Category: Canadian Football League

  • Canada’s First National Commissioner of Football

    As the CFL formally introduces Stewart Johnston as its new Commissioner this week, Canadian Football History looks back at the very first CFL Commissioner: Gerald Sydney Halter.

    G. Sydney Halter, the CFL’s First Commissioner

    Sydney Halter was born and raised in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He held various roles, including treasurer and president, in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers organization before being named the Commissioner of the Western Interprovincial Football Union in 1953.

    “Appointment of Sydney Halter.” The Calgary Herald, 31 March 1953, p. 25.

    In 1956, he became the Registrar of the Canadian Football Council (CFC), a newly formed umbrella organization for both the WIFU and the eastern Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (the “Big Four”).

    Well regarded in football circles across the country, Sydney Halter was named “Canada’s first national commissioner of football” when the Canadian Football League was established by the CFC in 1958. By the way, I totally think the CFL should adopt “National Commissioner of Football” as the official job title for its top role.

    Described as a chain-smoking bachelor or “loner” by some, Sydney Halter wielded quite a bit of power in his role as Canada’s professional football boss. The article below (click on them to enlarge) is lengthy but well worth the read. It portrays Halter as a straight shooter and touches on how he didn’t hesitate to deliver fines to players and teams – or fans who interfered in the game. Apparently, home fans tackling opposing players from scoring touchdowns was a thing. Yikes.

    O’Brien, Andy. “Czar of Our $7,000,000 Grid Industry.” The Hamilton Spectator, 8 March 1958, p. 90.
    O’Brien, Andy. “Czar of Our $7,000,000 Grid Industry.” The Hamilton Spectator, 8 March 1958, p. 91.

    Sydney Halter served as the CFL’s commissioner until 1966. He was an early advocate for an interlocking schedule between the East and the West. A lawyer by profession, he also served in the Royal Canadian Air Force and held leadership positions in other Canadian sporting organizations outside of football.

    Sydney Halter is a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, inducted in 1966, as “the architect of the modern-day Canadian Football League.” He died in 1990. He was Jewish and was inducted posthumously into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2005.

  • Remembering the Radically Canadian Marketing Campaign

    In 1996, the Canadian Football League was faced with a dilemma. Having just ended a three-year run of having teams based in the United States, the CFL was retreating north and returning with an all-Canadian lineup. The Baltimore Stallions, the defending Grey Cup champions, relocated to Montreal to become the reborn Alouettes. How could the CFL create an opportunity out of its failed American expansion experiment?

    Go radical. That’s how. As the season was about to kick off, the CFL launched a national “Radically Canadian” marketing campaign that was both patriotic and quite edgy. While “Radically Canadian” instilled a sense of Canadian swagger that was rather rare, the campaign also included slogans such as “We Play By Our Rules”, “It’s Called a Rouge, Get the Point?”, “One Tough Mother”, and the famous “Our Balls Are Bigger.”

    1996 CFL Schedule with the Radically Canadian Logo
    The 1996 CFL schedule featuring the Radically Canadian logo
    (source: Canadian Football Research Society)

    The Radically Canadian logo appeared on the league’s website, publications, and promotional materials. Fans could purchase t-shirts, hats, and sweatshirts from the online “Rad Shop.” There was even a Radically Canadian dance CD produced. You can find these items for sale secondhand on a number of online sites.

    The online “Rad Shop” on the CFL website in 1996

    Of course, the campaign wasn’t without controversy. Some found the “Our Balls Are Bigger” and “One Tough Mother” references too risqué.  Some teams didn’t carry merchandise with the slogans for fear of offending customers. And, “Radically Canadian” didn’t translate well into French, causing fears its use could potentially stoke English-French tensions that were running high in the mid 1990s.

    Source: Montreal Gazette, 13 July 1996, page 63 (newspapers.com)

    But, in the end “Radically Canadian” represented a serious effort and investment by an old league looking to reinvigorate itself and broaden its appeal to a younger Canadian fanbase it would need to cultivate for the future. As a marketer and fan, this author gives the campaign a thumbs up. It’s been almost thirty years since the CFL introduced this marketing campaign. Given the current environment, one has to wonder if now just might be a good time to dust off the old “Our Balls Are Bigger” merchandise and once again be “Radically Canadian.”

  • The Edmonton Elks 2.0

    This is the third of a series of posts that will explore the stories behind the names of the existing Canadian Football League teams. See the previous post on the Calgary Stampeders.

    Throughout the long history of Canadian football, there’s been very little controversy surrounding team nicknames. Sure, there was a time in the not too distant past where there was one team called the Rough Riders and another called the Roughriders. But, for the most part the country’s professional football club names have been a bit quirky sounding but certainly not eyebrow raising.

    The one exception to this rule is Edmonton.

    Football has been played in the Alberta capital since 1895. Just as it is today, the early Edmonton team’s main rival was Calgary. The story goes that a Calgary sportswriter took a jab at the Edmonton team by calling them “the Esquimaux” (the French translation of Eskimos) in reference to the rather cold northern Alberta climate. The Edmonton team embraced the insult and used the moniker for a number of years before adopting the Anglicized version of the word in 1910.

    The team was known as the Edmonton Elks in 1922, foreshadowing a name change that would come a century later, and played Queen’s University in the Grey Cup that year.

    The original Eskimo team folded in the 1920s. In 1938, the Edmonton Eskimos were reborn and played in the Western Interprovincial Football Union. However, this team too ceased operations due to the onset of the Second World War.

    An advertisement taken out by Hudson's Bay Company cheering on the new Edmonton Eskimos (1949)
    An ad taken out by Hudson’s Bay Company cheering on the new Edmonton Eskimos (source: Edmonton Journal, 3 September 1949, page 18.

    It wasn’t until 1949 that the current Edmonton club returned to the WIFU. Once again Edmonton adopted the Eskimos moniker although there were some suggestions that the team be called the Oilers, the name later given to the city’s future professional hockey team.

    For the next seventy years, the Edmonton Eskimos represented Northern Alberta and were considered a model CFL franchise. They won three Grey Cups in a row in the 1950s and won five championships from 1978-1982, an astonishing feat no other team has been able to accomplish.

    However. over time a growing number of people voiced their concern over the use of the name “Eskimos.” Facing mounting public pressure, the team announced that it would be dropping the “Eskimos” name in July 2020.

    A year later, June 1, 2021, the team announced its new yet familiar name: the Edmonton Elks.

    The current Edmonton Elks primary logo (sportslogos.net)

  • The Maple Leaf Forever: An Evolution of the CFL Logo

    It’s been 60 years since Queen Elizabeth II proclaimed Canada’s national flag featuring the prominent red maple leaf. The maple leaf is arguably the most Canadian symbol of all and has been used to represent Canada since the 19th century.

    So, it’s not surprising that this quintessentially symbol of Canadiana has always been featured one way or another in the logo of the Canadian Football League.

    When the CFL was founded in the late 1950s, the fledging league’s logo was what one would expect from the period: an “official” looking crest-like emblem similar to what you would see on an old company letterhead.

    The original CFL logo

    In the 1970s, the league adopted a more modern logo – the classic red maple leaf with the CFL/LCF initials inside a football helmet. Perhaps the CFL took inspiration from the new flag in incorporating the maple leaf into a logo that would span the next three decades.

    Classic LCF helmet logo
    Classic CFL helmet logo

    At the turn of the millennium, the CFL adopted a new logo featuring a stylized slanted maple leaf meshed with a flying red football atop bolded CFL/LCF initials.

    CFL logo adopted in 2000s

    The current CFL logo has been in use since the 2016 season. The maple leaf is minimalized with the focus on an abstract image of a football featuring three hashmarks and the CFL/LCF initials being prominently displayed.

    Current LCF logo
    Current CFL logo

    As Canadians find themselves celebrating the anniversary of their national flag amidst a newfound sense of Canadian patriotism, you have to wonder what may be in store next for the CFL’s logo. Does the league stick with the relatively young status quo? Or, do new opportunities arise for the league to further embrace its Canadian identity and perhaps give more prominence to the maple leaf once again?

    (You can check out more CFL logos at SportsLogos.Net)

  • The Grey Cup vs. The Super Bowl

    It’s Super Bowl week down in America. The National Football League, arguably one of the most successful sports leagues in the world, will crown their champion. So, how does the NFL’s Super Bowl stack up against Canada’s Grey Cup? Both championships are steeped in history. Let’s take a closer look at how the two big games compare.

    The Grey Cup championship trophy

    The Grey Cup is the Canadian Football League championship played annually between the East Division champion and the West Division champion.

    The Trophy: The Grey Cup trophy – donated by and named for Albert Henry George Grey (4th Earl Grey). Earl Grey served as the Governor General of Canada from 1904 to 1911.

    First Game: The first Grey Cup was played in 1909 in Toronto. The University of Toronto defeated Toronto Parkdale by a score of 26-6.

    Most Wins: Toronto Argonauts (19)

    Mosts Times Hosted: Toronto (48)

    Largest Crowd: 68,318 (1977 at Olympic Stadium, Montreal)

    Highest Scoring Game: 83 total points (1989, Saskatchewan 43 Hamilton 40)

    The Super Bowl is annual National Football League championship played between the NFC champion and the AFC champion.

    The Trophy: The Vince Lombardi trophy – named after former NFL head coach Vince Lombardi. Unlike the Grey Cup a new trophy is made and presented each year.

    First Game: The first Super Bowl was called the AFL–NFL World Championship Game. It was played in 1967 in Los Angeles between the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Chiefs. Green Bay won the game 35-10.

    Most Wins: Pittsburgh Steelers (6) / New England Patriots (6)

    Mosts Times Hosted: Miami, Florida (11) *New Orleans will host its 11th Super Bowl this Sunday.

    Largest Crowd: 103,985 (1980 at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena, California)

    Highest Scoring Game: 75 total points (1995, San Francisco 49 San Diego 26)