Dan Crabbe and The CHili Bowl

Dan Crabbe knows about championships. The Gryphon Football alum was a key piece of the O-line when Guelph defeated the Waterloo Warriors to win the Yates Cup in 1996. As coordinator and position coach of the local GCVI Gaels, Crabbe also has a pair of consecutive D10 titles (2016 and 2017) under his belt.

Now the GCVI head coach, he is a man of many talents and has taken that winning mentality to another arena – cooking mouth-watering, trophy-worthy chili.

Crabbe founded the Chili Bowl nine years ago and almost takes as much pride in being a four-time champion of the Alumni Stadium event as he did hoisting the Yates Cup. The annual contest usually runs at the Gryphons’ last home game of the year, and its growth has been incredible.

“This would’ve been our 10th year,” says the chili guru, and head of GCVI’s Arts department, noting how the cancellation of U SPORTS football has obviously put it on hold. “It’s been a lot of fun. Last year, we had so many people come through.

“It’s about reaching out to the community and bringing Gryphon Football friends and family together. That’s the spirit of it.”

Crabbe’s Chili Bowl had a modest beginning. When it kicked off a decade ago, the cooks were set up over at P19, on a few tables with crock pots. But over time, the Gryphon Football Advancement Team helped take the event to a new level. Generators were provided and the contest became one of the most visible components of the Gryphon game-day tailgating experience. In 2019, Crabbe even introduced commemorative beer steins as a keepsake.

The goal for all of the participants is to tally enough winning ballots and get their hands on the Chili Bowl Cup. The hardware is made of a salad bowl and a dog dish but the lengths the cooks go to win it are legendary. Even nefarious.

The Chili Bowl took a turn for the worse the year Gryphon running back legend Gerrit Stam and his “cooking” teammate Dan Conroy were declared winners. Crabbe argues the duo purchased their chili from Tim Hortons, or a similar source, but also stacked the ballot box with votes from their children, skewing the results.

“It was completely fixed,” Crabbe contends. “It says it on the Cup, that they basically cheated. I leave them there so they can be humiliated.

“That’s the darkest moment in the Chili Bowl history.”

He figures good old-fashioned embarrassment has kept Stam and Conroy from competing in recent years. Crabbe, however, is certainly proud of his record-setting four (legitimate) wins, in which he’s teamed with his wife Andrea. While it’s always fun taking a playful jab at his old friend and teammate, he’s adamant about not disclosing the secrets to his successful recipes. Trying to obtain all the ingredients is a fruitless exercise.

Crabbe will give one tip though – dark chocolate in the Aztec tradition.

“That warrior spirit that is important to Gryphon Football is also key to a good chili,” he says.

Crabbe was sincerely disappointed that the Chili Bowl had to be shelved this year. He had considered doing some virtual event but thought that the 10th anniversary should certainly be celebrated in person. So that will happen when Gryphon Football eventually resumes. The award itself will have a gap, like the Stanley Cup and World Series trophies during the war years.

“We will bring it back,” says Crabbe. “It’s not over. I’ve been thinking of ways to still run it but it just doesn’t have the same spirit without the football. It’s one of those blips in history. That’s what was going on at the time, a pandemic. It adds some character to the Cup.

“We hope that next year, we’ll be back on. It’s a lot of fun.”

Whenever the Chili Bowl returns, Crabbe and Andrea will be working on the Drive for Five. His nephew Taylor Kason was the winner in 2019. But the chili-cooking couple aim to make sure that his reign is a one-and-done.

“Find a nice spot on the mantle and enjoy it,” says Crabbe. “But it’s coming back.”

Written By: David DiCenzo