1956 – Edmonton Eskimos 50, Montreal Alouettes 27
The Edmonton Eskimos faced the Montreal Alouettes for the Grey Cup for the third consecutive year. And for the third consecutive year, the Edmonton Eskimos were Grey Cup champions.
The Eskimos ground game was too much for the Alouettes to handle, as Johnny Bright, Jackie Parker, Normie Kwong and Rollie Miles helped amass 456 rushing yards, a new Grey Cup record. Bright set an individual record with 171 rushing yards.
The Alouettes were in the contest early in the third quarter, when Parker tied the game 20-20 on a single. But similar to the 1955 game, the Eskimos offence started to roll in the second half, leaving the Alouettes in their dust.
Parker tied the record for most touchdowns scored in a Grey Cup with three. Montreal's Sam Etcheverry set a record for most interceptions in a Canadian final with four.
Don Getty and Bright scored two touchdowns each in addition to Parker's. Getty sneaked over twice from the one-yard line, and Bright had running plays of four and 16 yards for his scores. Joe Mobra kicked a 25-yard field goal.
Hal Patterson scored a pair of touchdowns in a losing cause. He went nine-yards wide on an end-around play for his first major, and caught a 37-yard pass from Etcheverry for his second. Etcheverry and Pat Abbruzi scored the other Montreal touchdowns on short running plays.
Edmonton head coach Frank Ivy joined select company as one of only three coaches to coach teams to three consecutive Grey Cup titles. The others were Billy Hughes of Queen's University (1922-1924) and Ted Morris of the Toronto Argonauts (1945-1947).
For Montreal's Doug Walker, he became only the second coach to lose in the Grey Cup final three straight years. Al Ritchie lost four straight with the Regina Roughriders from 1929 to 1932.
“We played one of our worst games of the year,&rdquo said Walker following the game. “The tackling was atrocious. But we've got no alibis. The better team won out there today. A series – who knows? But it was one game, and we lost.&rdquo
The Eskimos joined the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as the only teams west of Ontario to win three Grey Cups. It signalled the beginning of a new era in Canadian football. Prior to the Edmonton dynasty, teams from Western Canada had only won four championships since they started playing for the Grey Cup trophy in 1921.
It was the first time in a Grey Cup that a touchdown was worth six points instead of five.
