page_title: Toronto Argonauts
section_title: 1907–1952
hierarchical_section_title: Toronto Argonauts / Franchise history / 1907–1952
caption_attribution_description: English: Toronto Argonauts (stripes) versus Ottawa Rough Riders (solids) at Varsity Stadium. The ball carrier is Harry Hutchingham for Ottawa. Toronto, Canada.
context_page_description: The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the team was founded in 1873, and is the oldest existing professional sports team in North America still using its original name, and they are the oldest-surviving team in both the modern-day CFL and East Division. The team's origins date back to a modified version of rugby football that emerged in North America in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Argonauts played their home games at Rogers Centre from 1989 until 2016 when the team moved to BMO Field, the fifth stadium site to host the team.
  The Argonauts have won the Grey Cup a record 17 times and have appeared in the final 23 times. Most recently they defeated the Calgary Stampeders 27–24 in the 105th Grey Cup in 2017. The Argonauts hold the best winning percentage in the championship game and have the longest active winning streak in games in which they have appeared, at six. The Argonauts have faced every current western CFL team at least once in the Grey Cup, while their most celebrated divisional rivalry has been with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
context_section_description: Seeking looser rules regarding the employment of professional players, Toronto and other cities split from the ORFU and formed the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) in 1907. These clubs were the vaunted "Big Four"—Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, and Montreal—that formed the precursor to Eastern Division of the Canadian Football League.
  The IRFU continued under the larger auspices of the Canadian Rugby Union. Beginning in 1909, the CRU champion was awarded the Grey Cup, with the Big Four competing against university squads and eventually teams from Western Canada. The Argonauts first competed for the Cup in 1911, losing 14 to 7 to the University of Toronto in front of a then record 13,687 spectators at the newly opened Varsity Stadium. The team would claim their first championship in 1914, exacting revenge on U of T with a 14 to 2 victory. Their star runner and kicker in their first championship year was Jack O'Conner, who scored a league record 44 points.
  After play was halted during World War I, the Argos again achieved success in the early 1920s on the back of one Canada's greatest ever sportsmen. Lionel Conacher, the "Big Train," led the team to two perfect 6–0 seasons in 1921 and 1922. In the first season he accounted for 85 of his team's 167 points, and 15 of the points in the Grey Cup game, a 23–0 drubbing of the Edmonton Eskimos. It was the first east-west Grey Cup championship in Canadian history.
  The 1921 Grey Cup victory was their last until 1933, at which point the Argonauts became the dominant team of an increasingly nationwide sport. They put together a number of Grey Cup dynasties in the 1930s and 1940s, winning eight of twenty Grey Cups between 1933 and 1952. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers were most often on the receiving end of Argo Grey Cup victories in this era. From 1933 to 1941 Lew Hayman coached the team with a still unparalleled winning ratio of 45–15–2. Their first back-to-back Grey Cups came in 1937 and 1938. This was also the era of the famed Stukus brothers—Annis, Bill, and Frank—who proved a potent all-purpose trio in the Argonauts' championship years.
  Joe "King" Krol and Royal Copeland, the so-called 'Gold Dust Twins', were the best-known players of the 1940s. In an era where players still played multiple positions, they were a threat in every capacity: running, passing, catching, kicking, and playing defence. Often connecting with each other for points, they led the Argos to a Grey Cup threepeat between 1945 and 1947. 1949 and 1950 marked a watershed in Argonauts history as the team began large scale importation of American players for the first time. The team also broke a cultural barrier in 1950 with the signing of their first black player: Ulysses "Crazy Legs" Curtis would play five strong years with the team.
  Frank Clair was brought in as coach in 1950 and left his mark on the revamped roster; he led the team to Grey Cup wins in 1950 and 1952. The first of these was a 13–0 victory over Winnipeg in the notorious Mud Bowl. A November snowstorm followed by mild conditions turned Varsity Stadium into a bog and the play was a shambles; one Winnipeg player is reported to have almost drowned in the muck.
  At some time during this period, the phrase "Argo Bounce" came to refer to the Argonauts' propensity to receive a lucky bounce of the football. The phrase may date to the Grey Cups of the 1930s, all of which featured improbable bounces and fumbles favouring the Argos; the phrase was popularized in print by Annis Stukus in the 1940s. It is still in use today, with a number of fortunate on-field happenings attributed to the "bounce".
caption: The Argonauts playing the Ottawa Rough Riders at Varsity Stadium in 1924
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