Ticat fans party like it’s 1986
Hamilton stunned the heavily favoured Eskimos in the Grey Cup game 44 years ago
“It’s amazing what happens when you close your eyes, swing your leg and hope like hell.”
PAUL OSBALDISTON FORMER TICATS KICKER
Usually, Miles Gorrell and three teammates jumped the gun on the team bus by a couple of hours and flagged an early cab to the field.
But not in Vancouver, just after breakfast on Sunday, Nov. 30, 1986.
“I got all dressed up in a suit, and rented us a limo to the stadium,” recalls the massive Hall of Fame offensive tackle. “You look good, you feel good. “You feel good, you play well.” That certainly turned out nicely. Gorrell’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats, carried a shocking 29-0 halftime lead to a runaway 39-15 humiliation of the heavily favoured Edmonton Eskimos in the 74th Grey Cup game.
And yes, sigh, next week is Grey Cup week or, rather, what should have been the Grey Cup CVIII Festival week in Regina. As you might have heard, the entire 2020 season was emphatically scrubbed.
But, as part of the Canadian Football League’s commendable virtual celebration of the week-that-really-isn’t, the Ticats are holding two viewing parties of that 1986 triumph. The main one is Friday, Nov. 20, on greycupunite.ca for season ticket holders, the other for the general public Saturday morning on the Ticats YouTube channel.
Five members of that Ticats team — Gorrell, defensive back Less Browne, offensive lineman Jason Riley, and linebackers Ben Zambiasi and Leo Ezerins — watched the game together last week at Tim Hortons Field, providing running commentary and anecdotes for Friday’s airing.
Others, including quarterback Mike Kerrigan and defensive end Grover Covington, were later added remotely.
“I played 19 years and 321 regular-season games, and I only won one Grey Cup,” Gorrell recalls. “And I still celebrate it. One of the big surprises that I had watching 34 years later was just how many guys stepped up, especially the young guys.
“Our defensive line was incredible. Their offensive line was missing top guys, but we had a lot of good guys out, too. We were so focused, I hadn’t even realized (Edmonton quarterback) Matt Dunigan had such a bad game.
“He and I are pretty good friends and out of respect I never wear my ring around him.”
Gorrell said that. when the Ticats, who had gone 9-8-1 that season, translated an early Ezerins fumble recovery into a touchdown against 14-3-1 Edmonton, “the feeling got a bit surreal.”
But Ezerins added, even at 29-0, the Ticats stayed aggressive because in the two-game Eastern final, they’d trailed the first-place Toronto Argonauts by 24 points and, driven by Kerrigan, stormed back for an aggregate 59-56 victory.
“Edmonton was explosive so I don’t think we were confident the second half would be a cakewalk,” Ezerins recalled. “Then we scored first in the second half and began thinking, ‘This is pretty close to money in the bank.’ ”
Other Ticat initiatives during the CFL’s Nov. 16-22 Grey Cup Unite week, include an unveiling on TSN next Saturday of the branding for the 2021 Grey Cup Festival in Hamilton. And local youth football players will submit questions to current linebacker Simoni Lawrence and centre Mike Filer for Tuesday’s 7 p.m. “football meet up.”
As part of leaguewide plans — see register.greycupunite.ca/ — head coach Orlondo Steinauer will be in the coaches conference Wednesday, the same day the Ticats Dance and Cheer Team perform. Lawrence will represent the team in the player media day Thursday.
The 1986 title was Hamilton’s first in 14 years and there’s been just one other (1999) since. Kicker Paul Osbaldiston was the only Ticat to play in both Hamilton Grey Cup wins over an absurdly arid period that has now stretched to 48 years. He had joined the team as a 22year-old in September and kicked a record-tying six field goals in the ’86 Grey Cup.
“It’s amazing what happens when you close your eyes, swing your leg and hope like hell,” Osbaldiston said. “I was just too young to realize the enormity of the situation.”