Should Have Been Winners : CFL

The Grey Cup is played every year (well, not 2020...), and every year there is a winner.  The right team doesn't always win though.  No, sometimes the universe makes a mistake and the wrong team wins.  But how do we know who these "Misplaced Winners" are?  

Well, this blog circles around one thing, and that's the Iowa Connection.  So, obviously every Grey Cup champion should have at least one Iowa Connection, but not every one does.  Either I've missed the connection (possible!), or the universe messed up.  Thanos snapped his fingers and the Toronto Argonauts won.  So lets look at those Iowa-less Grey Cup champions and see who it should have been.

If this universe happened, here are number of titles these Iowa Connections would have gained (2+):

  • 5 - Bill Briggs, Iowa
  • 2 - Jeff Braswell, Iowa State
  • 2 - D.J. Johnson, Iowa
  • 2 - Jovon Johnson, Iowa
  • 2 - Wayne Sheley, Lone Tree

Note : Of the 82 Grey Cup Championships covered here, 23 have been Iowa-less. (Maybe less, I'm always finding connections)

Note 2: 1970 was removed (Bob Ward, ISU)

Note 3: 1994 was removed (Trent Green, Cedar Rapids)

Note 4: 2013 was removed (Todd Howard, Grinnell)


2019

Wrong Winner : Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Correct Winner : Edmonton Eskimos

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Tevaun Smith, Iowa

2015

Wrong Winner : Edmonton Eskimos

Correct Winner : Ottawa Redblacks

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Jovon Johnson, Iowa
  • Nolan MacMillan, Iowa
  • Jacques Washington, Iowa State

2011

Wrong Winner : BC Lions

Correct Winner : Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Jovon Johnson, Iowa

2006

Wrong Winner : Saskatchewan Roughriders

Correct Winner : Calgary Stampeders

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Sheldon Napastuk, Iowa State
  • Beau Gibbs, Northern Iowa

2004

Wrong Winner : Toronto Argonauts

Correct Winner : Montreal Alouettes

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • D.J. Johnson, Iowa
  • Darren Davis, Iowa State

2003

Wrong Winner : Edmonton Eskimos

Correct Winner : Montreal Alouettes

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • D.J. Johnson, Iowa

1992

Wrong Winner : Calgary Stampeders

Correct Winner : Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • John Gregory, Northern Iowa

1990

Wrong Winner : Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Correct Winner : Edmonton Eskimos

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Todd Smith, Morningside
  • Jeff Braswell, Iowa State

1988

Wrong Winner : Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Correct Winner : BC Lions

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Jeff Braswell, Iowa State
  • Larry Crawford, Iowa State

1971

Wrong Winner : Calgary Stampeders

Correct Winner : Toronto Argonauts

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Peter Paquette, Iowa
  • Jim Henderson, Simpson

1966

Wrong Winner : Saskatchewan Roughriders

Correct Winner : Ottawa Rough Riders

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Jay Roberts, Des Moines

1963

Wrong Winner : Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Correct Winner : BC Lions

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Willie Fleming, Iowa
  • Tom Walker, Iowa

1957

Wrong Winner : Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Correct Winner : Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Ken Ploen, Iowa
  • Leo Lewis, Des Moines
  • Frank Gilliam, Iowa
  • Wayne Robinson, Iowa

1953

Wrong Winner : Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Correct Winner : Edmonton Eskimos

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Bill Briggs, Iowa

1952

Wrong Winner : Toronto Argonauts

Correct Winner : Edmonton Eskimos

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Dick Steele, Drake
  • Bill Briggs, Iowa

1950

Wrong Winner : Toronto Argonauts

Correct Winner : Edmonton Eskimos

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Bill Briggs, Iowa

1949

Wrong Winner : Montreal Alouettes

Correct Winner : Toronto Argonauts

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Bill Briggs, Iowa

1948

Wrong Winner : Calgary Stampeders

Correct Winner : Toronto Argonauts

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Bill Briggs, Iowa

1942/1943/1944

No known Iowa Connections in CFL

1940

Wrong Winner : Ottawa Rough Riders

Correct Winner : Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Wayne Sheley, Lone Tree

1938

Wrong Winner : Toronto Argonauts

Correct Winner : Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Iowan who should've been champs :

  • Wayne Sheley, Lone Tree


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2024 WNBA - Iowa Connections

Image
With the highly anticipated 2024 WNBA ready to start today, let's look at the Iowa Connections in the WNBA this season, including this Fever rookie named Caitlin.  Washington Mystics    Julie Vanloo - Signed letter of intent to play with Iowa State in 2011 but the Belgium was not granted international eligibility from the NCAA. This is her first season with the WNBA.   Dallas Wings   Stephanie Soares - The #4 pick in the 2023 draft out of Iowa State, Soares will be playing her first season in the WNBA after missing laster year with an ACL injury.   Las Vegas Aces   Kiah Stokes - From Cedar Rapids, Kiah will be in her 10th season in WNBA. She won 3 NCAA titles with UConn and the last 2 titles with Las Vegas.   Megan Gustafson - Megan was AP Player of the Year with Iowa in 2019 and has played previous season with Dallas, Washington and Phoenix. This offseason she was Finals MVP for the London Lions in the WBBL final.   Kate Martin - Kate is the 2nd round pick from Iowa who will
Read more

TCdb vs. Beckett - First Impressions

 So I post a couple of weeks ago that I was starting to play around with TCdb.  I've been a loyal Beckett user for years now, and have become more down on it lately.  For collectors like me, it seems that TCdb has gathered a pretty decent sized following and positive reviews.  But how will it work for this collection?  Here's what I found. TCdb Pros Cost You can't complain about the cost (free!).   Its like some of the other big services I use for my collecting, mainly wikipedia and [sport name]-reference.com in that they provide so much information but I just don't know how they do it well.   The Checklists The database is very comparable to Beckett.  Beckett does have some cards that TCdb doesn't have, and visa-versa.  Notable for this blog, Beckett does not list the 2017 Panini Iowa set, and TCdb doesn't have all the Iowa Hawkeye Football team sets from the late 80's, early 90's.   Rankings! After I enter in my card for a player, I can then see how I
Read more

NFL Playoffs: Iowa Connections and Wild Card Round Results

Image
   Wild Card Weekend Picks (5-1): Miami (7) over  Kansas City  (4)   Buffalo (6) over Pittsburgh (2) Houston  (4) over Cleveland (2) Detroit  (7) over LA Rams (6) Tampa (7) over Philly (4) Green Bay  (7) over Dallas (2) Five for six is pretty good, but how do we justify that Kansas City win over Miami?  I think we can point to two factors that boosted KC's Iowa score.  First, KC is Caitlin Clark's favorite team, and she was unable to see the game as she was routing Indiana at the same time (on Fox, where this game was on Peacock).  Second, KC imported some good old Iowa weather for the game, and we appreciate that as well.
Read more