JONES: Grey Cup putting Hamilton back on sporting map – Toronto Sun

HAMILTON — When Bob Young bought the Tiger-Cats it was not an attempt to put Hamilton back on the map.

When his older brother Michael died of cancer in 2003, Young bought the team in his memory.

“On the same day the estate was settled, I was sent a link to the story in the Hamilton Spectator about the Tiger-Cats going bankrupt. I couldn’t let my older brother pass away and his favourite football team pass away at the same time,” was how he put it in my most recent visit here for the Edmonton-Hamilton crossover Eastern Final here two years ago.

What’s happening here, I submit, is bigger than the Tiger-Cats being back in the Grey Cup or even becoming the first host city to have its team in the game since 2013.

To me the story is that on the 100th anniversary of the creation of the chant that is Hamilton football tradition — Oskee Wee Wee! Oskee Wa Wa! Tigers! Eat ‘Em Raw! — Hamilton is very much putting itself back on the map.

Before this week becomes about Winnipeg and the opportunity for the Blue Bombers to win back-to-back Grey Cups since 1958-59 on the heels of winning their first in 29 years, Grey Cup 108 to me is about Hamilton.

Due to coronavirus pandemic, the first Grey Cup here in a quarter century won’t be the celebration they had planned. But clearly Hamilton is becoming a happening place. Look at what’s being planned for Hamilton ahead. The Hammer is becoming an Eastern sports event host city to almost rival Edmonton in the West.

In late January, Hamilton will play host to the Canada-USA next home game of FIFA World Cup Qualifying.

Perhaps inspired by freezing weather with snow banks on the sidelines against Mexico and Costa Rica in Commonwealth Stadium before a combined crowd of just under 100,000, Hamilton has won the rights to play host to the game.

Coming up in February, Tim Horton’s Field will be the site of the latest renewal of the Heritage Classic NHL outdoor game that was born in Edmonton and spawned all those outdoor NHL games below the border. This one will feature the Toronto Maple Leafs and Buffalo Sabres.

Sunday, only a few hours following the Tiger-Cats win over the Eastern Conference Final that resulted in the team selling the last thousand tickets to provide the Grey Cup with a sellout, more than 7,000 fans attended the Canadian Premier League final featuring Young’s Hamilton Forge, a team that has been successful enough to host five CONCACAF second rung champions league playoff games here.

Two years from now, the city that had held only two Grey Cup games in the modern era of the CFL that dates back to 1948, including the biggest dud of them all a quarter century ago for which you could get a Grey Cup ticket with a cup of coffee and a Tim Horton’s donut, will play host to a second Grey Cup in three years.

And the city that invented the Commonwealth Games in 1930 is expected to host the centennial in 2030.

With all that in mind, upon arrival at Grey Cup 108, the first person I searched out was Bob Young.

‘The Caretaker’ found a half hour before participating in the Grey Cup arrival event here Tuesday morning via two CH-146 Griffons from the 430 Tactical Helicopter Squadron to Bayfront Park to provide me with a one-on-one interview.

Like his late older brother, Young loves his city its people.

“Hamilton has always been a blue collar city and by that I don’t mean in a descriptive sense but more in a cultural attitude sense. If you wanted to be a manufacturer or a top flight engineer and build an engineering company, you did that in Hamilton. If you wanted to be in sales and marketing you headed to Toronto,” he explained to me.

While it wasn’t his original intention, Young’s decision to buy the Tiger-Cats to honour the memory of his brother is resulting in bringing Hamilton back to life.

“I know every single one of our fans and all my friends in Hamilton are taking an enormous pleasure at the events happening a Tim Horton’s Field coming up.

“It’s a pretty exciting time for the city but I think it’s also a fun time for the city because of its big investment in Tim Horton’s Field. We wouldn’t be on the map to the extent that we are if it wasn’t for that,” he said of the public money and his own to get this stadium built.

“Tim Horton’s Field is very much the quality of venue the CFL needs,” he said.

Young says considering the restrictions involved, he believes Hamilton will do well enough to make people want to come back two years from now.

“We’re going to put on a dramatically better Grey Cup than we thought would be possible two months ago.

“We think this year is going to be great fun but the Grey Cup being back here in 2023 is going to be so much bigger and better we’re going to be able to really plan all the big events that we are forced to be limiting at this years Grey Cup.”

As for the Tiger-Cats, he hopes he’ll have to find a creative way to honour Michael’s memory on the Grey Cup rings.

“If we can play like we did in the second half of the Eastern Final for the whole game Sunday, our opponent will be in for a long day.”