History of the Grey Cup, Pro Football's Oldest Championship Trophy

Larry Ryckman is an audio technology expert and entrepreneur who co-founded AfterMaster Audio in 2006 and previously served as president and CEO of QSound Audio Labs. In addition to his work in audio technology, Larry Ryckman previously served as owner, president, and CEO of the Canadian Football League (CFL) team Calgary Stampeders. Under his ownership they played in four Grey Cup Championship games and won it in 1992.

Though the Super Bowl is considered the pinnacle of achievement for a football team, it's surprisingly not the sport's oldest championship trophy. That distinction belongs to the Grey Cup, which is awarded annually to the CFL champions. Commissioned in 1909 by then-Governor General of Canada Earl Grey, the Grey Cup was first awarded to Canada's top rugby team before it became the famed trophy of the CFL. 

The first three Grey Cups were awarded to the University of Toronto rugby team. The trophy was won by Eastern Canadian teams every year up until 1941, when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defeated the Ottawa Rough Riders. The Edmonton Eskimos have had the longest consecutive Grey Cup-winning streak throughout the trophy's 100-plus year history, winning it in five straight seasons from 1978-82. In 1995, the Baltimore Stallions became the only American franchise to ever win the trophy.

AfterMaster Audio Labs’ Award-winning Audio Technology

Larry Ryckman is co-founder and CEO of audio technology company AfterMaster Audio Labs, headquartered in Hollywood, California. Larry Ryckman’s firm won three awards in the 2016 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas for its AfterMaster Audio technology.

A product of thousands of hours of dedicated work, AfterMaster is a pioneering and cutting-edge audio technology intended for audio processing, mastering, and re-mastering. The technology boosts volume while delivering unmatched imaging, depth, and clarity without influencing high and low frequencies or increasing distortion. AfterMaster brings depth and imaging to digital audio, which is characterized by its flat field of sound. 

Company engineers prioritized on an audio event’s core elements and discovered a new channel to deliver an audio experience that has never been produced before. As testament to its effectiveness, the technology has received overwhelming industry support, been used to engineer and master platinum records, and enabled the company to enter various strategic partnerships. Aside from its current use by professional mastering engineers for many of the world’s established artists and used by independent artists, the technology also is targeted for consumer hardware devices.

The Canadian Football League Career of Bo Levi Mitchell

Accomplished entrepreneur and audio engineer expert Larry Ryckman co-founded AfterMaster Audio in 2006 with Shelly Yakus. Prior to establishing the award-winning audio technology business, Larry Ryckman served as owner, president, and CEO of the Calgary Stampeders, a popular Canadian Football League (CFL) team, from 1991-96 and won the Grey Cup Championship in 1992.

Many prominent quarterbacks have played for the Stampeders since the team's inception in 1945. Veterans Doug Flutie and Jeff Garcia both played for Larry Ryckman's team and also established themselves in the National Football League. The team's current quarterback, Bo Levi Mitchell, is hoping to follow the same career trajectory. 

The 26-year-old Texas native and Eastern Washington alum made his CFL debut with the Stampeders in 2012 but spent the year primarily as a backup. He made his first career start the following year against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and threw for three touchdowns in a 37-24 Stampeders win. He hasn't looked back since, becoming one of the league's most dominant quarterbacks. This past season, he threw for 32 touchdowns and only eight interceptions and was named the league's Most Outstanding Player, a year after finishing as a runner-up for the award. He also was awarded the Stampeders' Community Service Award for his charitable work in Southern Alberta.

Larry Ryckman’s Legendary Cofounder Shelly Yakus

Award-winning audio and technology entrepreneur Larry Ryckman is the CEO of AfterMaster Audio Labs, headquartered in Hollywood, California. Larry Ryckman cofounded the company with legendary audio engineer Shelly Yakus, who serves as the company’s chief engineer. 

Shelly Yakus’ exposure to recording came at a very early age – his father and uncle co-owned Ace Recording in Boston. He moved to New York in the mid-1960s and gained more recording experience. Yakus went on to co-design, equip, and operate A&M Records’ industry-leading music-recording studios in Los Angeles. He previously served as vice president of Record Plant and also was vice president of engineering at QSound Labs, Inc. 

Yakus has mixed and engineered recordings for some of the music industry’s best-known artists, including John Lennon, Tom Petty, Alice Cooper, Dire Straits, Meat Loaf, Amy Grant, Madonna, U2, B.B. King, Patti Smith, Peter Paul & Mary, Stevie Nicks, Cher, Aretha Franklin, and more. He was nominated to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

Common Traits of Successful Entrepreneurs

Accomplished entrepreneur Larry Ryckman serves as the president and CEO of AfterMaster Audio in Hollywood, California. Although he established the company over a decade ago, it was far from his first successful business. Larry Ryckman previously served as the president and CEO of Calgary Stampeder Football Club, American Artists, Inc., and QSound Audio Labs, Inc. Becoming an entrepreneur can be an exciting experience, but not everyone is cut out for success. Below are just a few of the common traits that successful entrepreneurs share:

- Self-motivated – Rather than sitting and waiting for a solution, successful entrepreneurs go out and find solutions themselves. They are constantly seeking out the next new thing and are driven by their own need to experience new challenges. As a result of their ability to self-motivate, successful entrepreneurs are usually skilled at motivating others.

- Passionate – Many individuals assume it is a desire for money that drives successful entrepreneurs. In reality, they are fueled by their passion for solving a problem or creating new products. This passion is normally based on a company’s mission and often results in entrepreneurs putting more time, money, and effort into an idea that may not seem fruitful.

- Versatile – When entrepreneurs first start a company, they are often working either alone or with a small group of people. Due to this, they must be able to adapt to varying roles and responsibilities to accommodate their growing company’s needs. Further, entrepreneurs must be capable of changing their path when a particular product or solution is not working out.

The Creation of the Compact Disc

Experienced audio professional Larry Ryckman serves as the president and CEO of AfterMaster Audio in California. Throughout his more than 30-year career, Larry Ryckman has mastered and produced numerous hit songs and albums, including Lady Gaga’s Telephone, Alice Cooper’s Madhouse Rock Tour, and Aerosmith’s We All Fall Down.

Compact discs, or CDs, have become a standard for storing music and audio. They have been in use for more than 30 years, but the path to their creation started in the 1950s, and Italian- born Antonio Rubbiani created an extremely rudimentary video disc system in 1957. Although this system was far from what is recognized today, it inspired industry-wide research into the video disc starting in 1969. This research eventually culminated in the Philips ALP, an audio disc system that used laser technology. Through the 1970s, the company worked on developing an audio format that was smaller than a vinyl record and could hold at least one hour of music.

By 1979 Philips reached success in this endeavor, and they made an agreement with Sony to create an audio disc that could hold at least 74 minutes of music – the entire length of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Despite its existence, the CD did not go out to market right away. Sony and Philips produced a Red Book that laid out all compact disc standards for the industry in 1980, and Philips created the first CD player by 1982. This same year, CDs hit the market with 150 available titles and soon began gaining traction around the world.

The AfterMaster Team’s Discography Features Top Artists

Together with Grammy-winning singer Justin Timberlake, music executive Larry Ryckman co-owns AfterMaster Audio Labs. Established in 2006, this company has led Larry Ryckman to collaborate with major artists.

AfterMaster Audio Labs creates innovative audio technologies and products. Its premier technology, AfterMaster audio, improves sound quality by bringing elements of depth and clarity to audio recordings. This technology is also known for enhancing sound with unparalleled amplitude without affecting other sound elements. Currently, the AfterMaster team has the largest collection of hit records than any other company in the world.

The discography of the AfterMaster team includes music by iconic girl groups and boybands such as the Spice Girls, Destiny’s Child, Backstreet Boys, and NSYNC. The music of female vocalists Celine Dione, Toni Braxton, Beyonce, Whitney Houston, and Donna Summer were also engineered by this team. The AfterMaster Team is working with pop artists Ariana Grande, Britney Spears, Jesse J, Justin Timberlake, and Lady Gaga, to name a few.