‘BA-BOOM!’ A snarling Tiger-Cat JUGGERNAUT
The 1967 Confederation Year Grey Cup saw Hamilton’s best team ever steamroll the competition
In a remarkable 11-season run from 1957 through 1967, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats played in nine Grey Cups, six of those against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Although they had offensive stars, the trademark of all those teams was a vicious, “smashmouth” defensive approach, featuring the talented line duo of John Barrow and Angelo Mosca and setting an identity template for all future Tiger-Cats teams.
That style was personified by the big, fast and aggressive Mosca, who played in eight of those nine Grey Cup games, winning four. He also won the 1960 Grey Cup with the Ottawa Rough Riders and co-holds the record for most Grey Cup appearances as a player with nine. In the following excerpt from “Tell Me To My Face” his emotional autobiography released in 2011, Mosca talks about 1967, which gave us the 55th Grey Cup and the 100th year of Canadian Confederation. The Tiger-Cats’ 24-1 win over Saskatchewan completed the most dominant six-game season-concluding defensive stretch in CFL history.
Angelo Mosca passed away on Nov. 6, 2021.
“It was Canada’s Centennial Year and we wore special helmets all season that had the Centennial logo in the background behind the TigerCats symbol. Ottawa was hosting the game, and I’m sure a lot of fans wanted Ottawa to be in the Grey Cup, given that Ottawa is Canada’s capital. But there was no way Ottawa was going to beat us that year. In the East Final we beat them 11-3 in Ottawa and 26-0 back home. It was no contest. Saskatchewan won the West in a really close final against Calgary. They had stars like Ron Lancaster, Hughie Campbell, and big George Reed, who rushed for more than 1,400 yards that year.
To show you what kind of football town it was, 25,000 Hamiltonians attended a downtown rally before the Grey Cup to send us off to Ottawa. It was great to see that community really embrace our team.
We were practicing for the Grey Cup one afternoon in Ottawa and a guy named Jerry Selinger was watching us from the sidelines. Jerry was actually from Hamilton, but he played centre for Ottawa and we had just beaten them out. We didn’t like each other and probably still don’t. Whenever it was the Rough Riders against the Tiger-Cats, he played over top of me. You could do a lot of things to a centre in those days, because they had to keep their head down. Now, I understand, you can’t even hit the centre at all. But in those days I used to take my head and aim right at the centre’s chest and roll him just like a bowling ball.
And then make fun of him. All during that practice at the Grey Cup, Selinger kept on me and as we’re walking off he’s gesturing and saying, “Hey, tough guy!” So, I said, “C’mere. I’ll show you how $@(#(#$*& tough I am.” And BABOOM. I cold-cocked him, knocked him out. I’m looking at him on the ground and saying to myself, “Wow. I’ve still got a punch.” It hit the press and I had a lot of fun with it. During my time there was kind of an anti-fraternization rule. You would be fined if you fraternized with the other team.
The Centennial-year Grey Cup wasn’t even close. In the first quarter, Joe Zuger scored on a short run, and that was all the scoring we needed. Alan Ford got Saskatchewan’s only point of the game in the first quarter on an 87-yard quick kick, which you never, ever see any more. It was the longest punt in Grey Cup history. Ted Watkins later scored on a 72-yard pass and run, Joe kicked three singles and Billy Ray Locklin ran back a fumble for a touchdown. The Grey Cup was the sixth straight game that we didn’t allow a touchdown, and in the three playoff games, including the Cup, we allowed all of four points. Nobody’s ever going to convince me that our club wasn’t the greatest eam this country has ever seen. Four points against in three games at the most important time of the year? Forget about it.”
Many CFL fans have other favourites as the greatest team this country has ever seen, but in Hamilton, Mosca’s 1967 team is still generally viewed as the best in Ticats history. But, in the four years after their phenomenal 11-year stretch, the Ticats didn’t win a playoff game before making it back to the Grey Cup in 1972, Mosca’s final season.