With the recent announcement that the CFL is changing its playoff format in 2027, I thought it would be an interesting learning experience to revisit some of the old playoff systems used in Canadian football, starting in 1884.
When the Canadian Rugby Football Union was relaunched in 1884, one of its mandates was to establish a national championship between the Ontario Rugby Football Union and the Quebec Rugby Football Union. Both the ORFU and QRFU held their own competitions using what was called the Tie Schedule. In this context, a tie refers to a match pairing between two teams and not a draw. Basically, Team A played Team B and the winner played Team C. The winner of that game played Team D and so forth until only one team remained undefeated. It was more or less a knock-out style tournament as opposed to a balanced round-robin schedule like the regular season we are accustomed to today.
In Quebec, the Montreal Football Club and the Britannia Football Club met on October 11th with Montreal securing a 14-2 victory. On the same day, McGill defeated Bishop’s by a score of 50-0. The following week, the two victors met with Montreal coming out on top 21-0 to win the QRFU. Montreal had defeated Britannia, McGill, as well as the Kingston Cadets.
Quebec also used the Challenge System where a team could “challenge” the champion, If the challengers won, they became the champions; if the champions won, they remained champions. On November 1st, Britannia challenged Montreal for the Quebec Union’s Challenge Cup. Montreal scored a rouge, the only point scored in the entire game. According to a report in the Montreal Gazette, the game was declared a draw. Montreal retained their title and was declared the Quebec champion. Apparently, this game was played using the old English Rugby rules. I presume this is the reason the game was officially a draw as only goals and tries were counted in English Rugby rules. Why this particular game was played using old English Rugby rules instead of the emerging Canadian-style game is rather odd. The article in the Gazette alludes to the game being rather boring.
In Ontario, fourteen teams were eligible to compete in the playoffs for the Ontario Cup. Five of these teams chose not to play. The remaining nine – Toronto, University of Toronto, Hamilton, London, Peterboro, Strathroy, Queen’s University, Royal Military College, and Ottawa – were paired up in a knock-out style tournament lasting four rounds…well, almost four rounds. In the final game for the Ontario Cup, Toronto was supposed to host Ottawa. But Ottawa forfeited the game, leaving Toronto as the Ontario champions.
So, that’s how the two provincial champions were crowned in 1884. Montreal was declared the Quebec champion after a draw against Britannia in a game that was played using different rules. Toronto was the declared the Ontario champion after Ottawa didn’t show up. A bit anti-climatic, eh?
Nevertheless, the scene was set for the first-ever Rugby Football Championship of the Dominion. Held at the University of Toronto on November 6th, the Montreal Football Club handily defeated the Toronto Football Club by a score of 30-0 in front of 1500 fans. Montreal scored two goals, three tries, and two rouges.
Despite the informalities and quirks associated with the season schedules used at the time, the domination of the Montreal Football Club arguably proved that they were strongest team in Canada and worthy of being called Dominion champions.
Something else stood out to me when researching the 1884 season. There were several more exhibition games played after the Dominion championship in Toronto. For instance, after losing the championship game Toronto travelled to Montreal to play the Britannias. Imagine the losing team of the Grey Cup playing a meaningless road game the following week? Ah, such are the peculiarities of good old Canadian football.
Special thanks to Robert Sproule who shared with me some of his research on early Canadian football during this period. It helped shed some light on on the tie schedule format and general structure of the leagues.
Sources:
Canadian Football Timeline (Canadian Football Research Society)
Important Dates in Canadian Football by Bob Sproule, Coffin Corner, 1991
Montreal Gazette, 3 November 1884
Montreal Gazette, 7 November 1884
Montreal Star, 3 November 1884
Toronto Mail, 4 November 1884
Toronto Mail, 6 November 1884
