Carl Martz’s “welcome to the Grey Cup” moment occurred only a few minutes after stepping off the train from Winnipeg in November 1975.

“I got out at the CP station in Calgary, and all I could do was marvel at how high the Calgary Tower was,” Martz says. “And there was a guy standing beside me. He was so out of it that he looked up and he fell flat on his back. We had to help him up.”

Edmonton’s 9-8 win over Montreal at McMahon Stadium that year was Martz’s first Grey Cup, and even though it was one of the coldest CFL championship games he didn’t stop attending them. He’s been to so many in the last 40 years he doesn’t know the exact number.

“I would say around 25 or 26,” Martz says.

Martz, 64, has seen a Grey Cup in every city’s stadium, and he can’t wait to make trips to Ottawa, Hamilton and Regina to experience it in their new stadiums.

Winnipeg’s Gord Barnsley experienced his first Grey Cup when it was held in the Manitoba capital for the first time in 1991. He’s seen three in Winnipeg and has made it to four in other CFL cities. His first out-of-town Grey Cup was Toronto in 2007 after the Bombers upset the Argos in the East final. Nothing was going to stop Barnsley from watching his beloved Blue and Gold in the big game.

“It was a last-minute thing,” Barnsley says. “We got the guys together, talked, and by Monday morning we had the flight and tickets and hotel all planned out.”

Barnsley enjoyed that week so much that he tries to put the Grey Cup trip in his annual budget as often as possible. He went to Montreal in 2008, and made it to Vancouver in both 2011 and 2014.

“Knowing what the out of town experience is like,” he says, “when I have a chance to go I do.”

This year’s Grey Cup in Winnipeg will be Barnsley’s eighth, and he says the week has changed significantly for the better since his first one nearly a quarter century ago.

“It’s more commercialized with all the companies involved now, and that’s a good thing because there’s a lot more events going on,” Barnsley said. “Compared to ’91, basically it was the game and you go to a few socials at the Convention Centre. Nowadays it’s sometimes a challenge in figuring out your schedule for the week with everything going on.

“There’s free events for the family and obviously there’s stuff involving the drinking, but there’s definitely an assortment of stuff to do.”

Speaking of drinking, Martz and his merry band of Grey Cup travellers were priming in an Ottawa hotel room on the Sunday morning before the 1988 game when a mechanical failure nearly prevented them from getting to Frank Clair Stadium.

“The lock on the door in the hotel that we were in broke,” Martz says. “We were locked in our hotel room on the sixth floor in downtown Ottawa. We had to call the fire department to get us out.”

They were stuck in that hotel room for two hours before the brave men and women of Ottawa Fire Services saved the day, allowing Martz and Co. to witness Winnipeg’s 22-21 victory over Matt Dunigan and the B.C. Lions.

Hey, if getting to the Grey Cup means having to call 911, you have to do it, no?

“We were worried we weren’t going to make it to the game,” Martz says.

Martz recalls “the original Trudeau” doing the ceremonial kickoff prior to the ’75 game, not to mention the streaker who braved the -10 C temperature for his moment of glory. Another one that sticks out is the 1984 game in Edmonton, where the Bombers snapped a 22-year title drought. Actually, flying from Winnipeg to Edmonton, with a layover in Calgary, is still clear in his mind.

“Each one of us had beer in our carry-ons,” Martz says. “That was in the days you could get away with that. It was about eight o’clock in the morning in the Calgary airport. One of the guys had a barf bag from the plane, and he was sitting in the Calgary airport drinking beer.

“As if we really needed it at that time, but that’s the way it was. We had a good time. It was lots of laughs.”

Martz and Barnsley both mentioned, without prompting, how much they appreciate the fact the Grey Cup hasn’t gone corporate. It remains pure Canadiana, which is why they try to go as often as they can.

“The whole week is still about the fans,” Barnsley says. “There are more companies involved and a lot more going on. I’ve never been to the Super Bowl, but you hear the stories that it’s companies first. The Grey Cup is about the fans. Last year they had a Grey Cup parade, and a bunch of us Bomber fans spontaneously joined the Bomber group and walked the parade route with them. I can’t imagine that happening in the NFL.

“You run into players throughout the week at different events or the hotel or out at the restaurants. They’re obviously approachable, so that’s always a nice thing.”

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