Bonded by the Bombers: California curler and longtime Winnipeg friends connect over Grey Cup

Daisy MacCallum is a massive Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan — even though she's never been to Manitoba.

Until a few years ago, the California native didn't know anything about the team or the Canadian Football League. 

But looking at her now, you would never know. 

On Friday night, as she walked around the Grey Cup Festival in Hamilton, she was decked out in a blue unitard, with blue hair and lights adorning her costume and matching blue light-up sunglasses.

"I knew that this year I had to do something more spectacular," MacCallum said. "And what's better than bling and lights?"

There's no mistaking which team she's cheering for in Sunday's CFL championship game, as Winnipeg looks to clinch its third Grey Cup in four years. 

"I'm 100 per cent a Bomber fan," MacCallum said. 

Sunday's game against the Montreal Alouettes will be the third Grey Cup she's seen the Bombers play in. Those are the only three CFL games she has ever seen in person. 

Her love of the team came through a happenstance conversation after a curling game with her friend Jay Diamond, about his love of the Bombers and the Grey Cup.

Diamond, who is originally from Winnipeg, moved to Menlo Park, Calif. — in the San Francisco Bay area — 30 years ago. 

He and his childhood friend, Martin Shaff — who still lives in Winnipeg — started going to the Grey Cup together as a tradition in 2006. 

Even though the pair now live more than 2,000 kilometres apart, Shaff said Grey Cup weekend gives them an excuse to co-ordinate their schedules to take a few days off for some fun and football.

They get dressed up and hit all of the Grey Cup weekend events, rounding it out with the big game.

They go no matter where it is, or who is playing. 

"It's an excuse to get together," Shaff said. 

When Diamond told MacCallum about the long-standing tradition, she knew it was something she wanted to be a part of.

"She's a sports medicine doctor, and she's been to every sporting event you can think of," Diamond said.

"I told her about the Grey Cup, and she said, 'That sounds amazing. I think I need to go to that.'"

In 2019, he and Shaff added MacCallum to their roster. 

The trio headed off to Calgary to watch the Bombers beat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats that year, ending a three-decade Grey Cup drought. 

Since then, the new CFL fan has been quick to jump on the Bombers bandwagon.

The Grey Cup is uniquely Canadian, MacCallum said, and offers a space for fans of every team to come together and celebrate the national league, regardless of who's playing.

"It's the only professional sporting entity that's really all about the fans and that every single team is represented at the finals," the sports medicine doctor said.

"That is something that is unheard of. You don't see [that] in the United States, and so that's what I wanted to be a part of."

While MacCallum has yet to go to a game in Winnipeg, she is looking forward to getting that chance soon.

The city is set to host the Grey Cup championship in 2025.