Advertisement 1

CZECH POINTS: Here comes the Grey Cup

Article content

Football's oldest trophy will appear next month in Belleville.

The Grey Cup will be on display at Northway Restaurant during a special fundraiser for Hospice Quinte on Friday, Feb. 24 from 6-8 p.m. For a donation, local CFL fans are being invited to attend the event and have their photo taken with the venerable gridiron chalice which was first awarded in 1909.

Braun Gheller, a videographer for the 2016 Grey Cup champion Ottawa Redblacks, is bringing the trophy to Belleville. A native of Hamilton, Gheller graduated in 2007 from Loyalist College where he studied television and media production planning.

Gheller's Quinte region uncles — Doug Elmore and Ben Vanderkooi — pitched him the idea of turning his visit into an event, while also assisting a local charitable organization.

"Braun brought it to us that he was planning to bring the Grey Cup to Belleville on his way home to Hamilton,” said Elmore. “He thought if he was passing by Belleville he might as well stop here and let us have a look at it anyway. Ben and I then got the idea to make this an event and a fundraiser for a community organization.”

After that, said Vanderkooi, “the idea kind of snowballed” and that's where the Northway came in. Planning to meet Gheller for supper anyway, and being friends with Ken Pappas of the Northway, the event suddenly had a venue.

"Ken was on board right away,” said Vanderkooi.

Gheller joined the Redblacks in 2014 when the CFL returned to Ottawa after an absence of almost 10 years. Prior to that, he had spent two years as a video operator for his hometown Hamilton Tiger Cats.

With the Grey Cup champion Redblacks, Gheller is responsible for taping practices and home games for the coaching staff, plus analyzing game tape for off-season player recruitment and the annual CFL draft.

Before joining the Cats and then moving on to the Redblacks, Gheller worked four years for Rogers Media, editing broadcast film for Sportsnet and also piecing together show outlines, game highlights, information and commercials.

Elmore says Gheller is truly in his element in the CFL.

"He always wanted to work for a pro sports team,” said Elmore.

Need to know: The Redblacks' 2016 CFL title ended a 40-year Grey Cup drought in Ottawa.

CZECH POINTS

The mystery of the missing banners has apparently been solved.

Last week in this space, it was reported that — according to information gleaned from the Belleville rec department — OHL divisional, conference and championship banners belonging to the Belleville Bulls were taken when the club was sold and moved to Hamilton in 2015.

Wrong.

Latest reports received from the rec department this week indicate the banners have since been found and are in storage. Including the club's 1999 OHL championship, the Bulls banners might eventually be hung at the Belleville Sports Hall of Fame which is being relocated to the lounge area in the east wing of the Sports Centre.

This latest news also means this reporter owes an apology to former Bulls owner, wealthy Uxbridge businessman Gord Simmonds. It was jokingly suggested in this space last week that perhaps he had hung the Bulls banners in his own home.

Sorry, Gord.

Article content
Advertisement 2
Advertisement
Article content
Article content
Latest National Stories
    News Near Belleville
      This Week in Flyers