Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Team information

• Inaugural season: 1950
• Home field: Tim Hortons Field, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
• Owner: Bob Young
• Team colors: Black, gold, and white

Overview

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a Canadian Football League (CFL) team that plays in the city of Hamilton, Ontario. While the Tiger-Cats were formed by a 1950 merger between two existing franchises, the team claims a history dating back to 1869, which would make it the oldest professional football team in North America. Since the merger, the Tiger-Cats have officially won eight Grey Cup championships; however, the team also recognizes the seven Grey Cups won by its predecessors in Hamilton for a total of fifteen. The Tiger-Cats enjoyed their greatest success in the 1950s and 1960s when they played in ten Grey Cup championships, winning five. Hamilton captured its last title in 1999 behind star quarterback Danny McManus, the team’s all-time leading passer and future inductee into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

History

The first football team in Hamilton was the Hamilton Football Club, which played its inaugural game on December 18, 1869. From the start, the team wore the colors black and gold and came to be known as the “Tiger Club.” In 1873, the team officially changed its name to the Tigers. The Tigers moved to the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) in 1883 and joined the Interprovincial Rugby Union (IRFU) in 1907. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Canadian football was known as rugby football and played in loosely organized leagues that often had different rules. Teams did not play season-long schedules but took part in playoff-style tournaments. In 1909, the governor general of Canada, Earl Grey, proposed a trophy to be presented to the winner of Canada’s amateur rugby football championship. The trophy, which became known as the Grey Cup, was first won by a Toronto football club. Over the course of the twentieth century, the Grey Cup evolved to be awarded to professional football clubs.

In 1911, the Hamilton Alerts became the second football team in the city when it joined the ORFU. The team won Hamilton’s first Grey Cup in 1912, but folded in 1913. That same year, the Hamilton Tigers won the first of five Grey Cups, winning additional titles in 1915, 1928, 1929, and 1932. Several other football teams were formed in Hamilton from 1913 to 1941, but they all eventually folded. During World War II, the IRFU and the Tigers suspended operations, but another team, the Hamilton Flying Wildcats, formed in the ORFU and employed many of the Tigers’ players. The Flying Wildcats won the 1943 Grey Cup, but dropped the “Flying” part of their name after the war ended. The Tigers resumed operations in 1945; however, both teams struggled to attract players and fans in the post-war years. With the Tigers and Wildcats in difficult financial straits, the teams decided to merge in 1950, combining their names and calling themselves the Tiger-Cats.

In 1951, the Tiger-Cats made history when they signed former Syracuse University quarterback Bernie Custis. Custis, who was African American, had been drafted by the National Football League’s (NFL) Cleveland Browns, but the team had no plans to let him play quarterback. With Hamilton, Custis played the 1951 season at quarterback and earned IRFU all-star honors. He is recognized as being the first African American quarterback in North American football history.

The Tiger-Cats drew on Hamilton’s image as a steel-manufacturing town and forged a reputation as a tough football team. In 1953, the team won its first Grey Cup under the Tiger-Cat name and won another in 1957. A year later, the IRFU joined with the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) to form the Canadian Football League. The CFL recognized Hamilton’s two championships since the 1950 merger but did not count the seven titles won by the Tiger-Cats’ predecessors. However, the team continues to view those championships as part of its history.

Beginning in 1954, the Grey Cup was awarded exclusively to professional teams competing in the IRFU and WIFU, and, after 1957, the CFL. From 1957 to 1965, the Tiger-Cats played in eight of the nine Grey Cup championship games. After their win in 1957, the Tiger-Cats made four appearances in five seasons from 1958 to 1962, but lost to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers each time. Hamilton won the title in 1963, lost in the championship game in 1964, and gained a measure of revenge in 1965 by defeating Winnipeg for the Grey Cup. The Tiger-Cats won additional titles in 1967 and 1972.

During the 1950s and early 1960s, CFL teams played occasional exhibition games against teams from the NFL or the American Football League (AFL), which formed in 1960. On almost every occasion, those games were won handily by the American team. The lone exception occurred in August 1961 when Hamilton soundly defeated the Buffalo Bills, 38–21. The Bills were a member of the AFL at the time, but later joined the NFL after the leagues merged in 1970.

After winning the 1972 title, the Tiger-Cats struggled for most of the 1970s before bouncing back in the 1980s. Hamilton made four Grey Cup finals during the decade and won the championship in 1986. However, by the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Tiger-Cats and many of the other CFL franchises were beset by financial difficulties. Several CFL teams folded during the period and an attempt to expand into the American market failed. Hamilton did win the 1999 Grey Cup championship, but the franchise was soon having trouble winning games and attracting fans.

In 2003, software entrepreneur and Hamilton native Bob Young bought the franchise out of bankruptcy. Young began the process of rebuilding the team, both on and off the field. He negotiated a deal for a new stadium to replace the run-down Ivor Wynne Stadium, the team’s home since 1950s. In 2014, his efforts paid off when Tim Hortons Field opened on the site where Ivor Wynne had once stood. Hamilton’s fortunes began to improve between the lines as well. In 2013 and 2014, the Tiger-Cats made back-to-back Grey Cup championship games, losing both times. In both 2019 and 2021, the team made a pair of finals, but lost both times to its nemesis, Winnipeg.

Since 1967, Hamilton’s logo has featured the image of a leaping tiger. The logo has been updated several times but maintained the same image of the tiger. In 2015, the franchise modernized the tiger’s look and placed it in a circular design surrounded by the words “Tiger-Cats football.” The team is also known for its distinctive cheer, “Oskie Wee Wee, Oskie Waa Waa, Holy Mackinaw, Tigers … Eat ’em Raw!”—a chant that has its roots in the early twentieth century.

Notable players

More than fifty players who spent at least some time with the Tiger-Cats have been inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Much of the team’s success in the late 1950s and early 1960s was built upon quarterback Bernie Faloney and linemen John Barrow and Angelo Mosca. Faloney threw for 17,425 yards from 1957–1964 and was under center for two of the team’s Grey Cup titles. Barrow and Mosca embodied the team’s hard-nosed reputation with their bruising style of play. Barrow played on both the offensive and defensive sides of the ball, while Mosca was a feared defender. He was especially known for dealing out hard hits that sometimes knocked opposing players out of the game. As of 2020, Faloney and Mosca are the only two Tiger-Cats to have their jersey numbers retired.

In 1972, Hamilton’s Chuck Ealey became the first African American quarterback to win a Grey Cup title. Although Ealey’s career never panned out and he was traded two years later, his teammate on the 1972 squad, tight end Tony Gabriel, went on to make the Hall of Fame. In the 1980s, the team’s defense was led by end Grover Covington and linebacker Ben Zambiasi, while wide receiver Rocky DiPietro starred on the offense. All three players were later inducted into the Hall of Fame. In 1986, punter and kicker Paul Osbaldiston began an eighteen-year career with the Tiger-Cats, finishing with a franchise record in points scored with 2,856.

Wide receiver Earl Winfield, who played for Hamilton from 1987–1997 and holds the franchise record for touchdown receptions (75) and receiving yards (10,119), was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2013. Running back Troy Davis, a US colligate star at Iowa State in the 1990s, holds the franchise mark for career rushing yards with 5,188. He played with Hamilton from 2001–2005. The team’s all-time passing leader, Danny McManus, is considered not only the best quarterback in team history, but also the franchise’s best player. From 1998–2005, McManus threw for 33,841 yards—almost twice as much as the next quarterback on the list—and holds the team record for most career touchdown passes with 164. He was named to the Hall of Fame in 2011.

Bibliography

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“History of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Football Club.” Hamilton Tiger-Cats Football Club, 2024, www.ticats.ca/history/. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

“Hamilton Tiger-Cats.” Encyclopedia of CFL History, www.cflapedia.com/teams/hamilton.php. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

“Hamilton Tiger-Cats Team History.” Sports Team History, 2020, sportsteamhistory.com/hamilton-tiger-cats. Accessed 24 Mar. 2020.

Milton, Steve. “Fans Got It Right With the Ticats All-Time Team.” Hamilton Spectator, 27 Oct. 2012, www.thespec.com/sports-story/2216868-fans-got-it-right-with-the-ticats-all-time-team/. Accessed 24 Mar. 2020.

Milton, Steve. “Hamilton Tiger-Cats.” Canadian Encyclopedia, 14 Dec. 2021, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/hamilton-tiger-cats. Accessed 20 Mar. 2024.

“Ticats Mark 150 Years of Hamilton Football History This Season.” CBC/Radio-Canada, 6 June 2019, www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/ticats-mark-150-years-of-hamilton-football-history-this-season-1.5164860. Accessed 24 Mar. 2020.