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  • CFL Media Guides in the 1960s

    For eons, the Canadian Football League published Media Guides or Fact Books for its teams. These little handbooks were meant to familiarize local journalists with the players and coaching staff of the team they were covering. They included biographies, statistics, records, and team histories. Team media guides were also a great little souvenir for the…

  • Ron Lancaster Retires

    When I first started following CFL football in the early 1990s, Ron Lancaster was considered one of the best coaches in the game. His Edmonton Eskimos were consistently in the hunt for top spot in the West Division. Perennial Grey Cup contenders. But long before he was coaching Edmonton onto victory, he was a standout…

  • Alouettes Defeat the Tiger-Cats 82-14 in 1956 Blowout

    A close game always makes for good entertainment for us football fans. We enjoy the back-and-forth battle and the inevitable drama that ultimately decides the final score. But sometimes the game is anything but close. That was the case on October 20, 1956 when the Montreal Alouettes cruised to an 82-14 victory over the Hamilton…

  • The Terry Fox Kickoff: 45 Years Later

    On July 1, 1980, a young man jogged onto the field at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa to perform the ceremonial kickoff prior to the CFL exhibition game between the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The crowd of almost 17,000 gave the 21-year-old a standing ovation. He wasn’t an ordinary 21-year-old by any stretch…

  • The ORFU Adopts the Burnside Rules

    An observer today would simply shrug his shoulders after reading the contents. “What’s the big deal?” he would ask. But around the turn of the 20th century the Burnside Rules would revolutionize Canadian football. Named after Thrift Burnside, who captained the University of Toronto varsity football team, the so-called Burnside Rules helped transform Canadian football…