Grey Cup

Today we are marking the anniversary of the first Grey Cup Game ever played. The game was played at Rosedale Field in Toronto, Ontario. The University of Toronto Varsity Blues played against the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club. The University Club won the game by a score of 26-6. The Varsity Blues put the game away with 11 points in the fourth quarter. The Parkdale Club would return but not win the game in 1913. The Varsity Blues would return to the game the next two years and then again in 1920. They won the cup each time that they played. Although the game has returned to Toronto 44 times, the game would not return to Rosedale Field.
Today the game is played between members of the professional Canadian Football League. The latest game was played last Sunday at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton, Alberta between the Montreal Alouettes and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Next years game will be played for an eighth time to BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, which recently hosted the Winter Olympic Games.
Tomorrow we will look at the opening of the MCI Centre in Washington, DC.

Wrigley Field, Chicago

December may seem like a strange month for Baseball history to be made, however true it may be. On December 3, 1926 The Chicago Cubs announced that they had renamed their home park "Wrigley Field" in honor of team owner William Wrigley, Jr. In changing the name of the park to Wrigley Field, the ballpark received its third official name in 14 years of hosting sporting events. The park opened as Weeghman Park in 1914 named as in honor of its builder and the owner of the Chicago Whales of the Federal League. When the league went out of business after the 1915 season, the Cubs moved in. They changed the name of the park to Cubs Park in 1920. That was done just in time for the Bears football team moving in.
The park was not the first to receive the name "Wrigley Field" as that name was already being used by the Cubs top farm club the Los Angeles Angels for their ballpark. One of the Angels most bizzarre chapters of their history was made in December as well. On December 2, 1941 just 5 days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Angels announced that they were changing their nickname from the "Angels" to the "Bears". This announcement proved to be very unpopular and was very quickly changed back.
Sports history occurs all the time and all over the calendar. Someday, I will get my book "The Biggest Book of This Date in Sports History" published and prove the point, any takers?
Tommorrow we will take a look at a historical event in Canadian Football.