Tag: 1980s in Canadian Football

Advertisements for CFL Football at BC Place Stadium in 1983

My background is in sales and marketing. That’s what I studied at university, and that’s been my career for the last 25+ years. Coincidently, I discovered my interest in marketing around the same time I started following CFL football. That was back in Grade 10. As a marketer who likes history and nostalgia, I like looking back at vintage and retro advertising. So, I thought let’s do a blog post on some old advertisements for the CFL.

To set the tone. The year is 1983, and the new BC Place Stadium has just been built in Vancouver. The 59,000-seat stadium is the first domed stadium in Canada. New beginnings for the B.C. Lions.

Here are some advertisements for the B.C. Lions and CFL football that appeared in Vancouver newspapers throughout the year.

Advertisement for BC Lions season tickets in the Province, 12 June 1983.

The first game at BC Place Stadium was a pre-season match between the Lions and the Calgary Stampeders. The game featured a kick-off concert by The Guess Who.

Advertisement for the BC Lions’ first game at BC Place Stadium, an exhibition game vs. the Calgary Stampeders (Vancouver Sun, 16 June 1983).

The Lions hosted the Saskatchewan Roughriders in their regular season home opener at BC Place. The game was sponsored by Rothman’s and you could win a “magnificent Eskimo carving.” A different era when tobacco advertising was quite common.

Advertisement for the BC Lions’ regular season home opener at BC Place Stadium (Vancouver Sun, 23 July 1983).

A&B Sound, a former electronics retailer, was a corporate sponsor of the B.C. Lions. They ran the promotion below.

A&B promo ad in the Province (30 June 1983).

The two best teams in the CFL in 1983 squared off on September 10th. A Grey Cup preview.

Advertisement for the big game between BC and Toronto (Vancouver Sun, 8 September 1983).

A purchase of a Sony radio or Walkman also got you into the big game between the Lions and Argos.

Promo ad (The Province, 9 September 1983)

The SuperValu grocery chain ran a ticket promotion, as well. Customers could get a coupon for a free Lions ticket when purchasing a $9 ticket.

SuperValu BC Lions ticket promo ad.

The B.C.Lions hosted the Western Final on November 20th versus Winnipeg. Season ticket holders, as expected, had first dibs. The tickets cost between $10 and $19.

Ad for Western Final tickets (The Province, 30 October 1983).

Player’s was another tobacco sponsor at the time. Here’s an ad promoting Grey Cup Week and the first Grey Cup to be played indoors at BC Place Stadium. Remember to heed the health advice given and avoid inhaling when smoking your cigarette.

Grey Cup advertisement in The Province (24 November 1983).

There weren’t any official Grey Cup tickets ads in Vancouver papers leading up to the big game because the game was virtually sold out well in advance. This article talks about the scarcity of Grey Cup tickets and how they were allocated across the CFL.

Article in the Vancouver Sun about the availability and distribution of Grey Cup tickets (29 October 1983).

So, if you didn’t have tickets, yet, your only option was the scalpers and resellers. The classifieds were full of ads like these. You could try John on Monday morning.

The Grey Cup wasn’t the final game played in 1983. On December 3, the CFL and CFLPA staged an all-star game at BC Place Stadium.

Advertisement for the 1983 CFL-CFLPA All-Star Game (Vancouver Sun, 2 December 1983).

Sources:
The Province, 12 June 1983
The Province, 9 September 1983
The Province, 30 October 1983
The Province, 24 November 1983
Vancouver Sun, 16 June 1983
Vancouver Sun, 23 July 1983
Vancouver Sun, 8 September 1983
Vancouver Sun, 29 October 1983
Vancouver Sun, 2 November 1983
Vancouver Sun, 12 November 1983
Vancouver Sun, 23 November 1983
Vancouver Sun, 2 December 1983
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July 22, 2026
Tiger-Cats Spoil Argos’ SkyDome Opener

In the aftermath of the 1982 Grey Cup, which was played in a rainstorm at Exhibition Stadium, football fans in Toronto were clamouring for an indoor stadium. They got their wish when the new SkyDome hosted the 1989 CFL season opener on July 12, 1989. No more football in the rain, wind, or snow. Fans could now enjoy the game in a climate-controlled environment. Yet, the spectacular venue’s fully retractable roof meant fans could still enjoy outdoor football when the weather permitted. It was the best of both worlds.

Advertisement in the Toronto Star for the first CFL game at SkyDome.

I remember when the SkyDome was built and marvelled at seeing it when driving through downtown Toronto. It really was a sight to behold. The first time I was inside it was for Wrestlemania VI in 1990. Twelve-year-old me was absolutely awestruck.

OK, back to football. The SkyDome was touted a lifeline to the Toronto Argonauts and the entire the Canadian Football League. Surely, North America’s newest multi-million dollar major league stadium would be able to attract a whole new generation of fans to the CFL. The novelty factor alone was expected to bring in over 40,000 fans on opening night.

Article in the Toronto Star touting the SkyDome as a saviour for the CFL.

Unfortunately for the Argos, the home opener turnout fell a bit short of expectations. Mind you, a still solid crowd (especially by today’s standards) of 32,527 was on hand to watch the historic game between the Argonauts and the rival Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Equally unfortunate for Toronto football fans, the Argos ended up on the losing end of scoreboard at SkyDome’s football christening.

Led by quarterback Gilbert Renfroe, Toronto’s offence sputtered and managed to put up just 15 points. The Tiger-Cats scored two fourth quarter touchdowns – one a pass completion by rookie running back Derrick McAdoo and one an interception return by defensive back Sonny Gordon.

The Tiger-Cats stole the show and won the game by a score of 25-14.

Coverage in the Toronto Sun of the opening CFL game at SkyDome.

The Argos did get a good bump in attendance in 1989 largely because of their new stadium. A crowd of over 54,000 attended the Grey Cup held at SkyDome that year. I do find it rather interesting how playing in a large, multipurpose, domed stadium went from being a huge positive with so much potential to more or less an albatross around the Argos within a couple of decades. Ironically, the Argonauts ultimately returned to the CNE grounds in 2016 when they moved into the smaller outdoor BMO Field.

Sources:
The Toronto Star, 12 July 1989
The Toronto Sun, 13 July 1989
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July 15, 2026
CFL preseason: There must be a better way, for fans’ sake (1985)

The 2026 CFL preseason is underway with a full slate of games this weekend. I’m always happy to have football back – even if the games don’t really matter much to us fans. It’s safe to say that the coaches and players themselves get way more out of these matchups than we do.

Today, CFL teams play two preseason games each – one home and one away. However, teams used to play four preseason games. A four-game exhibition season can make for some long meaningless football from a fan’s perspective.

Here’s a Canadian Press article by Grant Kerr from 1985 bemoaning the lengthy preseason that saw fans pay regular-season prices to watch rather unexciting football often played by rookies and backups. There’s talk of an 18-game regular season and dropping the preseason games to two (which would be adopted the following year) and even giving a team a point in the regular season standings for a preseason win. An interesting idea that obviously didn’t gain any traction.

Sources:
The Regina Leader-Post, 25 June 1985
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May 22, 2026
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
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 of the imagination. No, he was extraordinary in every sense of the word. He had one leg, having lost his other to cancer. Lansdowne Park was the latest stop on what he billed as his “Marathon of Hope” across Canada to raise money for cancer research. Of course, I’m talking about Terry Fox.

A great shot of Terry Fox performing the ceremonial kickoff on Canada Day 1980 while Gerry Organ of the Ottawa Rough Riders looks on.
(Ottawa Citizen, 2 July 1980, p. 28.)

We Canadians are all familiar with Terry Fox, his story, and his legacy. I was only four years old (not even) at the time of the Marathon of Hope, but I do have some vague recollections of seeing coverage about it on TV. My Grandad met him while he was running through Halifax County in Nova Scotia and took a picture of him. I still have the photo.

But we forget some of the historic imagery that Terry’s marathon produced along the way. The kickoff at the CFL game is but one example. Here’s how Ottawa Rough Rider great Tony Gabriel remembers the day:

“I fondly remember meeting our young Canadian hero, Terry Fox, on July 1, 1980. He had begun his Marathon of Hope run across the nation and had reached Ottawa. Terry did our honorary kickoff that Canada Day, and I was fortunate as one of the captains for the Ottawa Rough Riders to get to shake his hand and wish him good luck in raising needed funds for Canadian cancer research.”

Terry Fox clearly made an impression on the CFL Hall of Famer. In 2020, Gabriel launched a petition to put Terry Fox on the $5 bank note. Late last year, the government announced that Terry Fox would indeed be featured on the new note. “Over the past 45 years, the Terry Fox Foundation has raised $950 million! I am so heartened it was announced and successfully assured this year that this continuing honour for Terry will happen in the near future by the Bank of Canada,” Gabriel proudly boasts.

An article in the Ottawa Citizen about Terry Fox’s stop in Ottawa during his Marathon of Hope.
(Taber, Jane. “Ottawa cheers one-legged runner.” Ottawa Citizen, 2 July 1980, p. 2.)

After leaving Ottawa – but not before hanging out with Governor General Ed Schreyer and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau – Terry continued west into Southern Ontario before heading up to Northern Ontario towards Thunder Bay. Here, he sadly announced that his cancer had returned, thus ending the Marathon of Hope. Still, he travelled a distance of 5,373 kilometres over the course of 143 days and raised millions towards his cause.

It’s been 45 years since Terry Fox captured our hearts and admiration. 45 years since the young man with one leg shared the field with some of the great CFL football stars of the day. 45 years since Terry Fox become a true Canadian legend.

And now, let’s relive what I believe is one of the most iconic moments in Canadian sports history…the Terry Fox kickoff:

Continue Terry Fox’s legacy. Join the Terry Fox Run or make a donation to the Terry Fox Foundation.

June 25, 2025