Grey Cup: Calgary celebrates CFL championship
Calgary Stampeders fight off Hamilton Tiger-Cats to win 20-16
The Calgary Stampeders are heading home with the Grey Cup after beating the Hamilton Tiger Cats 20-16 in Vancouver Sunday night to win the CFL championship for the seventh time in team history.
"Calgary fans came here in droves and they came to support us. Everyone else wanted us to lose. But guess what. We're Grey Cup champions,” said running back Jon Cornish as his jubilant team celebrated with cigars and champagne.
Stamps defensive back Keon Raymond was overwhelmed with emotion after the game. "There's so much that we've been through the last couple years. Everyone always saying you always fell short. Hats off to my players today. It was a total team effort,” he said.
Receiver Nik Lewis said he knew the team had something special since day one. "It feels really good to come here with this group of guys and accomplish our goal from the beginning."
This is the second Grey Cup win for head coach John Hufnagel. After the game he talked about the perseverance of his team.
“Those players had to put up with a lot of stuff being said about them. The only way they were going to change things was to win this game so I'm very, very pleased for them.”
The Stampeders flew home on a chartered flight and took the Grey Cup straight to McMahon Stadium, where they were met by a throng of reporters and a small but enthusiastic group of fans at around 12:30 p.m. MT.
The big party is set for Tuesday — the city is hosting a celebration at Olympic Plaza from 11:30 a.m to 1:30 p.m. MT.
“The Stamps’ win was absolutely thrilling, and I know that Calgarians want to come together and celebrate with the team,” said Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
"We’ll also be collecting donations for the Calgary Food Bank at the rally. So come on out, show your Stampeders pride, and help your fellow Calgarians at the same time.”
Macleod Trail northbound between Ninth and Sixth Avenues and Eighth Avenue between MacLeod Trail and First Street S.E. will be closed to traffic from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Calgary's other sports teams took to Twitter to congratulate the Stamps on the win.
Calgary's police force also showed its support.
Nenshi was in the mood to celebrate too, but he got stuck on the tarmac for a while when he got home Sunday night. He was back in the mayor's chair on Monday sporting his Stamps jersey.
With files from the CBC's Devin Heroux