Oshawa to host Stephen Colbert Day after losing hockey bet

Last Updated: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 | 4:58 PM ET

CBC Arts

The southern Ontario city of Oshawa will host Stephen Colbert Day this March, after its mayor lost a weekend hockey bet to the bombastic TV satirist and host of The Colbert Report.

Oshawa Mayor John Gray and Colbert had bet on Friday night's Ontario Hockey League game between the Oshawa Generals and Michigan's Saginaw Spirit. The U.S. hockey team has counted Colbert as a fan ever since they named their mascot — Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle — after him.

Stephen Colbert, host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, wore boxer shorts made out of an Oshawa Generals jersey after he won a hockey bet against Oshawa Mayor John Gray.
(Adam Rountree/Associated Press)

The hometown Spirit beat the Generals 5-4 on Friday night. A sold-out crowd of 5,527 watched the game and some held signs referring to the bet, including one that said "Spirit will win, Colbert will win."

Gray, who spoke to Colbert via telephone for Monday's edition of the show, was depicted as a moose wearing a sash labelled "Mayor."

A good sport

However, he remained a good sport about his team's loss and said he'd honour the bet by naming March 20 after the host.

"How are you going to spend your Stephen Colbert Day? Oh that's right, it's your birthday!" Colbert said mockingly.

"How old are you going to be? Old enough to know better than to take on Stephen Colbert?"

Gray answered: "Hopefully, in the future, yes."

If he had lost the bet, Colbert had pledged to wear an Oshawa jersey on Monday's show.

"In the spirit of good sportsmanship, I have decided in spite of the Spirits victory to wear an Oshawa Generals jersey tonight," the host said before unfastening his pants to show off boxer shorts made out of the team jersey.

Despite Oshawa being the butt of Colbert's jokes, Gray remained good-natured during the interview, telling the comedian that a downtown Oshawa coffee-shop owner was "threatening to name a coffee after" Colbert.

"Whatever the blend is, he promises the spoon [will] lean to the right," Gray said.

A spinoff from hit news satire The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Colbert's tough-talking, ultra-patriotic American TV persona and his Colbert Report are based on right-wing pundits and current affairs shows like Bill O'Reilly and his Fox News program O'Reilly Factor, the top-rated program in U.S. cable news.