Braley was a true CFL champion
The Saskatchewan Roughriders registered the victory. David Braley got the save.
Such was the storyline on Nov. 26, 1989, when the Roughriders outlasted the Braley-owned Hamilton Tiger-cats 43-40 in the greatest of all Grey Cup games.
Braley, who died Monday at age 79, was a CFL classic in his own right. Without him, there might not be a league.
He rescued the Tiger-cats from the brink of extinction. He subsequently owned the Toronto Argonauts and B.C. Lions — at the same time, for a spell.
Braley, a noted philanthropist, directed some of his vast resources toward so many good causes, while also making integral contributions to a three-down professional football league that was so near and dear to his heart.
One can only imagine how many tens (hundreds?) of millions of dollars he sacrificed to allow the Tiger-cats, Lions and Argonauts to remain in business.
“David did as much as anyone to ensure the survival and growth of the CFL,” former Roughriders president-ceo Jim Hopson — like Braley, a member of the builders' wing of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame — said Monday.
“He was passionate about football and the CFL — a lifelong fan. He was a very principled person — a straight shooter who held himself and those around him accountable. He could be intimidating, but there was a warm, generous and gracious side to David.
“The CFL has lost a true champion.”
That brings us to Tony Champion — a Tiger-cats receiver who made one of several eye-popping plays that characterized the 1989 Grey Cup game.
With 44 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter at Toronto's Skydome (now the Rogers Centre), Champion made a spectacular twisting catch of a Mike Kerrigan aerial on third-and-goal from the nine-yard line.
After landing with a thud in the end zone, Champion somehow held on to the ball despite playing with cracked ribs. Paul Osbaldiston's convert tied the game at 40-40.
Roughriders quarterback Kent Austin proceeded to move the West Division champions into field-goal range, whereupon
Dave Ridgway connected on The Kick from 35 yards away.
“That was the greatest football game I have ever been associated with,” Braley, so gracious in defeat, told the Regina Leader-post's Nick Miliokas after the game.
“The Saskatchewan Roughriders are to be congratulated. They are worthy champions.
“They had the ball with two seconds left, they were well within field-goal range, and I thought, `Oh-h, it's over. This one is history.' It was one of those games when you know that whichever team had the ball last was going to win. They had the ball last and, sure enough, they won.
“But I'm certainly proud of our team. Our players, and our coaches, too, have no reason to hang their heads. They were picked for third place at the start of the season. No one expected them to come this far.''
At one point, it was reasonable to expect the Tiger-cats not to exist — let alone compete for a Grey Cup — in 1989.
In 1988, then-owner Harold Ballard told the Hamilton Spectator: “I don't want the team, but I don't think anybody is interested in buying it.''
Ballard, who also owned the Toronto Maple Leafs at the time, added that he had lost about $20 million in 10 years since buying the Tiger-cats in 1978. Also cited was a $3.3-million loss on the CFL team's 1988 operations.
The situation was so dire that, on the morning of the 1988 Grey Cup game, Ballard pulled the Tiger-cats' equipment out of Ivor Wynne Stadium.
The irascible Ballard and the City of Hamilton were embroiled in a dispute over $300,000 in unpaid rent. Late in January of 1989, Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. (see: H. Ballard) gave three years' notice that it would fold the Tiger-cats, in adherence to the CFL'S constitution.
David Braley to the rescue! He bought the troubled team from Ballard for $1 million.
With Ballard out of the equation, Braley owned the TigerCats from 1989 to 1992. He eventually completed a unique hat trick by acquiring the Lions (which he had owned since 1997) and Argonauts (2010 to 2015).
One person owning two teams at once? It was unconventional, to say the least, but essential to the league's survival.
Everyone who loves the great game of Canadian professional football owes David Braley a debt of gratitude.
He was a very principled person — a straight shooter who held himself and those around him accountable.