65th Grey Cup

The 65th Grey Cup, played on November 27, 1977 and also known as The Ice Bowl, was the 1977 Grey Cup Canadian Football League championship final between the Montreal Alouettes and the Edmonton Eskimos. The Alouettes beat the Eskimos by a score of 41 to 6.

Box Score

First Quarter

Montreal – FG – Don Sweet
Montreal – FG – Don Sweet
Montreal – FG – Don Sweet
Montreal – Single – Don Sweet missed field goal

Second Quarter

Edmonton – FG – Dave Cutler

Third Quarter

Montreal – FG – Don Sweet
Montreal – FG – Don Sweet
Edmonton – FG – Dave Cutler
Montreal – TD – Peter Dalla Riva 7 yard pass from Sonny Wade (Don Sweet convert)
Montreal – TD – John O’Leary 10 yard pass from Sonny Wade (Don Sweet convert)

Fourth Quarter

Montreal – TD – Bob Gaddis 7 yard pass from Sonny Wade (Don Sweet convert)
Montreal – FG – Don Sweet
Montreal – Single – Don Sweet missed field goal

Montreal's Stapled Shoes

Although Olympic Stadium was designed to have a retractable roof, and a roof was added in later years, the stadium was open to the air in November 1977. As is common in late November, Montreal received a fair amount of snow and low temperatures before game time.

Stadium crews put salt on the field to melt the snow. But as the temperature dropped on game day, the melted snow turned into a sheet of ice. The game was marred by several fumbles on otherwise routine snaps of the ball. However, the Alouettes found a competitive advantage - they put staples in the bottom of their sneakers to get traction on the slippery surface. The Eskimos, using standard football cleats, could not find traction on the field. The Als did not give up a single tackle behind their own line of scrimmage.

Tony Proudfoot, Alouettes defensive back and the player who had the idea for, perhaps, the cleverest ploy in Grey Cup history:

"We just had our 25th anniversary reunion of the team which beat Edmonton in the 1977 so-called Staples Game."

"I was asked about it again, of course. It was icy cold and there had been a big snowstorm with a transit strike, and fans walking all the way from downtown to Olympic Stadium."

"The field was a skating rink. Guys were trying different kinds of footwear - broomball shoes and things like that. All week long we'd been thinking of what footwear to use. We knew it was going to be slippery and nothing, really, was any good. On a frozen field a lot of players like to wear broomball shoes. But they didn't work very well."

"Another alternative, because the field was so hard, was screw-on cleats. Nobody really used those anymore, but they were available. We tried grass cleats, Astroturf cleats, nothing worked. I experimented during the week. I even thought about putting nails through my shoes."

"By game day, a bunch of guys settled on using steel cleats. Before the warm-up, I noticed a guy from Bell Canada walking by with a staple gun. A light bulb went on. 'I've tried everything, but not that.' So I tried putting staples in my shoes. I stapled an 'X' on about six bumps. Gordon Judges and Chuck Zapiec put some in, too. We looked at each other and said, 'That's it.'"

"At the start of the game, about 12 guys had them in and by halftime it was half or three-quarters of the team. The numbers aren't precise because this wasn't organized."

"The coaches weren't in on it and the equipment guys had nothing to do with it. It was just the players. Wally Buono was involved. In my opinion it made a big difference. With that little bit of a grip, it gave you extra confidence. We really knew we had something when Gerry Dattilio caught a short pass from Sonny Wade and ran right past Larry Highbaugh for a big gain. Gerry will tell you that he was not ... well, he was not very fast. And Highbaugh was known as one of the fastest guys in the league."

"That's when we knew we had something. It was a big factor in that 41-6 win. To me, it was a big deal. I still have that staple gun. To me it's a prized possession."

(Quote from online article by Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun, Nov. 22, 2002.)

Trivia

* The game set a Grey Cup attendance record of 68,318, even though it was a bitterly cold day and Montreal was in the midst of one of its frequent transit strikes. Local fans led the many football tourists to the game in a march across town, trekking from downtown to the east end Stade Olympique on the morning of the game.
* Alouettes defensive back Vernon Perry's 4th quarter 74 yard interception return is the longest in Grey Cup history.
* Don Sweet's 23 points scored is still a single game Grey Cup record.
* Edmonton and Montreal have met in 11 Grey Cup clashes. The Eskimos have won in 1954, 1955, 1956, 1975, 1978, 1979, 2003 and 2005's overtime thriller. The Alouettes have prevailed in 1974, the Ice Bowl of 1977, and 2002.
* It was the first Grey Cup game played at the new Montreal Stade Olympique.

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