Category: Canadian Football League

CFL Goes With Shorter End Zones

The Johnston Rules are coming to Canadian football. Proponents argue they will open up the Canadian game and lead to more exciting touchdowns. Opponents grumble they represent creeping Americanization of our unique brand of football. Others shrug their shoulders and wonder what all the fuss is about. Wherever you land on this spectrum one thing is clear: CFL Commissioner Stewart Johnston has introduced sweeping changes to Canadian football.

Now, there are plenty of places online to discuss (or vent about) these changes. But here at Canadian Football History, we focus on the past. One of the changes featured in the Johnston Rules is the shrinking of the field length and end zones. So, I thought it would be timely to revisit the last time the CFL modified its field dimensions.

Once upon a time, the regulation Canadian football field was 110 yards long between the goal lines with two 25 yard end zones. If you watch older CFL games you will realize just how massive the end zones were. The extra deep end zones gave quarterbacks some good real estate to pass for touchdowns.

CFL rule changes, including shortening the end zones from 25 to 20 yards, in 1986. (Regina Leader-Post)

Then in 1983, Vancouver opened BC Place Stadium, the first domed stadium in Canada. The 60,000-seat stadium was a state-of-the-art facility that rivalled Montreal’s Olympic Stadium in terms of capacity and amenities. The trouble was that a full-length Canadian football field wouldn’t fit in the new stadium. So, the BC Lions played on a field that had only 20 yard end zones.

Other CFL stadiums couldn’t quite fit the full 25 yard end zones, either. So, they would clip the corners of the end zone and make do the best they could. Finally in 1986, the Canadian Football League officially adopted 20 yard end zones as the new standard.

A post card showing the 25 yard clipped end zones at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium.
(photo: Canadian Football Research Society)

The CFL’s long end zones posed a problem during the league’s brief foray into the United States. Most American football stadiums could not accommodate the longer Canadian field, particularly the 20 yard end zones. So, we ended up with a mishmash of end zones in the CFL’s U.S.-based stadiums. Without question the worst set up was in Memphis where the end zones were only seven yards in length near the sidelines; at most they were less than 15 yards deep in the centre.

The CFL used a heavily modified end zone in Memphis in 1995.

Whenever a sports league makes a rule change – especially if it’s a significant one – there will no doubt ensue a passionate debate amongst the fanbase. That’s probably healthy in the grand scheme of things; after all, apathy is a very difficult thing to overcome. So, if people are talking and you are in the conversation, that means people care. This week was certainly no different. CFL fans have proven they are some of the most passionate sports fans around. I thought I’d end with a selection of fan suggestions for the CFL published in the Toronto Star in 1986.

Rule changes suggested by CFL fans published in the Toronto Star.

Sources:
The Toronto Star (13 February 1986)
The Regina Leader Post (24 June 1986)
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September 24, 2025
Five Canadian Football Players Lost in 1956 Plane Crash Part II

The 1956 plane crash that claimed the lives of five Canadian football players garnered widespread newspaper coverage across Canada and parts of the United States.

Melvin Becket, Mario DeMarco, Gordon Sturtridge, and Ray Syrnyk of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Calvin Jones of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were aboard Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 when it crashed into a remote area of British Columbia.

Here is a sampling of news articles about the tragedy:

Front page of the Regina Leader-Post on December 10, 1956.

Heart-breaking article in the Regina Leader-Post (December 10, 1956) expressing hope that Mario DeMarco and Melvin Becket would somehow survive the disaster.

Front page of the Iowa City Press-Citizen (December 10, 1956) with a focus on Calvin Jones, who was a standout college player at the University of Iowa before joining the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Front page of the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix on December 10, 1956.
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September 12, 2025
Five Canadian Football Players Lost in 1956 Plane Crash

On Sunday, December 9, 1956, tragedy struck Canadian football when five professional players lost their lives in one of the country’s worst aviation disasters.

Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 left Vancouver that evening bound for Calgary with 62 passengers and crew onboard. Among the passengers were four members of the Saskatchewan Roughriders (Melvin Becket, Mario DeMarco, Gordon Sturtridge, and Ray Syrnyk) and Calvin Jones of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. They were returning from Vancouver, where the 1956 Canadian Football Council all-star game was played the previous day.

About an hour after takeoff, the plane crashed into Mount Slesse, near Chilliwack, BC. All 62 people aboard the aircraft died. The crash site is in a remote area of British Columbia, which made recovery efforts virtually impossible. The remains of both the plane and the victims remain at the site to this day.

Here is a closer look at the five players who were lost in the disaster:

Melvin Becket was a native of Chicago, Illinois. He was drafted by the NFL’s Green Bay Packers but opted to play for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. His wife was expecting their child just after Christmas.

Mario DeMarco was an American from New Jersey. He and Melvin Becket were not only teammates; they were also business partners of a local gas station in Regina. The DeMarco–Becket Memorial Trophy is awarded to the Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman in the CFL’s West Division.

Calvin Jones was an African-American from Ohio who came to Canada to play professional football with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers after a standout college career at the University of Iowa. He missed an earlier flight out of Vancouver so was instead put on the ill-fated TCA Flight 810.

Gordon Sturtridge was a native of Winnipeg, where he started his professional football career. He was a three-time western all-star and played four seasons with Saskatchewan. His wife Mildred was also aboard the flight. They left behind three young children.

Ray Syrnyk was a native of Saskatoon and played on the 1953 Saskatoon Hilltops junior championship team. He was the youngest (22) of the five players lost.

Find A Grave Memorial for Trans-Canada Airlines Flight 810 Victims

Sources:
The Province, 10 December 1956
The Regina Leader-Post, 10 December 1956
The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, 10 December 1956

September 10, 2025
Marv Levy Named CFL’s 1974 Coach of the Year

Recently, Marv Levy – a legend in both Canadian and American football – celebrated his 100th birthday. He was born on August 3, 1925 in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

After several college and professional coaching gigs in the United States, Marv Levy headed north in 1973 to become the new head coach of the CFL’s Montreal Alouettes.

In 1974, his second season at the helm in Montreal, Levy guided the Alouettes to a 9-5-2 regular season record to finish first in the Eastern Division. After knocking off Ottawa in the Eastern Final, Levy’s Alouettes defeated Edmonton 20-7 to win the Grey Cup.

Levy’s quick success in the CFL earned him the 1974 Coach of the Year. He was presented with the Annis Stukus Trophy (the trophy awarded to the CFL’s top coach) by Mr. Annis Stukus himself on January 15, 1975 at league meetings in Edmonton.

Annis Stukus presenting the Coach of Year trophy to Marv Levy as well as pictures of the CFL’s other eight head coaches.
(Jones, Terry. “No surprises, Levy coach of the year.” The Edmonton Journal, 16 January 1975, p. 53.)

Montreal and Edmonton met again in the Grey Cup in 1975. This time Edmonton came out on top. But in the 1977 Grey Cup, the Alouettes crushed Edmonton 41-6 on an icy turf at the Olympic Stadium.

In his five years as head coach of the Montreal Alouettes, Marv Levy led the team to three Grey Cups, winning two of them. Not bad.

In 1978, he returned to the United States to coach in the National Football League. His most successful run in the NFL was with the Buffalo Bills. Unfortunately, Levy’s regular season success in Buffalo didn’t translate into championships. His Bills failed to win a Super Bowl despite four straight appearances from 1990 to 1993.

Marv Levy was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2001 and into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2021. He is one of only two head coaches to have coached in both a Grey Cup and a Super Bowl, the other being Bud Grant.

Here’s to Marv Levy, the Canadian Football League’s Coach of the Year in 1974, who can now add Centenarian to his long list of titles and accomplishments.

A picture of Alouettes head coach Marv Levy published in the Montreal Gazette after winning the CFL’s 1974 coach of the year award.

August 6, 2025
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 savvy football fan. I have several in my own collection I like to peruse every now and then.

The CFL still produces them at least in electronic form. At least for some teams. I’m not sure if the league still offers print copies, though. It looks like they’ve met the same fate as game day programs and printed tickets, which is unfortunate.

Anyway, I thought what better way to spend the dog days of summer than by taking a look at some of these CFL media guides from the 1960s (or the late 1950s in a couple of cases). It was an exciting decade for the CFL and Canadian football.

Here are some photos of the media guides (front and back covers) for each CFL team from that era:

The above photos are courtesy of the good folks at the Canadian Football Research Society.
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July 16, 2025