60th Grey Cup

The 60th Grey Cup was played on December 3, 1972 before 33,993 fans at the Ivor Wynne Stadium at Hamilton. It was the last Grey Cup played in December. The Hamilton Tiger-cats defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders 13-10.

Box Score

First Quarter

Hamilton - TD – Dave Fleming 16 yard pass from Chuck Ealey (convert Ian Sunter)
Hamilton – FG – Ian Sunter 27 yards

Second Quarter

Saskatchewan - TD – Tom Campana 8 yard pass from Ron Lancaster (convert Jack Abendschan)
Saskatchewan – FG – Jack Abendschan 20 yards

Third Quarter

No scoring

Fourth Quarter

Hamilton – FG – Ian Sunter 34 yards

Game summary

An interception of a Ron Lancaster pass by Hamilton's Al Brenner led to a 16 yard touchdown pass from Chuck Ealey to Dave Fleming. The score stood despite replays clearly showing that Fleming was out of bounds when he caught Ealey's pass. Later in the first quarter Bob Krouse of Hamilton had his first of two blocked punts. Hamilton recovered but had to settle for a 27 yard Ian Sunter field goal. Brenner appeared to have a second interception for a 27 yard touchdown return, but it was called back on a Hamilton offside.

In the second quarter Saskatchewan tied the game with an 8 yard Lancaster to Tom Campana pass and a 20 yard Jack Abendschan field goal.

With just under two minutes to play in the game and Hamilton on their own 15 yard line Ealey passed to Tony Gabriel who had not been the target of any pass previously in the game. The pass was complete for 27 yards. Ealey immediately went back to Gabriel for 12 yards, and a play later passed to Gabriel for a third time to get to the Saskatchewan 41 yard line with 51 seconds left. Hamilton then ran the clock down while getting close enough for Ian Sunter to kick a 34 yard field goal on the last play of the game to win.

Notable facts

• Ealey completed 18 of 29 pass attempts for 291 yards; Lancaster was 20 of 29 for 239 yards. Each had a touchdown and two interceptions.

• Saskatchewan’s George Reed had 93 total rushing yards, 64 of them in the second quarter. Hamilton’s Garney Henley had 98 yards receiving, the most of any player.

• The Most Valuable Player was Chuck Ealey and Ian Sunter was the Most Valuable Canadian. Sunter was 19 years old at the time.

• The Tiger-Cats became the first team in the CFL modern era to win the Grey Cup at home.

References

• "Grey Cup: 1972". Canadian Football League.