You are Listening to an article from Horse Canada.com. Horsing Round on the Gray Cup By: Kim Izzo | .1000’s of followers cheered the Toronto Argonauts to a decisive 41-24 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, however it was the horseplay of one other set of followers that drew media protection this previous Gray Cup weekend.
A gaggle of Calgarians suited up in western apparel and rode a horse right into a downtown Vancouver lodge on the Thursday earlier than the massive sport. The rider was Di Wensel, chair of the Calgary Gray Cup Committee, and horse was a black mare known as Tuffy Nuff.
“It’s one in every of my most favorite issues I do all yr,” Wensel instructed a reporter final yr when she rode Tuffy right into a Hamilton lodge foyer. “I’ve been coming to the Gray Cup for twenty years, however being part of this nice, superb group is unbelievable, representing the town of Calgary and the Stampede is superior.”
It’s a practice that started in 1948 when, based on legend, a gaggle of Calgary Stampeder followers traveled to Toronto for an epic match up towards the Argonauts. An enthusiastic (and maybe inebriated) supporter rode a horse into the foyer of the Toronto’s ritzy Royal York Lodge. On sport day the Stampeders gained and went on to win eight consecutive Gray Cups, thus a customized was born. And now, 76 years later, it continues.
It will appear that Tuffy Nuff is the unofficial mascot of the Stampeders and the Gray Cup, for a look by means of the information archives akin to this gallery on the Calgary Herald reveals many various horses all recognized as “Tuffy”.
“I noticed Tuffy do it in 1948 and I’ve helped him do it since 1975,” mentioned 88-year-old Cy Addley, one other member of the Calgary Gray Cup Committee who has been readily available to look at a horse and rider enter lodge lobbies from the start.
Irrespective of if it’s a horse of a special color, one factor is for certain: the sight brings pleasure and pleasure to Canadian soccer followers from coast to coast.
“We really feel so welcome wherever we go,” Wensel instructed the CBC. “Doesn’t must be Calgary and even in Alberta.”
