Hum Yee's Grey Cup

It’s an annual event that brings sports fans together from St. John’s to Victoria.

For some it’s a yearly pilgrimage, a chance to celebrate the sport they love - football - played the Canadian way for a silver cup named after a British nobleman named Grey. A chance to meet with old friends over morning pancakes and maple syrup, or perhaps to share a beverage or two at a watering hole frequented by other football fans wearing the colours of their favourite CFL squad.

For others, like a large family from Ottawa known more for their alpine ski racing skills these days than their pigskin prowess, Grey Cup Sunday will hopefully be spent cheering on their beloved hometown Redblacks and remembering family members who are gone, but not forgotten.

Like many Canadians, the story of this family begins away from our shores. And this story is told by Mikaela Tommy, a rising star on the World Cup circuit and the latest skier from one of Canada’s most prolific alpine racing families.

A petite 19-year-old blonde who wouldn’t look out of place if she were wearing a Norwegian or Swedish ski team jacket, Tommy’s great-great-grandfather was a Chinese immigrant named Hum Yee.

“I’m really proud to say I’m one-sixteenth Chinese,” she said with a huge smile. “My great-great-grandfather came to Canada in the early 1900s and married my great-great-grandmother who was a French Canadian living in New Brunswick. Our family name ‘Tommy’ is really an anglicised version of his real name Hum Yee.

“My great-grandfather Andy Tommy Sr. was really cool too - he played in the CFL and won a couple of Grey Cups. If you’re really interested in finding out more about them, my dad has a lot more information than I do though, so you’re probably best off talking to him.”

Who wouldn’t be interested in a story like this? It’s the story of Canada. It’s the story of North America. The mosaic. The melting pot. Immigrant’s Song.

Whatever you call it, it’s our national tale - told and destined to be re-told for generations as long as we welcome those in search of a better life.

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An Olympian and two-time Canadian alpine ski champion, Mike Tommy answers the phone from his office at the Edelweiss Golf and Country Club nestled in the rolling Gatineau hills in Wakefield, Quebec - just across the river from Ottawa.

“So you want to hear about Hum Yee and my grandpa Andy Sr. - the football star,” he started. “Well it’s a pretty neat story. Most of this comes from my dad’s cousin Bonnie, but it’s the best version our family has (Mike’s dad Andy Tommy Jr. and his two brothers Art and Fred were also Olympians and Canadian National Alpine Team members in the 1950s).”

And what a story it is. Mike’s great-grandfather Hum Yee was born in Kaiping, China.

“We think he first settled in Sarnia, Ontario after entering from the United States in December 1903 and somehow ended up in Saint John, New Brunswick by May 1904,” he explained.

Not long after, he married Mary Jane Lavigne from nearby Bathurst and they had six children together, including Andy Sr. who would leave a big mark in Canadian sport.

“My grandpa was born in Hartland, New Brunswick and he ended up playing for Ottawa and Toronto during the 1930s and 40s and had a very successful career,” Tommy added.

Very successful is an understatement. Andy Tommy Sr. was a Canadian football superstar in the age of leather helmets.

Voted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1989, Andy Tommy Sr. won numerous awards during his 14-year playing career and was a member of the 1940 Ottawa Rough Rider squad who won the Grey Cup in the only two-game championship ever held.

He also hoisted Earl Grey’s Cup in 1945, the last time our national football championship was played solely by Canadians.

“I have a trophy I inherited from my grandfather given to him by the Ottawa Rough Riders in recognition of the longest touchdown in thew CFL - 124 yards,” said Mike Tommy.

“He must have run from the very back of his end zone to do that. I think the CFL has a run of 117 yards as the record, but Andy Sr. went 124. I’ve been meaning to call the CFL to find out, but never got around to it (Editor’s note: According to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, Andy Sr. picked up a fumble behind his own goal line and ran 120 yards for a touchdown in a game against Toronto on October 14, 1933).”

Shiny trophies may have been a dream come true for Andy Sr. in his adult life, but Mike Tommy will be among those to tell you that things weren’t exactly handed on a silver platter in those days if you were the son of a Chinese immigrant. It was the product of hard work and perseverance with obstacles many people today would not expect to endure.

“My grandpa was born in a time when being the child of a so-called ‘mixed marriage’ was kind of tough,” said Mike. “There was a lot of racism in those days and he was always told by his dad Hum Yee that he had to work harder than the other kids to get ahead.

“Hum Yee was never involved in organized sports himself, but was very athletic and used to entertain his children and grandkids by performing handstands and walking around the yard on his hands, right up into his 70s. We love to ski race in this family, I think everyone knows that, but we love Canadian football too and my cousin Jed Tommy also had a successful career (in the CFL during the 1980s and 90s, winning with the Grey Cup with Hamilton in 1986).”

Hum Yee and Mary Jane Tommy’s children, grand-children, great-grand-children and great-great-grandchildren, have all been active in Canadian sports for years. Some for fun and recreation, others for national pride and glory on the world’s athletic stage.

And next Sunday, many of them will be watching the hometown Redblacks try to return to the Grey Cup - with memories of the man who left China more than 100 years ago for a better life in Canada.