Tag: 1930s in Canadian Football

  • The Blue Bombers of Western Football

    The Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Boxing legend Joe Louis. Labatt Breweries. And the Toronto Blue Jays. Believe it or not there’s an interesting connection between these four entities spanning several decades.

    The Winnipeg Football Club was established in 1930. They were originally called the Winnipeg Rugby Football Club but dropped the “Rugby” from the team’s name not long after being formed. The team was unofficially known simply as the Winnipegs or the ‘Pegs for short. In the early days, the club wore green and white uniforms before quickly adopting blue and gold as their team colours. This colour choice plays an important part of the story as you will see.

    In 1935, Winnipeg travelled east to Hamilton and beat the hometown Tigers 18-12 in the Grey Cup. The victory gave the Winnipegs the distinction of becoming the first western team to win the Grey Cup championship. Enthusiastic crowds welcomed home the Winnipegs, and businesses lined up to congratulate the new champions of “Canadian rugby.”

    Hudson's Bay Company advertisement congratulating the Winnipegs on their 1935 Grey Cup victory
    Hudson’s Bay Company advertisement congratulating the Winnipegs on their 1935 Grey Cup victory (source: The Winnipeg Tribune, 10 December 1935, page 17)

    Around the same time, an African American by the name of Joe Louis was taking the professional boxing world by storm. He was given the racialized nickname “The Brown Bomber” by American media. The story goes that a local Winnipeg journalist named Vince Leah, catching wind of the “Brown Bomber” nickname, referred to the Winnipegs as the “Blue Bombers of Western Football.”

    The name stuck, and the football club became known as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers ever since.

    Winnipegs All Set to Open Campaign (1936)
    Media started referring to the Winnipegs as the “Blue Bombers” in 1936. (source: The Winnipeg Tribune, 5 September 1936, page 21.)
    Reference to the "Blue Bombers" as the name of Winnipeg's football team
    The Super Bombers (source: The Winnipeg Tribune, 31 October 1936, page 29.)

    In the 1950s, Labatt Breweries introduced a new brand of beer in the Manitoba market. With its colourful blue labelling, Winnipeg football fans referred to the beer as Labatt “Blue.” Labatt eventually adopted the name officially and became a sponsor of the Blue Bombers and the CFL.

    Fast forward a couple decades later. Toronto was awarded an expansion franchise in Major League Baseball. Labatt Breweries had a significant ownership stake in the new team and wanted to leverage its Labatt Blue brand. Toronto’s other two sports teams – the Argonauts and the Maple Leafs – both had blue as a team colour. The writing was on the wall. Toronto’s new sport team was also going to be blue. So, the Toronto Blue Jays were born.

    Further reading:

    Football in Winnipeg (Manitoba Museum)

    Labatt Blue origins (Labatt website)

    This is the fifth 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 Saskatchewan Roughriders.

  • The Rouge in American Football?

    Last week’s post centred around the debate about abolishing the rouge in Canadian football. This week let’s take a different approach to the single point and ask the following: What if the rouge were adopted into the American game?

    While there is certainly no ongoing debate over such a move, it actually has been discussed before. In fact, the rouge has even been used in exhibition scrimmages in American college football. Below are a few news articles from the late 1930s about the possibility of the North Central Intercollegiate Athletic Conference incorporating the Canadian rouge into the U.S. game.

    Article in the Montreal Star (1938) about American college conference adopting the rouge.
    Source: The Montreal Star, 1 Dec 1938, page 31. (newspapers.com)

    The pro-rouge camp was led by Charles Aaron West, the head coach at the University of North Dakota. Interestingly, the main argument for adopting the single-point rouge was that it would be an easy and effective way to break tied games. Plus, the rouge was deemed a reward to teams who moved the ball downfield by giving them the opportunity to simply kick for singles.

    Canadian Press Article in the Brantford Expositor about an American Winnipeg Blue Bomber in favour of the rouge
    Source: The Brantford Expositor, 2 Dec 1938, page 21. (newspapers.com)

    Of course, the Canadian rouge was ultimately not adopted and used in the broader U.S. college football game. But, Coach West and others certainly saw merit in the play. In 1946, West headed north and became the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. His love for the Canadian rouge would have made the move a natural fit. Throughout history, the unique rules and nuances of Canadian football have been embraced by numerous American football coaches and players alike.

    Article in the Edmonton Journal (1939) about U.S. college coaches liking the Canadian rouge.
    Source: The Edmonton Journal, 27 June 1939, page 15. (newspapers.com)

    But, just imagine what it would be like today had Charles West got his way back in 1939. Would Americans be questioning whether the Rose Bowl or Super Bowl should be won on a missed field goal?