Inside the CFL: A look into the storied history of the Calgary Stampeders

By Graham Kelly on November 4, 2021.

It was 75 years ago that the Calgary Stampeders played their inaugural game, Oct. 27, 1945, a 3-1 win in Regina, the first of a two-game total point Western semifinal. They opened at home a week later, beating the Roughriders 12-0. They suffered their first defeat (9-5) to Winnipeg who went on to represent the West in the Grey Cup, a 35-0 loss to Toronto. It was the last Grey Cup where all players on both teams were Canadians.

In 1884, Calgary was incorporated as the first town in the District of Alberta. It became a city nine years later. The first “Stampeders” were the cowboys who worked the open range south of Calgary between 1880 and 1912. It was then the qualities that would characterize Calgarians were firmly established: self-reliance, determination and an almost religious fervour for free enterprise.

Mounties stationed in Regina, Edmonton and the little Burg by the Bow brought the game of rugby football with them from the east. The game was played as early as 1889 with the first Battle of Alberta staged the following year. The Calgary Tigers was formed in 1908. Between then and the outbreak of the Second World War, the team was also called the Canucks, the 50th Battalion, the Altomahs and the Bronks.

Most of the the 1939 Bronks joined the Canadian Armed Forces and went overseas to fight the war. When they returned, their great sacrifice behind them, their thoughts turned to civilian life and football. One of the all-time greats of the Canadian game, Dean Griffing, was on on hand to accommodate them.

Griffing arrived on the Canadian football scene in 1936 as coach of the Regina Roughriders. A good-humoured, big barrel-chested man with a love of stetsons and cigars. Once accused of biting an opponent, he pointed to his bridgework and denied the charge, allowing that, “I might have gummed him up a little bit,” a minor matter in the days when the players pooled their money for the first to draw blood.

Griffing called a meeting for Sept. 27 at 9 p.m. at the Renfrew Building on Seventh Avenue for all those interested in forming a senior football cooperative whereby after the bills were paid, the players and coach would divvy up what was left.

“Everything is up to those who want to play,” he said. “It will be up to the players to name their own coach, trainers and decide on what is to be done with everything connected with the game.”

That night the Calgary Stampeders were born. Jack Grogan was appointed president, Archie McGillis, manager. The players elected Griffing coach. The team, according to the Herald, “is to be built around gridiron veterans who want ‘one more season, men who are returning to civilian life after serving in the navy, army and air force, and players up from junior.” They wore purple and gold.

The star of the team was future Hall-of-Fame fullback Paul Rowe.

On Nov. 3, over 3,500 fans filed into Mewata Stadium by the armouries on 10th Street to welcome senior football back to Calgary. Before the game, the Roughriders presented their old coach with a huge, raw beefsteak, hoping he would chew on that rather than one of them.

A full regular season of eight games was played in 1946 with Calgary’s 5-3 record earning them a first place tie with the Bombers. There was no semi-final that year, just a two-game, total-point final. Calgary prevailed at home 21-18 but lost 12-0 in a snow-storm in Winnipeg.

The first Stampeder to win a major award was flying wing Bill Wusyk , the first recipient of the Jeff Nicklin Memorial trophy awarded to the most valuable player in the Western Conference. It was donated by the First Canadian Paratroop Battalion in memory of its Commanding Officer, Lt.-Col. Jeff Nicklin, a Blue Bomber standout who was killed in action March 24, 1945.

In 1947, the team finished 4-4 in second place, again losing the final to Winnipeg. Dean Griffing was fired by president Tom Brook who soon discarded the cooperative approach. Griffing became Saskatchewan’s GM, hiring me as the waterboy. He later was the first general manager of the Denver Broncos. Brook replaced him with Les Lear, who in 1948 produced the most successful team in Calgary Stampeder and CFL history.

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