George Grant co-owned Ticats during turbulent time
It might be appropriate that George Grant became a TigerCats fan because he liked the rough-and-tumble football mentality of the team — since that is what he experienced when he and a partner bought the franchise in 1995.
Grant, a Toronto radio entrepreneur who took part in the community effort to keep the team afloat in 1993, assumed co-ownership of Hamilton’s Canadian Football League club with business executive David Macdonald until 2003.
The Ticats made it to the Grey Cup twice during that period and won it in 1999 by defeating Calgary 32-21 in Vancouver. The year before, they lost to Calgary 24-22 in Winnipeg.
But Grant and Macdonald were also beset by a number of headaches, including a deep decline in attendance, terrible on-field performances, a highprofile dispute with a concession operator, a tricky southern Ontario market, tight schedules, a blackout controversy, diminishing financial resources and the perception by the public that the pair was not doing enough to make the team better.
In the fall of 2002, Grant believed the worst was over for his struggling club — both on-field and at the turnstiles — and that it was soon going to hit the 20,000 mark in attendance.
“I promise the fans we’ll kickstart the team if they kick-start the attendance,” he told The Spectator.
In August 2003, the CFL took over the Ticats after Grant and Macdonald failed to come up with the team’s $130,000 weekly payroll. Two months later, the league announced that computer software entrepreneur Bob Young, a Hamilton native, had bought the team.
Grant died of complications from chemotherapy while being treated for prostate cancer at Toronto General Hospital on Sept. 17. He was 76.
The day before, prominent Hamilton lawyer Roger Yachetti, chair of the nonprofit community group that took over the team in 1993, died at 78.
David Macdonald expressed sadness at the passing of Grant and called him his “Oskee Wee Wee partner,” referring to a Ticats chant.
“We had a lot of fun together, culminating in being in two Grey Cups, in 1998 and 1999, and finally winning the big prize in 1999,” he wrote on a condolence page on the website of R.S. Kane Funeral Home in Toronto. “George had an infectious smile and incredible sense of humour.”
Former Ticat receiver Mike Morreale, who played on the team from 1997 to 2002, said Grant “gave people like myself the opportunity to wear the black-and-gold and realize my childhood dream.” Morreale went to high school at Cardinal Newman in Stoney Creek.
Grant told The Spectator in 2004 that he was disappointed he and Macdonald had lost the club, but he said he had no regrets about his decade-long involvement. He also believed he and his partner deserved community recognition for keeping pro football alive in Hamilton.
“It was a special situation to be in with my family,” he said.
“We were great fans and loved the Ticats. We put our heart and souls into the whole situation ... not to mention that virtually everything we owned went into it.”
He wouldn’t reveal how much money he lost but said, “I’m still a Tiger-Cats supporter and I think I will always bleed black and gold.”
Grant began his broadcasting career in 1964 as the morning man at CKAR in Huntsville. He worked in St. John’s, N.L., and in Toronto, and served as vice-president of Rogers Broadcasting Ltd. He started his own company, Grant Broadcasting Ltd., in 1979 and operated two radio stations in Oshawa. He sold the company to Power Corp. in 1990.
He became a founding partner of the Ottawa Senators in 1992, which acted as a springboard into his involvement with the TigerCats. He returned to his broadcasting roots when he helped buy Classical 96.3 FM on behalf of media mogul Moses Znaimer in 2004, and served as president of his radio division until 2013. He had recently been involved in developing Indigenous radio stations in Toronto and Ottawa.
Grant was awarded the CFL’s Turnaround Franchise of the Year Award in 1996. He sat on many boards, including Brock University, chaired the Vanier Cup in 2000 and was a youth football coach, college instructor and a longtime member of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club.
He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Nancy, daughter Elizabeth, son William, four grandchildren and four siblings.