Lionbackers.com

1963
A year of Firsts - First Conference Championship, Playoff Round win and Grey Cup Appearance
Following a year of improvement in all regards in 1962, new optimism was voiced about the Lions actually having a chance to make it to the Grey Cup game, which was to be played at Empire Stadium. With a great season from a veteran roster headlined by Kapp and Fleming, the Lions 12-4 record gave them first place (for the first time) and a 2-1 series victory over Saskatchewan put them in the Grey Cup. With injuries going in, and star player Fleming sent to the sidelines early by Angelo Mosca, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats took home the prize with a 21-10 victory, but the fans knew they would meet again. Tom Brown became the first Lion to win a Schenley award, winning the Defensive Player-of-the-Year award.

Western Football Conference Team GP W L T PF PA Pts
British Columbia Lions 16 12 4 0 387 232 24
Calgary Stampeders 16 10 4 2 427 323 22
Saskatchewan Roughriders 16 7 7 2 223 226 16
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 16 7 9 0 302 325 14
Edmonton Eskimos 16 2 14 0 220 425 4

Eastern Football Conference Team GP W L T PF PA Pts
Hamilton Tiger-Cats 14 10 4 0 312 214 20
Ottawa Rough Riders 14 9 5 0 326 284 18
Montreal Alouettes 14 6 8 0 277 297 12
Toronto Argonauts 14 3 11 0 202 310 6

Western Semi-Finals - Saskatchewan Roughriders 9 Calgary Stampeders 35
Western Semi-Finals - Calgary Stampeders 12 Saskatchewan Roughriders 39
Saskatchewan won the total-point series by 48-47. The Roughriders will play the British Columbia Lions in the Western Finals.

Eastern Semi-Finals Montreal Alouettes 5 Ottawa Rough Riders 17
The Rough Riders will play the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Eastern Finals.

Western-Finals -British Columbia Lions 19 Saskatchewan Roughriders 7
Western Finals - Saskatchewan Roughriders 13 British Columbia Lions 8
Western Finals -Saskatchewan Roughriders 1 British Columbia Lions 36
B.C. wins the best of three series 2-1. The Lions will advance to the Grey Cup Championship game.


Eastern Finals - Hamilton Tiger-Cats 45 Ottawa Rough Riders 0
Eastern Finals - Ottawa Rough Riders 35 Hamilton Tiger-Cats 18
Hamilton won 2 game total-point series by 63-35. The Tiger-Cats will advance to the Grey Cup Championship game.

Grey Cup Championship
November 30

51st Annual Grey Cup Game: Empire Stadium - Vancouver, British Columbia
Western Champion Eastern Champion
British Columbia Lions 10 Hamilton Tiger-Cats 21
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are the 1963 Grey Cup Champions

A coloured clip showing highlights of the first quarter of the 1963 Grey Cup, showing the Lions making a goal line stand against the Tiger-Cats.

http://www.sportshall.ca/collection_videos.php?i=80

The Lions first playoff series by winning game 3 of the 1963 WDF. Pictures of the Miss Grey Cup candidates. And it has nothing to do with the CFL, but that entire week was totally overshadowed by the assassination of JFK and front page news of all newspapers featured one of the most memorable and shocking news photographs ever.

http://bcmaggiftshop.ca/Product/Details/9999725017_S

That was the era of best of 3 in the play offs.

Great stuff there. Lots of memories.

I am about to get Tom Browns signature on my 50th All Time Dream Team Poster. He apparently had a stroke not to long ago and is confined to a wheel chair. I am going to offer him a second copy of the poster along with James Parker's and Lui's signature.

FINALLY!!!

I've always wondered what the 1963 Lions West Division championship ring looked like. Finally, here's a picture of it. According to the site, it says that these are Lui Passaglia's collection, which aside from the 85, 94, and 00 GC rings, the 63 WD ring and the 64 souvenir GC belongs to him as well. Lui was only aged 9 and 10 back then. Obviously he didn't win them himself. He must have received them as a will from a member from the 1964 team who has passed away.

That Ruby/Oswald photo above is a complete concoction. The original below shows that they were in a band together and performing a concert at Ruby's nightclub on the day of the alleged shooting. The other "photo" is just some Oswald fan's re-touching effort to frame Ruby out of petty jealousy for his commanding the lion's share of fan/media attention as the band's guitar hero.

First half of the 1963 Grey Cup.

It's good that the Lions were able to take a goal-line stand after the botched punt, but it wasn't enough for the Lions to win the Grey Cup in their first appearance.

Courtesy of TSN, several good highlight clips from various Grey Cup games.

Along with the good comes the bad, starting with the 1963 Grey Cup:
http://video.tsn.ca/?dl=cfl-greycup100/ ... 8/clip/270

The entire 1963 Grey Cup, Hamilton 21 - BC 10

Another 1963 Grey Cup video which includes some Grey Cup festivities such as the Miss Grey Cup pageant.