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Date | November 27, 1983 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Stadium | BC Place Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
Location | Vancouver | ||||||||||||||||||
Most Valuable Player |
Offence: Joe Barnes, (TOR) Defence: Carl Brazley, (TOR) |
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Most Valuable Canadian | Rick Klassen, (BC) | ||||||||||||||||||
Referee | Lorne Woods | ||||||||||||||||||
Attendance | 59,345 | ||||||||||||||||||
Broadcasters | |||||||||||||||||||
Network | CBC, CTV, SRC | ||||||||||||||||||
Announcers | First Half: Pat Marsden, Frank Rigney, Leif Pettersen. Second Half: Don Wittman, Leo Cahill, Ron Lancaster. SRC: N/A. |
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Ratings | 8,118,000 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Offence: Joe Barnes, (TOR)
The 71st Grey Cup was the 1983 Canadian Football League championship game that was played at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, between the Toronto Argonauts and the hometown BC Lions. The Argonauts narrowly defeated the Lions in a close 18-17 victory.
Toronto Argonauts (18) - TDs, Jan Carinci, Cedric Minter; FGs, Hank Ilesic; cons., Ilesic; singles, Ilesic (2).
BC Lions (17) - TDs, Mervyn Fernandez, John Henry White; FGs, Lui Passaglia; cons., Passaglia (2).
The 1983 Grey Cup marked the first championship game where weather was not a deciding factor, as the final was held indoors for the first time at the new BC Place Stadium in Vancouver.
Most notably, however, 1983 marked the end of what remains (as of 2015) the longest championship drought in the modern era of Canadian football. The Toronto Argonauts, winners of a record 10 Grey Cups, had not sipped from the silver chalice since 1952.
The Argos faced a difficult task. Not only were they opposing the BC Lions with a partisan crowd behind them, but Toronto’s star quarterback Condredge Holloway was battling the flu. He did manage, however, to complete a 14-yard touchdown toss to Jan Carinci in the second quarter.