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  • 1955 East-West Game a Success

    In the 1950s, the Shriners organization sponsored an East-West all-star game featuring the best players of Canadian football. The game was played the week after the Grey Cup between all-stars from the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU). The first such game was played on December 3, 1955, at…

  • CFL Ends U.S. Expansion, Retreats Back to Canada

    On Friday February 2, 1996, the Canadian Football League officially ended its American expansion efforts. During the CFL’s annual winter meetings, the league announced that the Birmingham Barracudas, Memphis Mad Dogs, San Antonio Texans, and Shreveport Pirates were ceasing operations. And the Baltimore Stallions, having just won the Grey Cup a few months earlier, were…

  • Pirate Ball Comes to the CFL

    Of all the U.S. cities that the CFL awarded teams to as part of its American expansion in the 1990s, Shreveport had to be the most obscure choice. Whereas the other cities had teams in the defunct World League of American Football (e.g., Sacramento, San Antonio, and Birmingham) or were brought onboard after failed NFL…

  • A Fan Remembers the Baltimore Stallions

    Doug Phillips was just five years old when his father took him to his first football game at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. He got to see the Johnny Unitas, the legendary quarterback of the old Baltimore Colts NFL team. Sadly, the Colts left for Indianapolis in 1984, leaving the city of Baltimore without professional…

  • CFL Adds More American Teams

    After the Sacramento Gold Miners joined the Canadian Football League in 1993 and despite some scepticism and opposition, the league sought to grow its footprint in the United States with additional teams in 1994 and 1995. Here is a look back at some of the CFL’s other American-based teams. Las Vegas Posse The CFL’s second…