Doug Phillips was just five years old when his father took him to his first football game at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. He got to see the Johnny Unitas, the legendary quarterback of the old Baltimore Colts NFL team. Sadly, the Colts left for Indianapolis in 1984, leaving the city of Baltimore without professional football for a decade.
After being spurned by the NFL for an expansion franchise twice, Baltimore turned its attention to the Canadian Football League. In 1994, Baltimore was granted a CFL team, a team that would be a smashing success on and off the field.
Doug was delighted to welcome the CFL. He (and many others in Baltimore) were livid at the NFL for not only allowing their team to leave but also denying them the opportunity to rejoin the league. Add in a baseball strike in 1994, and the perfect storm was created for Baltimore sports fans to embrace something new. Baltimore was ready to welcome their new football team – albeit a team that played a different kind of football than they were used to and against teams from places like Saskatchewan and Winnipeg instead of New York and Miami.
The team was unveiled as the Baltimore Colts. When the NFL initially pushed back on the moniker saying it would create confusion, the team added “CFL” to its name to become the Baltimore CFL Colts. “I was elated they were called the Baltimore CFL Colts as were thousands in Baltimore. Of course, the NFL ruined that as well,” says Doug. The NFL filed a court injunction to prevent any use of the name Colts by the CFL team.
Doug attended every preseason and regular season game at Memorial Stadium. The first preseason game in Baltimore in 1994 against Winnipeg was played in “typical Maryland weather for the time…hot and humid,” he recalls. The CFL game was different, of course. “It was wild trying to figure out the rules.”
Baltimore CFL fans were known to travel well. I remember seeing many Baltimore fans at Ivor Wynne Stadium when they played the Tiger-Cats. Turns out Doug was at the game, too. He also made the trip to Toronto to see Baltimore’s CFL debut. He recalls an amusing moment when an Argo fan at the SkyDome was yelling that the “Colts” name belonged to Indianapolis. “I said, well let’s call them the Baltimore Roughriders and you’ll have three teams with the same name. Yeah I was aware of the Roughriders and the Rough Riders…just American humour.”
I asked him if he had a favourite player. Always a tough question, I suppose. “I cannot designate a favourite. The team was all over Baltimore at various functions and rallies. They were so kind to all the fans,” he tells me before listing off some great names. “My favourites if I had to single some out were Tracy Ham, Iggy (Donald Igwebuike) in ’94, Carlos Huerto in ’95, Mike Pringle, Shar Pourdonesh, Neil “Big Country” Forte, and Elfrid Payton.”
Doug was a member of a group called the Special Teamers. They were a fan support group for the team. After Baltimore won the Grey Cup in 1995, owner Jim Speros allowed a few of the Special Teamers to actually take the Grey Cup trophy home for a few days. Doug proudly shared with me photos of him and the Grey Cup.
Doug told me another story that I found absolutely fascinating. In 1975, his father bought him and his mother season tickets for the Baltimore Colts. The Colts started off 1-4. On November 2nd of that year in a game against Cleveland a fan (after a few beers) got up and started spelling C-O-L-T-S by contorting his body to fit the letters. His name was Len Burrier and he became a Baltimore legend known as The Big Wheel.
Len Burrier did the cheers until the Colts moved to Indianapolis. But in 1994 he started the cheer up again and performed the famous C-O-L-T-S at CFL games. If you watch vintage CFL games played in Baltimore you will hear the C-O-L-T-S cheer amongst the crowd at Memorial Stadium. In 1995, once the team was officially branded as the Stallions, Burrier lead the Baltimore crowd into an S-T-A-L-L-I-O-N-S cheer.
When the Hamilton Tiger-Cats travelled to Baltimore, Doug reached out to Ti-Cat fans and set up a tailgate party for them. It was here that he introduced Len “The Big Wheel” Burrier to Paul Weiler, who at the time played Pigskin Pete, the iconic Hamilton cheerleader who led Tiger-Cat fans in the famous Oskee Wee Wee cheer. It was a meeting of two cheerleading legends.
It’s been over thirty years since the CFL Colts/Stallions came and went. “There are a number of folks that remember the Stallions fondly. Sadly, over time it will be a footnote,” he admits. But for those two years, the CFL was embraced by the good people of Baltimore. I am glad the CFL gave them their football fix even if was too brief. And I’m glad football fans like Doug Phillips were able to experience something special and be a part of Canadian football history.
Thanks, Doug, for sharing your story.
Do you have your own CFL story (e.g., your first game, meeting a player, a Grey Cup memory, etc.) you would like to share? If so, please reach out.
