1983 CFL season

Last updated

1983 CFL season
East champions Toronto Argonauts
West champions BC Lions
71st Grey Cup
DateNovember 27, 1983
ChampionsToronto Argonauts
CFL seasons
  1982
1984  
1983 CFL season
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Transparent.svg
800km
497miles
Blue 000080 pog.svg
Concordes
Blue 000080 pog.svg
Rough Riders
Blue 000080 pog.svg
Argonauts
Blue 000080 pog.svg
Tiger-Cats
Red pog.svg
Blue Bombers
Red pog.svg
Roughriders
Red pog.svg
Eskimos
Red pog.svg
Stampeders
Red pog.svg
Lions
Canadian Football League team locations: Red pog.svg West, Blue 000080 pog.svg East

The 1983 CFL season is considered to be the 30th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 26th Canadian Football League season.

Contents

CFL news in 1983

The CFL re-signed with Carling O'Keefe Breweries to another record television contract worth $33 million to cover a three-year period from 1983 to 1986.

The BC Lions opened their new stadium, BC Place this season, and with it, introduced shorter endzones to its stadium (20 yards in length as opposed to the then-standard 25 yards). This was because the floor of the stadium was too short to accommodate the 25 yard endzones; the shorter endzone length would become standard in the CFL three years later, in 1986.

The league's attendance levels reached an all-time high for all football games with 2,856,031. The Grey Cup game between the Toronto Argonauts and the BC Lions was played in front of 59,345 football fans at BC Place Stadium (the first lion gross gate).

In addition, CBC, CTV and Radio-Canada's coverage of the Grey Cup game attracted the largest viewing audience in television history for a Canadian sports program with 8,118,000.

The Toronto Argonauts won their first Grey Cup Championship since 1952. This would be the last season all three of the CFL's Ontario-based teams qualified for the playoffs until 2015.

Terry Greer set a pro football record for most receiving yards with 2,003.

Regular season standings

Final regular season standings

Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pts = Points

West Division
TeamGPWLTPFPAPts
BC Lions 16115047732622
Winnipeg Blue Bombers 1697041240218
Edmonton Eskimos 1688045037716
Calgary Stampeders 1688042537816
Saskatchewan Roughriders 16511036053610
TeamGPWLTPtsPFPADivStk
Toronto Argonauts 161240244523284–2W2 Details
Ottawa Rough Riders 16880163844242–4L2 Details
Hamilton Tiger-Cats 165101113894983–2–1T1 Details
Montreal Concordes 165101113674472–3–1T1 Details
  • Bold text means that they have clinched the playoffs.
  • BC and Toronto had first round byes.

Grey Cup playoffs

The Toronto Argonauts are the 1983 Grey Cup champions, defeating the BC Lions, 18–17, in front of their home crowd at Vancouver's BC Place Stadium. This was Toronto's first championship in 31 years, ending the league's longest drought at that time. The Argonauts' Joe Barnes (QB) was named the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player on Offence and Carl Brazley (DB) was named Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player on Defence. The Lions' Rick Klassen (DT) was named the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian.

Playoff bracket

November 13: Division Semifinals November 20: Division Finals November 27: 71st Grey Cup @ BC Place StadiumVancouver, BC
         
E3 Hamilton Tiger-Cats 36
East
E1 Toronto Argonauts 41
E3 Hamilton Tiger-Cats 33
E2 Ottawa Rough Riders 31
E1 Toronto Argonauts 18
W1 BC Lions 17
W2 Winnipeg Blue Bombers 21
West
W1 BC Lions 39
W3 Edmonton Eskimos 22
W2 Winnipeg Blue Bombers 49

CFL Leaders

1983 CFL All-Stars

Offence

Defence

Special teams

1983 Eastern All-Stars

Offence

Defence

Special teams

1983 Western All-Stars

Offence

Defence

Special teams

1983 CFL Awards

References

  1. "CFLapedia".