82nd Grey Cup

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82nd Grey Cup

Quarter	1	2	3	4	Tot
British Columbia Lions	3	7	10	6	26
Baltimore CFLers	0	17	3	3	23

Date

November 27, 1994

Stadium

BC Place Stadium

City

Vancouver

Most Valuable Player

Karl Anthony, Baltimore

Most Valuable Canadian

Lui Passaglia, British Columbia

National Anthem

Coin toss

Halftime show

Tom Cochrane

Attendance

55,097

TV in Canada

Network

CBC, RDS

Announcers

(CBC) Steve Armitage, Chris Cuthbert, Mark Lee, Brian Williams, Glen Suitor

Television viewers

The 82nd Grey Cup was the 1994 Canadian Football League championship game played between the Baltimore CFLers and the B.C. Lions at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, BC. It was the first-ever championship in professional football history to feature a United States-vs-Canada matchup. The Lions won the game by a score of 26-23, on a last second field-goal by Lui Passaglia.

1 Game Summary
2 Trivia
3 1994 CFL Playoffs
- 3.1 West Division
- 3.2 East Division

[edit] Game Summary

British Columbia Lions (26) - TDs, Charles Gordon, Danny McManus; FGs, Lui Passaglia (4); cons., Passaglia (2).

Baltimore CFLers (23) - TDs, Tracy Ham, Karl Anthony; FGs, Donald Igwebuike (3); cons., Igwebuike (2).

First Quarter
BC - FG Passaglia 47-yard field goal 2:24
Second Quarter
BAL - TD Ham 1-yard run (Igwebuike convert) 8:39
BAL - TD Anthony 46-yard lateral interception return from Walton (Igwebuike convert) 9:21
BC - TD Gordon 17-yard interception return (Passaglia convert) 12:48
BAL - FG Igwebuike 17-yard field goal 14:08
Third Quarter
BAL - FG Igwebuike 26-yard field goal 4:34
BC - TD McManus 1-yard run (Passaglia convert) 9:39
BC - FG Passaglia 42-yard field goal 14:08
Fourth Quarter
BC - FG Passaglia 27-yard field goal 3:09
BAL - FG Igwebuike 29-yard field goal 8:26
BC - FG Passaglia 38-yard field goal 15:00

B.C. opened the scoring in the first quarter when Lui Passaglia kicked a 47-yard field goal to make it 3-0.

In the second quarter the Baltimore club scored two touchdowns. The first touchdown came when quarterback Tracy Ham faked a hand-off to running back Mike Pringle and ran in himself score a one-yard touchdown to finish a 59-yard, seven-play drive. Then less than a minute later, Baltimore linebacker Alvin Walton intercepted a Kent Austin pass then lateraled it to cornerback Karl Anthony for a 36-yard touchdown.

Lions defensive back Charles Gordon responded to Baltimore's interception by intercepting a Tracy Ham pass for a 17-yard touchdown. Then with a 1:08 seconds left in the first half, Baltimore kicker Donald Igwebuike kicked a 17-yard field goal to make the score 17-10 in favour of Baltimore going into half-time.

At the start of the third quarter, Lions' head coach Dave Ritchie decided to switch quarterbacks by replacing Kent Austin (who was apparently injured) for back-up Danny McManus. McManus had his work cut out for him after Igwebuike kicked a 27-yard field goal, 4:34 seconds in to give Baltimore a ten-point lead.

However, with 9:39 left to play in the third quarter, Danny McManus completed a 9-play, 75-yard drive by running for a 1-yard touchdown. Then nearly five minutes later, McManus engineered a 4-play, 56-yard drive, which set up a 42-yard field goal by Lui Passaglia to tie the game at 20-20, to end the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, neither team was able to get a touchdown as the defences stiffened and the teams exchanged field goals. Passaglia started off by kicking a 27-yard field goal a little over three minutes into the quarter. Igwebuike responded with a 29-yard field goal to tie the game again. For about seven minutes neither team could score until the last play of the game when Lui Passaglia kicked in his winning 38-yard field goal to make the final score 26-23.

[edit] Trivia

At the end of the game many people assumed that Lui Passaglia would be the first-ever kicker to receive the Most Valuable Player Award. However, the league decided to award the Most Valuable Player Award to Baltimore's Karl Anthony, who was the first player to be awarded with such an honour in a losing cause. Instead of receiving MVP honours, Lui Passaglia was awarded with the Most Valuable Canadian Award for the second time in his career.

Baltimore's all-star running back, Mike Pringle had only 71-yards rushing and fullback Robert Drummond had 38-yards rushing for a total of 109 yards. The Lions rushing tandem of running back Cory Philpot and fullback Sean Millington combined for 194-yards rushing, with Philpot having 17 carries, for 109-yards rushing and Millington having 13 carries, for 85-yards rushing. Furthermore, Philpot and Millington gained those yards against an impressive Baltimore defence that was exempt from following the CFL's import rule and was made up solely of American players. There is a common perception that such a team would be stronger than one which was required to have Canadian players.

The same Lions defence that limited Baltimore's running game, were also able to get four sacks on Baltimore's Tracy Ham. The Lions' defensive front of Andrew Stewart, Angelo Snipes, Doug Petersen and Henry Newby had one sack, each.

The teams had about equal time of possession, with the Lions having 31:22 compared to Baltimore's 28:38.

The appearance of an American team in the Grey Cup united Canadian fans for the first time behind the Lions as representatives of Canada.

The 82nd Grey Cup is considered by many to be one of the ten best Grey Cup games of all time, because it was a nail-biter from start-to-finish.[1].