As Vanier Cup turns 50, choosing 10 classic CIS football championship contests no easy task

McMaster and Montreal have their work cut out for them.

Truthfully, it will not take much for the self-proclaimed underdog Marauders and hometown Carabins to foster more drama than some of the recent CIS football finals that have been dull-as-dishwater coronations for the Laval Rouge et Or. Over its half-century history, however, our national university championship has featured some very gripping games. Ahead of Saturday's showdown (Sportsnet/Sportsnet 360/Radio-Canada), 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT, here's a ranking of the top 10 Vanier Cup games of all time.

10. 1991: Laurier 25, Mount Allison 18 — A sentimental pick, as a nod to an bygone era when two small schools could be the last two standing. Laurier, fuelled by a 130-yard rushing day by Andy Cecchini, won its first national title.

The Mounties cut into a 20-point deficit thanks in part to breaking out a trick play where the centre would hide the ball while the quarterback pretended to take the snap. Golden Hawks defenders had to peek up at the Skydome jumbotron in order to locate the ballcarrier. Laurier hung on to cap a playoff run where it eked out a one-point Yates Cup win after Western had a bad snap on a late field goal and overcame a three-TD deficit in the national semifinal vs. Queen's.

9.  1971: Western 15, Alberta 14 — When Paul Knill kicked a go-ahead field goal with just fewer than four minutes left and the Mustangs made it stand up, it assauged a decade-plus of frustration for the purple ponies. Western didn't win the Yates Cup once in the 1960s. In '71, though, QB Joe Fabiani and Mustangs peaked late in the season and pulled out all the stops to edge Alberta at windswept Varsity Stadium.

Fabiani flipped the field with a still-record 97-yard completion in the first half. Knill, kicking on grass on a cold day, also booted a then-record 41-yard field goal that loomed larger and larger as the game ground along.

8. 1974: Western 19, Toronto 15 — It has been 40 years and Toronto Star scribe Curtis Rush, who was an all-star pass receiver for the '74 Mustangs, is still haunted by dropping a deep ball in this game. And his team won. That gives you some idea of how tense it was during an all-Ontario affray that drew 24,777, a record for an outdoor Vanier Cup that could be broken on Saturday.

The Blues came in at 10-0 with a regular-season win over Western. The Mustangs, whose defence included future Olympic rowing medallist Phil Monckton, dug in and got a momentum-building touchdown late in the first half by recovering a bad punt snap in the end zone. That helped them shock the university football-watching world.

At that time, the Ontario and Quebec schools played in one mega-conference with two divisions. That alignment was short-lived.

7. 1990: Saskatchewan 24, Saint Mary's 21 — In the national semi, SMU legend Chris Flynn put together a drive rivalling anything in the Elway oeuvre to nip defending champion Western. The late score set up an all-Huskies matchup featuring the arguably greatest quarterback in CIS history, who had missed the '88 final due to a head injury, against a Saskatchewan program whose doors had been blown off by Western in '89.

Flynn, the only three-time Hec Crighton Trophy honouree, kept SMU in the hunt with his scrambling and passing. Saint Mary's drove to the western Huskies' 37-yard line with 26 seconds left. However, defensive lineman Don Bristow strip-sacked Flynn, leading to a recovery that gave the U of S the first of its three national titles.

It took Saint Mary's another 11 years to win a Vanier Cup.

6. 2009: Queen's 33, Calgary 31 — The Queen's Golden Gaels weren't angry when they went to the room down 18 after 30 minutes to the Dinos; they hadn't played well enough to earn that right. No team had ever come back to win from more than a 12-point halftime deficit. Queen's was hardly a crowd favourite among the 18,628 gathered at Laval after beating the Rouge et Or a week earlier.

In the first five minutes of the third quarter, the Gaels' Danny Brannagan hummed a 60-yard touchdown pass to Devan Sheahan, whereas Calgary burned both of its timeouts due to pre-snap confusion. Queen's went on a 26-0 run that included two against-the-wind fourth-quarter touchdown drives. Two-time Hec Crighton winner Erik Glavic and the Dinos had a chance to drive for the win, but Queen's defenders Ben D'Andrea and Chris Smith teamed up to cause a killer fumble with three minutes left.  

5. 1993: Toronto 37, Calgary 34 — The Varsity Blues went from chopping block in the fall of '92 to champs in '93. This is fodder for a Canadian spin-off of 30-for-30.

The lead-up to the 1992 Vanier was overshadowed by news that football at U of T was in "serious jeopardy" due to surging costs. Supporters rallied to help raise the funds to preserve the program and, somewhat but not completely out of nowhere, coach Bob Laycoe's 1993 Blues became what some call 'the miracle team.' Their run might not have touched a nerve in a Toronto that was basking in the Blue Jays' second World Series win in a row, but it was riveting.

Against Calgary, the U of T traded points for the first three quarters before 5-foot-6 wideout Glenn (The Squirrel) McCausland scored on a 81-yard punt return and linebacker Barry McCamus took an interception to the house for a 37-21 lead. Calgary chipped away, but the Blues' John Raposo blocked a short field goal in the final seconds to seal the win and end a white-knuckle ride.

The victory might have been Pyrrhic; U of T has not made a playoff appearance since the mid-'90s. Perhaps that has made the game one that time forgot.

4. 2005: Laurier 24, Saskatchewan 23 — In the early eighties when McMaster was losing four consecutive bowls, the OUA was as maligned nationally as the Atlantic conference is today. Coach Gary Jeffries' Golden Hawks were the league's first Vanier qualifier and gave the game at Ivor Wynne Stadium a sort-of local team. Saskatchewan, with powerhouse tailback David Stevens, had won a heartstopping Mitchell Bowl over Laval and was back for the third time in four seasons. Most people figured the Huskies' takedown of Laval was the true Vanier.

The Golden Hawks were led in spirit by Ryan Pyear, a 175-pound quarterback who seemed to be made from Kevlar. (If Pyear hadn't existed, the writers of Friday Night Lights would have had to create him.) Laurier also had a fast defence with future pros Ian Logan and Yannick Carter.

Stevens was a one-man running game with 240 rushing-receiving yards. No other Huskie even got a carry. In truth, he might have been too good. Just when it was in the Huskies' interest to chew clock, Stevens broke free up the middle for an 85-yard score that widened the lead to 23-15 with 6:46 left.

That left Pyear with a lot of time and the fifth-year senior threw a touchdown to fullback Bryon Hickey with 2:53 to play. The try for the two-point convert and tie ended with a dropped pass, but the Huskies could only take 27 seconds off the clock before punting. Pyear got the Hawks moving by converting a last-ditch third-and-16 with a 17-yard pass to Dante Luciani, a converted quarterback. That helped get the Hawks in range to win on Brian Devlin's 32-yard field goal with 19 seconds left.

The celebration was rather memorable.

Soon afterward, Laurier offensive coordinator Stefan Ptaszek was hired to lead McMaster. The rest is history (see No. 2).

3. 1986: UBC 25, Western 23 — Imagine how much Thunderbirds coach Frank Smith would have been second-guessed if his move to put in backup quarterback Eric Putoto for a last-minute drive had not work. Starter Jordan Gagner had taken a beating from the Mustangs on a mud- and snow-covered field; hence the change. Coming in fresh, Putoto broke Western's heart by authoring a 62-yard victory march, scrambling to the four-yard line before connecting with Rob Ros on a quick-out for the winning points with four seconds left. (Ros had also scored a first-half touchdown on a nearly identical route on the other side of the field.)

This game just grows in the retelling and reliving. The teams combined for a then-record 911 yards offence, which is remarkable considering that the field conditions were an equalizer for the defences. It was also the first Vanier to pit two unbeaten teams who had gone through the modern playoff structure and featured a Hec Crighton winner on each side in Mustangs back Blake Marshall and Gagner, who won the following season. Twelve T-Birds went on to play in the CFL; that No. 27 in purple you see running to daylight on a reverse for the 'Stangs is Dave Sapunjis of later Calgary Stampeders fame.

2. 2011: McMaster 41, Laval 38 (OT) — It probably smacks of heresy not to have the national media-certified Best Game Ever first.

The narrative was irresistible and the finish was fantastic. Laval's Adam Thibault made a juggling 33-yard touchdown grab to force a second series of overtime, where the Marauders blanked Laval thanks to an interception before quarterback Kyle Quinlan and the offence set up kicker Tyler Crapigna for a 20-yarder for the win.

Much of the crowd at BC Place, however, were Grey Cup fans with no direct interest in either team, which took away from the atmosphere. With both teams playing in what Quinlan later called a "foreign spot," Laval came out turgidly and fell behind 23-0 before two McMaster lapses that contributed to return TDs (Frederic Plesius on a pick-six and Guillaume Rioux on a punt return) allowed the Rouge et Or to take the boot from their throat.

Quinlan was a wonder, going 36-of-55 for 482 yards and rushing for another 106. His most important pass didn't even count; a 101-yard TD pass to Mike DiCroce that came back due to a holding penalty led to a delay that allowed the Marauders to regain their composure.

Best game ever? It had only two lead changes. The Brannagan-Michael Faulds duel in the Yates Cup two years prior had seven, with both passers racking up more than 500 yards while playing outdoors in a more intimate, truly CIS venue. Given how much face Queen's would have lost with a defeat against rival Western, that stands as the best CIS game.

1. 1994: Western 50, Saskatchewan 40 (overtime) — The first OT game in Vanier history still ranks as No. 1, since it reflected the three-down game's often infinite capacity for fireworks. It had it all: ridiculous offence, stout defence and big special teams plays. Requiring the Mustangs and Huskies to play 20 more minutes also created an endurance contest, which Western won thanks to Anthony Lane's game-breaking punt-return touchdown in the second overtime half.

Both teams were powerhouses that entered unbeaten in front of 28,652 at the Skydome, most of whom were backing the southern Ontario team. A 34-14 three-quarter lead might have seemed safe-ish for Western, but Saskatchewan QB Brent Schneider kept extending plays and stretched out the game, throwing for 227 of his championship-game record 528 yards in the final 15 minutes of regulation. Saskatchewan silenced the crowd on a 34-yard Schneider-to-David Blackburn score that opened a 37-34 edge with 1:04 left.

Mustangs fans might have been nervious, but their guys were no stranger to seemingly dire straits. Quarterback Warren Goldie and Co. and overcome a two-TD deficit in the semifinal vs. Bishop's seven days earlier. Kicker Frank Jagas had also delivered with a winning field goal two weeks earlier in the Ontario final.

Goldie moved the Mustangs 45 yards in fewer than 50 seconds, setting up Jagas to force overtime with a 42-yard field goal. That led to what Western coach Larry Haylor has since called "pure joy" when Lane's 77-yard runback in the game's 77th minute, sealed the win.

In a unique postscript, MVP honours went to Schneider, on the losing Huskies. It seems perfectly Canadian that even though the story was the Mustangs completing a 12-0 season, there was recognition of what the QB from Western Canada had done to make sure they earned it.

The win gave Western its record sixth championship. Few would have predicted that it would still have six a full two decades later.

Of course, Laval took the field for the first time the following fall, fielding a junior team in '95. Now you know the rest of the story.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.