. 20-21, 59)
The "Capital City" Team--Rough Riders (pp. 22-23, 59)
Previous Grey Cup Winners (p. 25)
The Wheat Kings--Regina (pp. 26-28)
Looking Back Over 1953--Big Four, by Jim Vipond (p. 29)
Lineups (pp. 31-35)
The Foothills--Tigers, Bronks and now Stampeders (pp. 36-37)
Oskee Wah Wah--Whiskey Wee Wee!--Tiger Cats (pp. 38-39, 59)
Getting the Show on the Road, by Dan Driscoll (p. 40)
Here's How from the Stars (pp. 42-45)
Watch Those Juniors, by Jack Sullivan (p. 47)
Outstanding Player Award, by Dan Driscoll (p. 49)
A Few "First Year Canada" Impressions, by Dewitt "Tex" Coulter (p. 51)
Intermediate Football, 1894-1953, by Bill Fry (p. 57)
Vancouver (p. 57)
No Fear of Quick Recession as Interest Mounts in Football, by Baz O'Meara (p. 58)
Thumbnails: Alouettes, Balmy Beach, Blue Bombers, Tiger-Cats (pp. 60-61)

For the second televised Grey Cup, the game programme became available to the fans both at the stadium and at home. This presumably meant that the programme was sold at magazine stands, although the scope of their distribution (i.e. local or national) is unclear. This may have continued through the 1960s; by the 1970s, the programmes were generally available through mail order, as they have been to date.

1954

19.8 cm x 26.8 cm
Canadian Athletic Program Service, 54 pages

The Home Stands, by Ted Reeve (pp. 7, 11)

A description of Canadian football stadia in 1954.
1954 Western History, by Stan Moher (pp. 13, 47)
1954 Eastern History, by Bob Frewin (pp. 15, 48)
Alouettes, 1954, by Larry O'Brien (p. 17)
Argonauts, 1954, by Hal Walker(p. 18)
1954 WIFU All-Stars (pp. 19, 21)
Blue Bombers, by Al Vickery (pp. 22, 47)
Eskimos (p. 23)
Rough Riders, 1954, by Jack Kinsella (p. 25)
Lineups of four semi-final teams (pp. 27-30)
Roughriders, 1954, by Scotty Melville (p. 32)
IRFU All-Stars (pp. 33, 35)
Stampeders, 1954, by gordon Hunter (p. 36)
Eastern Big Four Moans, by Vern DeGeer (p. 37)
Tiger-Cats, 1954, by Ivan Miller (p. 38)
Juniors and Intermediates, by Jack Sullivan & Bill Fry (pp. 39, 47)
BC Lions, 1954 (pp. 41, 48)
Schenley Awards, by Dan Driscoll (p. 43)
Previous Grey Cup winners (p. 45)
1954 Statistics (p. 49)
Team Thumbnails (pp. 50-51)

1955

19.8 cm x 26.8 cm
Canadian Athletic Program Service, 46 pages
Printed by J. W. Bow & Co., Vancouver

Grey Cup Festival---Vancouver, B. C. Style, by Dan Driscoll (p. 7)
Montreal Alouettes (pp. 8-9, 45)
Toronto Argonauts, by Harry Kaysmith (pp. 10-11)
Winnipeg Blut Bombers, by Al Vickery (pp. 12-13, 45)
How it Was Out West 1955, by Dave Queen (p. 15)
Edmonton Eskimos, by Stan Mohr (pp. 16-17, 39)
Ottawa Rough Riders, by Jack Kinsella (pp. 18-19)
CRU Governors (p. 21)
Lineups (pp. 23-26)
Saskatchewan Roughriders (pp. 28-29)
Calgary Stampeders, by Frank McCool (pp. 30-31)
Hamilton Tiger-Cats, by Fred Cederberg (pp. 32-33, 39)
A New Home For Alouetes, by Dink Carroll (p. 35)

A discussion of the Als' need for a larger home to replace Molson Stadium. (History really is cyclical!)
B. C. Lions, by W. C. Surphlis (pp. 36-37, 43)
Intermediate Football Booms, by W. A. Fry (p. 43)
Canadian Junior Football, by A. W. Leveridge (p. 43)

Each team is given a writeup of at least a page, with another page having photographs and brief biographies of a dozen star players of that team.

1957

19.6 cm x 26.8 cm
Canadian Athletic Program Services, 46 pages

The Way it All Started, by Ted Reeve (pp. 6, 46)
The Alouette Story, by Lloyd McGowan (pp. 10-11)
Will the "Lucky Bounce" return to the Toronto Argonauts, by Jor Nordmann (pp. 12-13)
Winnipeg--Grant at the helm, by Bob Moir (pp. 15-16)
The Formula--Grey Cup Style (Edmonton Eskimos) (pp. 17-18)
Intermediate CRU Picture, by Bill Fry (p. 18)
Old "Roughie U" a la Clair (Ottawa), by Jack Kinsella (pp. 19-20)
Lineups and Rosters (pp. 23-26)
The Wheat Kings--Saskatchewan (pp. 29-30)
The Western Broncs Ride Again (Calgary), by Tom Moore (pp. 31-32)
Behind the Scenes in Football, by Ivan Miller (pp. 33-34)
The "Roarin" BC Lions, by L. Ornest (pp. 35-36)
College Ball--Loot for the pros, by Jim Proudfoot (pp. 37-39)
1957 Facts from the West, by Jack Matheson (pp. 41, 46)
Comments on Junior Football, by Bill Leveridge (p. 42)
1957 Winnipeg Blue Bombers team photo (p. 43)
Grey Cup Final--why not king-size?, by Bob Frewin (p. 45)

A discussion of the possibility of converting the GC to a two-game, total-points series.

1958

19.6 cm x 26.8 cm
Vancouver WIFU Football Club, 62 pages
Printed by J. W. Bow and Co. Ltd.

Canadian Football League Officials, 1958 (p. 5)
Letters of Greeting (p. 7)
History of the Grey Cup (p. 9)
Miss Grey Cup contestants (p. 11)
1958 WIFU All Stars (p. 13)
The Coaches' Grey Cup Selections (p. 15)
The Game Today, by Leo Ornest (p. 17)
Most Grey Cup Winners / Past Scores (p. 18)
9th Annual Grey Cup Dinner (p. 19)
1957 Grey Cup Summary (p. 20)
Blue Bomber Photos and Biographies (pp. 21-27)
Depth Charts (pp. 29, 36)
Rosters (pp. 30-35)
Tiger-Cat Photos and Biographies (pp. 38-44)
1958 Trophy Winners (p. 46)
Half Time programme (p. 48)
Empire Stadium Information (p. 49)
1958 IRFU All Stars (p. 50)
Photos: 1955 Grey Cup (p. 52)
Photos: Building of Empire Stadium (p. 54)
Grey Cup Parade (p. 59)
Schenley Awards (pp. 60-61)

1959

20.9 cm x 28.5 cm
Canadian Pro Football Annual, 32 pages plus 24 page insert

Grey Cup History, by Jack Sullivan (pp. 2-3)
The Day Vancouver Won the Grey Cup, by Dick Beddoes (pp. 4-5)
Hard Hat--Soft Hears: Len Black, by Eaton Howitt (pp. 6, 8)
Regina--the city that can't afford pro football (p. 9)
Grey Cup Dreams, by Bob Frewin (pp. 10-12) and Bob Hesketh (pp. 12-13)
From Theatre to Stadium: CNE Stadium (pp. 14-15)
Coach's Lament, by Ted Reeve (p. 16)
Lew Hayman: king of the Grey Cups, by Jim Hunt (pp. 17-18)
1939 Eastern Champs: Was this team the greatest?, by Bill Westwick (p. 21)
Sam's Records: Who can touch them, by Gord Walker (pp. 22-23)
Oil Wells Can't Build a Football Team, by Gorde Hunter (pp. 23-24)
Johnny Bright: The patched-up super star (pp. 26-27)
Western Player's Reward--a coaching job!, by Jack Matheson (pp. 28-29)
Football Characters I have Known, by Vern DeGeer (p. 29)
Jimmy McCrafty: the cunning Irishman, by Jack Kinsella (pp. 31-32)

Insert

Grey Cup Record Book (pp. A2-A6)
Depth Charts (pp. A7-A8)
Letters of Greeting (pp. A11, A14)
Lineups (pp. A12-A13)
Winnipeg Who's Whom (pp. A15-A16)
Hamilton Who's Whom (pp. A18-A20)
Coaches' Biographies (p A21)
Schenley Awards (pp. A22-A23)
Miscellaneous Facts / Final Standings (p. A24)

A bit of an unusual programme. The outer 32 pages appear to be a "Canadian Pro Football Annual" magazine, with little reference to the Grey Cup, into which 24 pages of game information were inserted. Is anyone aware of the Annual being issued separately, minus the insert and under a different cover?

Grey Cup Programmes, 1960 to 1969

Grey Cup Programmes, 1970 to 1989

Grey Cup Programmes, 1990 to date