Toronto Argonauts

Team information

• Inaugural season: 1873
• Home field: BMO Field, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Owner: Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment
• Team colors: Cambridge Blue, Oxford Blue, and white

Overview

The Toronto Argonauts is a Canadian Football League (CFL) team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada’s largest city. The Argonauts claim to be the oldest surviving professional football team in North America, although the true holder of that title is a matter of perspective. The team was formed in 1873 as a way for members of the Argonaut Rowing Club to keep in shape. However, within a few years, the Argonauts became one of the dominant football teams in Canada. In its history, Toronto has been one of the CFL’s marquee franchises. At various times, it has been owned by the nation’s largest brewer and a group featuring a Hollywood celebrity and hockey superstar. The Argonauts were the first of the modern CFL teams to win a Grey Cup championship, and as of 2020, had won a record seventeen.

History

The Toronto Argonauts Football Club was established in 1873 by members of the Argonaut Rowing Club. The team was a source of exercise for club members interested in playing rugby football—a precursor of modern football based on English-style rugby. Both the rowing club and football team were named after the Argonauts, the crew of the legendary ship Argo from Greek mythology. The club’s colors were taken from two prominent rowing clubs in England, a dark blue used by Oxford University and a light blue used by Cambridge University. The Argonauts played their first game in October 1873 against another Toronto football club.

The team considers itself the oldest surviving football team in North America, and the CFL officially recognizes the Argonauts as its oldest franchise. However, that claim is disputed by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats from nearby Hamilton, Ontario. Hamilton was home to a professional football team in 1869. That team, later named the Hamilton Tigers, joined Toronto in forming the Ontario Rugby Football Union (ORFU) in 1883 and the Interprovincial Rugby Union (IRFU) in 1907. In 1950, the Tigers merged with another team from Hamilton to form the Tiger-Cats. The CFL views this date as the start of the Tiger-Cats franchise, while the team itself considers its history to date back to 1869.

In 1909, the Canada’s governor general, Earl Grey, suggested that a trophy be awarded to the best rugby football team in the nation each year. That trophy, named the Grey Cup in his honor, was first awarded to the University of Toronto football club. The Argonauts played for the cup in 1911 and 1912, and first won the honor in 1914. The team won another cup in 1921 and three more in 1933, 1937, and 1938. From 1945–1952, the Argonauts won five more Grey Cups, bringing their total to ten. The Argonauts’ 1950 Grey Cup victory became infamously known as the Mud Bowl after a heavy snowstorm and sudden warming trend severely damaged the playing field.

In 1958, the IRFU officially merged with the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU) to form the modern CFL. By this time, the Grey Cup evolved to become the official championship trophy of the newly formed league. Still, it would be a long time before Toronto got its hands on another one. After being Canada’s most dominant team for much of the first half of the twentieth century, the Argonauts experienced a downturn that lasted for nearly three decades. They made just one Grey Cup final from 1953–1981 and did not win another championship until 1983. In 1989, the team moved into SkyDome, the city’s multi-purpose stadium used by Major League Baseball’s Toronto Blue Jays. Two years later, Toronto was purchased by a group of star-studded investors including Canadian actor John Candy and NHL legend Wayne Gretzky. Led by Toronto football legend Michael “Pinball” Clemons and former American collegiate star “Rocket” Ismail, the Argonauts won the Grey Cup in 1991.

However, after failing to sustain that success, the team faced financial difficulties in the mid-1990s and was sold to the Labatt Brewing Company in 1994. Now bankrolled by Canada’s largest brewer, the Argonauts signed free agent quarterback Doug Flutie in 1996. Flutie was a Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback at Boston College who set the single-season CFL passing record with 6,619 yards with the BC Lions in 1991. With Flutie under center, Toronto rode a high-powered offense to Grey Cup titles in 1996 and 1997.

Flutie left the team in 1998 to play in the NFL and a year later, the team was sold to an insurance executive from New York. After a period of poor on-field play and falling attendance, the Argonauts filed for bankruptcy protection in 2003 and were placed under control of the CFL. A few months later, the franchise found new owners and responded by winning the 2004 Grey Cup. Toronto played well for most of the 2000s before faltering in 2008 and 2009. In 2010, the franchise was sold yet again, this time to David Braley, the former owner of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and owner of the BC Lions. That same year, the Argonauts won another Grey Cup, winning in their home stadium—now called the Rogers Centre. It was the franchise’s first Grey Cup victory before their home crowd since the Mud Bowl in 1950.

In 2015, Braley sold the team to Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, a company that also owns the Toronto Maple Leafs NHL franchise, the Toronto Raptors NBA franchise, and several other professional sports teams in Toronto. A year later, the Argonauts moved into the refurbished BMO Field at Exhibition Place, a 26,000-seat facility first opened in 2007. The franchise won its seventeenth Grey Cup in 2017, giving Toronto three more championships than the second place Edmonton Eskimos.

Notable players

More than sixty players, coaches, or team officials associated with Toronto have been inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Among the franchise’s earliest stars was Lionel “Big Train” Conacher, who set an IRFU scoring record in helping the Argonauts to the 1921 Grey Cup. During the team’s heyday of the late 1940s, the versatile Joe “King” Krol was an offensive, a defensive, and a kicking star for the Argonauts. He and running back Royal Copeland earned the nickname the “Gold Dust Twins” and won four Grey Cups together. Krol won a total of five with Toronto and is one of only four Argonauts to have their jersey numbers retired. Conacher and Krol were inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1963, while Copeland made it in 1988.

Running back Dick Shatto, who played for the team from 1954–1965, still holds the franchise record for most career rushing yards with 6,958 and touchdowns with 91. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1975 and had his number retired by the team. Offensive tackle Danny Nykoluk, who played in Toronto from 1955–1971, also had his number retired. From 1959–1961, running back “Cookie” Gilchrist played for the Argonauts, winning the CFL scoring title in 1960. Gilchrist went on to play for the Buffalo Bills in the American Football League (AFL), where he won the league’s Most Valuable Player Award in 1962.

“Rocket” Ismail’s tenure with the Argonauts lasted only two seasons, but his impact was felt on the 1991 Grey Cup-winning team. Ismail returned a kickoff 87 yards to cement the victory over Calgary and was named the game’s MVP. After leaving Toronto, Ismail went on to have a nine-year career in the NFL. His teammate, running back/wide receiver Michael “Pinball” Clemons, played for Toronto from 1989–2000. Clemons stands second all-time on Toronto’s career rushing list with 5,232 yards and is also second in touchdowns scored with 85. He is fourth all-time in receiving yards with 7,015 and leads the franchise in receptions with 682. His career total of 25,438 combined yards—rushing, receiving, and returning—is not only a team record, but also a CFL record as well. An extremely popular player in the city, Clemons won the league’s Most Outstanding Player Award in 1990 and returned to the team as head coach in 2000. He was at the helm of Toronto’s 2004 Grey Cup championship team. Clemons entered the Hall of Fame in 2008 and also had his number retired.

In his two years with the Argonauts, Doug Flutie not only won two Grey Cups, but also set the franchise mark for most passing yards in a season with 5,720 in 1996; his 5,505 yards in 1997 ranks third all-time. Second on the list is quarterback Ricky Ray who threw for 5,546 yards in 2017. Ray is also the franchise leader in career passing yards with 20,205 from 2012–2018. Wide receiver Derrell “Mookie” Mitchell, who played for the Argonauts from 1997–2003 and again in 2007, is the all-time franchise leader in receiving yards with 9,047 and receiving touchdowns with 74. His 609 receptions place him second on the list behind Clemons. Mitchell was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016.

Bibliography

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Brunt, Stephen. 100 Grey Cups: This Is Our Game. McClelland & Stewart, 2012.

Cauz, Matthew. “Argos Short-Lived Dynasty of the 90s Was One for the Ages.” CFL, 17 July 2017, www.cfl.ca/2017/07/17/cauz-argos-short-lived-dynasty-90s-one-ages/. Accessed 31 Mar. 2020.

Davidson, Neil. “MLSE strikes deal to buy Toronto Argos.” CBC/Radio-Canada, 13 Dec. 2017, www.cbc.ca/sports/football/cfl/mlse-deal-buys-argos-1.4447366. Accessed 31 Mar. 2020.

“History of the Grey Cup.” Canadian Football Hall of Fame, 2020, www.cfhof.ca/history-of-the-grey-cup/. Accessed 31 Mar. 2020.

Milton, Steve. “Toronto Argonauts.” Canadian Encyclopedia, 27 Nov. 2017, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/toronto-argonauts. Accessed 31 Mar. 2020.

“Team History.” Toronto Argonauts Alumni Association, 2020, argoalumni.com/team-history/. Accessed 31 Mar. 2020.

“Toronto Argonauts Team History.” Sports Team History, 2020, sportsteamhistory.com/toronto-argonauts. Accessed 31 Mar. 2020.