Courtesy The Globe and Mail:

The most infamous fan in Grey Cup history has a ticket for Sunday’s game. It is a ticket to a sideline seat near the visitors’ bench at the Rogers Centre.

This is not a wise move. Giving David Humphrey a sideline pass is like handing one of the Three Stooges a cream pie and saying, “Let me have it.”

In all the big games in all the years, no one has ever sprayed seltzer water in the CFL’s face quite like Humphrey — although there weren’t many laughing after Ray (Bibbles) Bawel of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats went down as if he’d slipped on a banana peel.

“Don’t worry about my dad,” David M. Humphrey promised yesterday. “We’ll make sure someone always has a hold of him so he won’t go wandering off.”

For those too young to recall, Humphrey is best remembered as the beret-wearing sideline fan who gave a one-sided Grey Cup game its most memorable moment. It happened 50 years ago, back when the Ticats were defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 32-7 at Varsity Stadium in Toronto.

With Bawel racing downfield after intercepting a Winnipeg pass, Humphrey took in the action — then decided to become a part of the action. He stuck out his leg, sent Bawel flying and was almost instantly known as The Tripper.

No doubt, some of you are now wondering: Did this actually happen? (Yes, it did.) Was there drinking involved? (Absolutely.) But like any good story, there’s more to the tale of The Tripper than just: guy in funny hat sends player for a loop. Humphrey was a 32-year-old defence lawyer when he did his shtick. He got into the Grey Cup without having a ticket, stood with the players on the Winnipeg bench and, after committing his trip, was allowed to walk out of stadium without being arrested by the police.

But before he left, Humphrey wandered over to the Ticats’ bench where he wanted to get into a scrap with Bawel. Unable to find his foe, Humphrey grabbed a chair on the sidelines and started to walk out of the stadium with it.

“A cop stopped me and asked what I was doing,” Humphrey said. “I told him, ‘Don’t you know who I am? I’m the guy who tripped that player.’ He laughed and said, ‘Good. Take the chair.’ I did. I gave it to Ted Toogood of the [Toronto] Argos.”

But back to the trip.

Humphrey, now 82 and still livelier than a joy buzzer, has always wanted to explain why he did what he did. He said he knew most of the police officers who were working security at the Grey Cup, which is how he got in without a ticket. Once inside, Humphrey quickly ran into two people who contributed to his altered state of mind.

The first was a former client of Humphrey’s who had just completed his parole. (”He was able to drink again,” The Tripper said. “He had whisky and I had drunk mine so I drank his, too.”) The second man was the jury foreman in a first-degree murder case that sent Humphrey’s client to the Don jail, where he was hanged in 1956. The Hamilton-Winnipeg Grey Cup was played days after the one-year anniversary of the hanging.

“The foreman wanted to shake hands,” Humphrey said. “I wouldn’t. I was upset. … The next thing I know I see this guy running for a touchdown. I was in such a state I stuck my foot out.”

Humphrey thought he’d just witnessed the funniest thing since the Marx Brothers in Horse Feathers. Bawel was ticked and that bothered Humphrey, who wanted to go back at the Hamilton defender.

After finally leaving the stadium and arriving home with the chair he had taken, Humphrey went to sleep. He woke up later and said to his wife, “I can’t figure it out but something happened at the game.”

He learned the full truth when he turned on the television. The ‘57 Grey Cup was the first to be shown coast to coast. Suddenly, he was a national figure. The Toronto Telegram ran a story offering a $500 reward for anyone who could identify The Tripper.

Humphrey was mortified since his mentor was Charles Dubin, who happened to be the Telegram’s lawyer. Dubin spoke to John Bassett, the Telegram’s owner, and the true identity of The Tripper stayed a secret for more than 20 years.

“I thought it was funny at the time but for a long time it was quite troublesome,” Humphrey said. “If that had changed the score I would still be in the Kingston Pen.”

Humphrey eventually reunited with Bawel and gave him a watch with the inscription Grey Cup 1957 from The Tripper. The CFL prankster also went on to become a Superior Court judge and had to admit that if someone was tried before him for tripping a player during a pro football game, “I’d review all the evidence then find him guilty.”

If the CFL cares to look, it will find Humphrey seated along the sidelines for Sunday’s showdown between Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The son has vowed to keep The Tripper glued to his seat. On second thought, maybe it would be best if he just stayed at home.