When Argos met Stamps in Grey Cup 59, the result made Stephen Harper cry

The 100th edition of the Grey Cup goes off today at 6 pm Eastern in Toronto. Battling for the oldest professional sports trophy in the world will be the Toronto Argonauts and the Calgary Stampeders.

Politicians, by and large, take a regional approach to their decision who to cheer for. You’re from the West? You cheer Stamps. You’re from the East? It’s Ar-gooooos.

But what if you’re from the East but find yourself in the West? Like, say, the country’s prime minister?

The other day,  Stephen Harper was noting that he was a bit torn as he grew up in Toronto but has made his home in Calgary for many years and now, of course, represents a Calgary riding. In fact, he recalled watching the 59th edition of the Grey Cup, another matchup between the Stamps and the Argos. That game was the game that broke the hearts of Argo’s fans. Late in that game, the Argos were down 14-11 when Argo defensive back intercepted a pass and took it down to the Calgary 11-yard line.

Argo QB Joe Theismann then handed off to great Argo running back Leon McQuay who promptly slipped on the wet turf and fumbled the ball, only to have it recovered by the Stamps who were able to hold on for the win.

“I think that was the only time I cried in front of the TV at a sports event,” Harper said last week. He would have been 12-years-old at his family’s house in Leaside in Toronto. “We had been waiting for 20 years. I was growing up in Toronto then. Obviously the Argonauts were my team. Now, look, I still have a soft spot for them, but now the shoe’s on the other foot. I now live in Calgary. I represent Calgary in the House of Commons so I’ve got to be on the side of my new hometown.  But I’ll be happy with either.”

Toronto would not meet Calgary in a Grey Cup again until the 79th edition in 1991 and this time, in a game played in Winnipeg, would triumph over the Stamps 36-21.

But those are the only two times, 1971 and 1991, in the long and glorious history of the Grey Cup that the Stampeders and Argonauts have played each other.

Calgary, incidentally, is 6-6 in its 12 appearances in the championship. Toronto is 15-6 in its 21 appearances in the big game.