The top 10 Grey Cup moments in Toronto

When Toronto hosts the Grey Cup this Sunday, it will mark the 46th time in the Grey Cup's 100 years that the city has played host to the big game. The next-closest city is Vancouver, which has hosted the Grey Cup 15 times. Thus, it's not surprising that many of the most memorable moments in the history of the Grey Cup have come in Hogtown. Here are 10 of the most notable ones.

10. The one that started it all (1909): Sure, the University of Toronto Varsity Blues' 26-6 win over the Toronto Parkdale Canoe Club probably wasn't the most thrilling game ever played, but it marks the first time the Grey Cup was ever awarded. That's pretty special.

9: The Mud Bowl (1950): There have been plenty of muddy games over the years, but this one stands out. On a ridiculously muddy pitch at the old Varsity Stadium (brought on by using bulldozers to clear snow!), Frank Clair's 6-5-1 Argonauts not only upset Frank Larson's 10-4 Bombers, they shut them out 13-0. It was the last shutout in a Grey Cup, and it also led to the Grey Cup's rotation amongst cities thanks to the poor conditions in Toronto. Legend holds that Bombers' defensive tackle Buddy Tinsley almost drowned in a puddle during the game, but he maintained until his death in 2011 that the story was exaggerated. The game was recreated Monday by media types at W.A. Porter Collegiate in advance of a planned reseeding of their field.

8. The Hurricanes' win (1942): World War II dramatically altered the Canadian football landscape, with many established clubs suspending operations for the war, but military teams stepping forward to take their place. One of the most notable was the 1942 RCAF Hurricanes, based in Toronto, coached by Argos' legend Lew Hayman and featuring players like Jake Gaudaur and Bill Stukus. Much of their story's told in the TSN documentary "The Photograph". The 1942 Grey Cup saw them defeat the Winnipeg RCAF Bombers (essentially the Blue Bombers, but with a few different players) 8-5. It was a memorable game that was broadcast to Canadian troops serving overseas, and it served as a rare slice of normalcy at the height of the war.

7. The Trip (1957): It came in a 32-7 blowout for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and didn't affect the final outcome, which is why it isn't higher here, but for sheer insanity, it's hard to beat this moment. When Hamilton defensive back Ray Bawel made his second interception of the game, it looked like he had a clear run down the sideline to the end zone. However, David Humphrey, a spectator who was standing near the Winnipeg bench, stuck out his leg and tripped Bawel. There wasn't anything in the rules of the day to cover that, so after a conference, referee Paul Dowel elected to award the Tiger-Cats half the distance to the goal. They'd score anyway and win easily, but the trip still went down in history, and it provided a memorable moment in the first Grey Cup televised from coast to coast. Oddly enough, Humphrey went on to be a distinguished judge.

6. Make It Five (1982): This also wasn't a particularly great game, although it did have a great nickname ("The Rain Bowl"); Hugh Campbell's Edmonton Eskimos thumped Bob O'Billovich's Argonauts 32-16. What gets it on here is the historical significant; this represented the Eskimos' fifth-straight Grey Cup, something no one else has ever done and a record that may never be equaled (especially when you consider that only two teams, the 1996-97 Argonauts and the 2009-10 Alouettes, have even managed to repeat as champions since then). It was also the last Grey Cup for Warren Moon, who threw for 319 yards despite the rain. Moon would play one more CFL season in 1983 before heading to the NFL.

5. Overtime (1961): This game marked one of only two Grey Cups to reach overtime (the other came in 2005 in Vancouver). It ended when Winnipeg quarterback Ken Ploen called a play for himself, racing down the sideline to give Bud Grant's Bombers a 21-14 win over Jim Trimble's Ticats.

4. Jackie Parker's return (1954): How about a play that's still controversial over half a century later? Montreal held a six-point lead with just three minutes left to play, and legendary Alouettes' quarterback Sam "The Rifle" Etcheverry led his team to the Eskimos' 10. Etcheverry handed the ball off to Chuck Hunsinger, who was hit in the backfield and lost the ball; Edmonton legend Jackie Parker recovered it at the Eskimos' 20 and raced 90 yards for the touchdown that would eventually give Edmonton a 26-25 victory. To this day, there are still arguments over if the Hunsinger play was a fumble or an attempted pass that should have been ruled incomplete.

3. Ridgway's kick (1989): The Saskatchewan Roughriders' 43-40 win over Hamilton, which ended with Dave Ridgway's famous field goal, is perennially near the top of memorable Grey Cup lists, and for good reason. Two talented teams went back and forth for a full 60 minutes, and if Saskatchewan's late drive and Ridgway's kick hadn't ended it, it might have been Tony Champion's incredible game-tying catch on a Mike Kerrigan pass that went down in history. As it played out, John Gregory's 9-9 Riders completed a memorable postseason run with a spectacular victory, just the second Grey Cup in franchise history.

2. The Catch (1976): The all-Riders duel between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Ottawa Rough Riders (note spelling!) was a classic back-and-forth shootout. The first quarter saw Ottawa put up 10 unanswered points, but Saskatchewan responded by winning the second quarter 17-0 and held the lead until the final moments. Trailing by four with the ball on the Saskatchewan 24 and just 20 seconds to go, legendary Ottawa tight end Tony Gabriel acted like he was going to run a post pattern, but then went to a corner route instead, leaving defenders Ted Provost and Ray Odoms frantically trying to catch him. Quarterback Tom Clements lofted an impressive pass, and Gabriel made a remarkable grab to bring it in and give the Rough Riders their final Grey Cup before the franchise folded in 1996. Curiously enough, this was also a Grey Cup where all the points were scored by Canadians.

1. The Fog Bowl (1962): It's awfully hard to top the only Grey Cup game ever suspended. This clash at the old Exhibition Stadium between Bud Grant's 11-5 Bombers and Jim Trimble's 9-4-1 Tiger-Cats started normally, but fog off nearby Lake Ontario rolled in during the second quarter and was so thick that many fans (and the broadcasters! And the TV audience!) couldn't see what was going on. Ironically, it was the first Grey Cup broadcast in the U.S.; who knows if the bizarre weather attracted viewers or turned them away? Apparently things got so bad at one point that receivers and returners couldn't see the ball until it was right in front of them. The game was eventually postponed with Winnipeg leading 28-27; the Bombers would hang on for the final 9:27 with no further scoring when play resumed the following day. The bizarre circumstances, the close scoreline and the eventual suspension put this at the top in my books. Don't expect a repeat this year, though; the roof's expected to be closed at the Rogers Centre Sunday, so we'll only get fog if they let off too many fireworks inside.

Honourable mention: Return from the war (1920): The Grey Cup wasn't awarded from 1915-1919 thanks to World War I and the subsequent influenza pandemic, and with only seven Grey Cups held before then, the trophy easily could have been forgotten about. 1920 marked a return to normalcy, though, with the University of Toronto defeating the Argonauts 16-3. The Grey Cup has been awarded every year since then.

Hat-tips to the National Post's "16 Shades Of Grey" tournament and Wikipedia's listing of Grey Cups by year and location, both invaluable resources in constructing this post.