Collection 03 / 07
Canadian Sports
Golden goals and national heartbreak, as the sports desks set them in type.
4 front pages in this collection
For most of the year sport lives on the back pages. On a handful of mornings it moves to the front, and when it does the whole grammar of the newspaper changes with it: the banner headline abandons its restraint, the photograph takes the full width of the page, and the usual hierarchy of “important” news is suspended for a day because, for that day, the game was the news.
This collection gathers those mornings — an overtime goal in Moscow, a walk-off home run in Toronto, a home-ice gold medal, and a national high that turned, within days, into a national reckoning. Together they show a country reading itself through its games: its confidence, its heartbreak, and its habit of remembering exactly where it was when the puck went in.
Each entry is a typographic reconstruction of the front page with a short account of the day behind it. Browse newest reporting to oldest, or turn to the other collections.
The front pages
03 / 07- September 27, 1988 Gold, and Then Gone Days after Ben Johnson won the Seoul 100 metres in world-record time, a failed drug test stripped the gold — turning a national triumph into a reckoning. Toronto Star · Toronto
- October 24, 1993 Touch 'Em All, Joe At SkyDome, Joe Carter's walk-off home run won a second straight World Series for the Toronto Blue Jays — and the front pages made the call legend. Toronto Star · Toronto
- February 28, 2010 Golden Goal Overtime at the Vancouver Olympics, one shot from Sidney Crosby, and the front pages of a country that had been holding its breath. Calgary Herald · Calgary
Canadian Sports — questions
Good to knowWhat moments does the Canadian Sports collection feature?
This collection covers front pages from landmark sporting moments, including Paul Henderson's winning goal in the 1972 Summit Series and the Toronto Blue Jays' 1993 World Series title. It also takes in the 1988 Ben Johnson story from Seoul and the 2010 Olympic golden goal in Vancouver.
Why is Henderson's 1972 goal here?
Paul Henderson scored the deciding goal in the final game of the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union. The moment became one of the most remembered in Canadian hockey. Its front page opens the collection as a touchstone of national sporting memory.
Why include the Ben Johnson story?
Ben Johnson won the 100 metres at the 1988 Seoul Olympics before being disqualified after a failed drug test, a reversal that dominated headlines. The archive includes it because the front pages record both the triumph and its unraveling. It stands as a complicated chapter in Canadian sport.
What was the 2010 golden goal?
At the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Sidney Crosby scored the overtime goal that won Canada the men's hockey gold medal on home soil. The result set off nationwide celebration. Its front page closes out the collection's arc of memorable finishes.
How can I explore the sports pages?
Each front page is displayed as a typographic reconstruction with a short account of the game or event behind it. Newspaper titles are named for identification and historical accuracy. Visitors can move through the collection to see how these moments were reported as they happened.