In 1947, the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated defending champions Montreal Canadians to win the Stanley Cup, the first all-Canadian final in 12 years. That same year, the Toronto Argonauts beat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 10-9 at Toronto’s Varsity Stadium in the CFL’s annual Grey Cup Championship. Of note is that the Argonauts would become the last all-Canadian team to ever claim the Grey Cup, a trophy that was almost destroyed several months earlier when fire gutted the Toronto Argonauts Rowing Club. Story has it that all the trophies in the Rowing Club building were either melted or burnt by the flames except one — the Grey Cup, which as luck would have it, got caught on a large nail on the wall, and never fell to the burning floor!
While 1947 was a very good year for Toronto sports teams, and a better one obviously for a fortuitous trophy, it was also the year that Alfred Greig and Frank Collins realized the growth in the local moving and cartage business, and established the Toronto-based Collins & Greig Cartage Ltd., using one ‘stake’ truck — a converted dump truck — as a starting point. In 1957 Alfred would become sole owner of the company, and, over time, his three sons would take over the operation of the company, adding more trucks and services along the way.
Although quite a bit has changed on the Toronto sports landscape since 1947, the past 65 years have been very progressive for Collins & Greig as they continue to build long term relationships with clients while committing to Alfred Greig’s original business acumen of offering top quality, dedicated and reliable service, all at a competitive price.
