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| Date | November 22, 1981 | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Stadium | Olympic Stadium | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Montreal | ||||||||||||||||||
| Most Valuable Player | Offence: J.C. Watts, QB (Rough Riders) Defence: John Glassford, LB (Rough Riders) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Most Valuable Canadian | Neil Lumsden, RB (Eskimos) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Referee | Bill Dell | ||||||||||||||||||
| Attendance | 52,478 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Broadcasters | |||||||||||||||||||
| Network | CBC, CTV, SRC | ||||||||||||||||||
The 69th Grey Cup was played on November 22, 1981, at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal, Quebec in front of 52,487 fans. The 1981 Grey Cup game is considered to be one of the ten best Grey Cup games of all time.[1] CFL football fans saw an unexpectedly exciting game, as the 22.5 point underdog Ottawa Rough Riders, sporting a woeful record of 5–11 (the worst record in league history by any Grey Cup finalist team), came within three seconds of beating the Edmonton Eskimos, who had won the championship the last three straight years. The Eskimos, with a 14–1–1 record, were almost the victims of what would have been the biggest upset in the history of the Grey Cup. With the win, the Eskimos became the first team in league history to win the Grey Cup four consecutive times.
This was the final appearance in the Grey Cup game for the Ottawa Rough Riders, who folded in 1996. A team from Ottawa would not return to the Grey Cup until 2015, when the second-year Redblacks faced off, incidentally, against the Edmonton Eskimos. Canadian Football Hall of Fame legends Tom Wilkinson (Edmonton) and Tony Gabriel (Ottawa) played their final game in the 69th Grey Cup as did veteran Edmonton centre Bob Howes. Future US Congressman J.C. Watts was Ottawa's quarterback. He won the Grey Cup Most Valuable Player (Offensive) award.