CFL All-Star Game

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The Canadian Football League played an all-star game regularly during the 1950s and 1970s and twice in the 1980s.

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1950s

The first game in 1955 actually precedes the establishment of the Canadian Football Council and the CFL, and was known as the Shrine Game, sponsored by the Shriners to raise funds for Shriners Hospitals for Children. It was held each year from 1955 to 1958 the week after the Grey Cup, as the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union All-Stars took on the Western Interprovincial Football Union.

After the 1956 contest, five players that played in the game (four from the Saskatchewan Roughriders and one from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers) were killed when Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 crashed in what was then the worst air disaster in Canadian history. After poor attendances in the next two Shrine Games (the fact that they were outdoor football games played in Canada in December didn't help), the idea of an All-Star game was dropped.

1970s

The CFL All-Star Game returned in 1970, now played as a pre-season contest in late June and early July, with the league all-stars taking on the previous season's Grey Cup champion. After no game was held in 1975, the contest returned for three more years (1976–78), with East again meeting West. These games were played before the pre-season (similar to the NFL's Pro Football Hall of Fame Game), in late May and early June; again, poor attendance led to the game's cancellation.

1980s

Two more CFL All-Star Games were played, in the 1980s: a post-season contest in December 1983 (held indoors in Vancouver), pitting East and West; and a June 1988 game between the CFL All-Stars and the hometown Edmonton Eskimos. Even though the 1988 contest drew a CFL All Star-record 27,573 fans, [1] no game has been held since then.

List of games

There have been 14 CFL All-Star Games. Of the eight games that have featured teams from the East versus West (or IRFU versus WIFU), the West leads the series 5–2–1. The remaining six games featured a CFL All-Star team versus the defending Grey Cup champion. The league team won four of these games, with the Calgary Stampeders and Ottawa Rough Riders each winning once.

SeasonDateDayVenueCityVisitorScoreHomeAttendanceRef
1955 December 3, 1955Saturday Varsity Stadium Toronto, ON WIFU All-Stars6-6 (tie) IRFU All-Stars15,088 [2]
1956 December 8, 1956Saturday Empire Stadium Vancouver, BC IRFU All-Stars0-35 WIFU All-Stars13,546 [3]
1957 December 7, 1957Saturday Molson Stadium Montreal, QC WIFU All-Stars2-20 IRFU All-Stars5,000 [4]
1958 December 6, 1958Saturday Civic Stadium Hamilton, ON WIFU All-Stars9-3 IRFU All-Stars7,000 [5]
1970 July 2, 1970Thursday Lansdowne Park Ottawa, ON CFL All-Stars35-14 Ottawa Rough Riders 23,094 [6]
1971 June 29, 1971Tuesday Autostade Montreal, QC CFL All-Stars30-13 Montreal Alouettes 9,000 [7]
1972 June 28, 1972Wednesday McMahon Stadium Calgary, AB CFL All-Stars22-23 Calgary Stampeders 23,616 [8]
1973 June 27, 1973Wednesday Ivor Wynne Stadium Hamilton, ON CFL All-Stars22-11 Hamilton Tiger-Cats 24,765 [9]
1974 June 26, 1974Wednesday Lansdowne Park Ottawa, ON CFL All-Stars22-25 Ottawa Rough Riders 15,102 [10]
1976 May 29, 1976Saturday Clarke Stadium Edmonton, AB East All-Stars16-27West All-Stars21,762 [11]
1977 June 4, 1977Saturday Exhibition Stadium Toronto, ON West All-Stars19-20East All-Stars7,500 [12]
1978 June 3, 1978Saturday McMahon Stadium Calgary, AB East All-Stars12-24West All-Stars21,000 [13]
1983 December 3, 1983Saturday BC Place Stadium Vancouver, BC East All-Stars15-25West All-Stars14,000 [14]
1988 June 23, 1988Thursday Commonwealth Stadium Edmonton, AB CFL All-Stars15-4 Edmonton Eskimos 27,573 [15]

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For the second consecutive season the Toronto Argonauts and Winnipeg Blue Bombers met for the Grey Cup. The Argonauts won the game.

With Canadians serving on battlefields across Europe and the Pacific, the first ever non-civilian Grey Cup took place in 1942. The Toronto RCAF Hurricanes defeated the Winnipeg RCAF Bombers on an icy field at Varsity Stadium in Toronto.

Football returned to relative normal in 1945 following the conclusion of World War II. Two rivals from the pre-war years met once again in the annual Grey Cup, but on this occasion, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers were no match for the Toronto Argonauts. For Winnipeg, it was the worst loss by a western team in the Grey Cup since 1923 when Queen's University routed the Regina Roughriders 54-0.

The Calgary Stampeders had an opportunity to defend their Grey Cup title in 1949, but the Montreal Alouettes returned the trophy to Quebec for just the third time in its history.

The 1960 CFL season is considered to be the seventh season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the third Canadian Football League season.

After a 17-year absence, the Saskatchewan Roughriders returned to the Grey Cup final. Their losing streak in the big game continued, however, as it was the other Rough Riders that took home the prize.

The Toronto Argonauts faced the Edmonton Eskimos in the Grey Cup. Although the Argos would hold on to win the game and their 10th Grey Cup championship, an Argo would not sip from the silver mug again until 1983.

The Edmonton Eskimos defeat the Montreal Alouettes in the first Grey Cup held in the west. This was also the first year that the Grey Cup was open to professional teams only, as the amateur Ontario Rugby Football Union was not invited to compete in an inter-union playdown, leaving only the Eastern Canadian Interprovincial Rugby Football Union and the Western Canadian Western Interprovincial Football Union to compete for the Canadian championship.

The Edmonton Eskimos faced the Montreal Alouettes in the Grey Cup game for the third consecutive year. And for the third consecutive year, the Edmonton Eskimos were Grey Cup champions. It was the first time in a Grey Cup that a touchdown was worth six points instead of five.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats defeat the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the Grey Cup.

The 1958 CFL season was the inaugural season of the Canadian Football League. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Winnipeg Blue Bombers met again for Canadian football supremacy. The Blue Bombers turned the tables on the Tiger-Cats this time, winning their first Grey Cup since 1941.

The 1959 CFL season was the sixth season in modern-day Canadian football, although officially it was the second season of the Canadian Football League. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers played the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for the third straight time in the Grey Cup final. The Blue Bombers won the rubber match in a defensive showdown.

The 1966 CFL season was the Canadian Football League's ninth season since the 1958 merger of the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union and the Western Interprovincial Football Union to create a national league. It was the 13th season in modern-day Canadian football.

The Hugo Ross Trophy was named after a Winnipeg real estate broker, Hugo Ross, who donated the championship trophy to the Western Canada Rugby Football Union (WCRFU). Hugo Ross died a year earlier in April 1912, as he was one of many who drowned in the sinking of RMS Titanic.

The 1960 Winnipeg Blue Bombers, defending Grey Cup champions, finished in first place in the W.I.F.U. with a league-best record of 14–2. Their 453 points scored were the most in the CFL. Their 239 points allowed were only 14 more than the Edmonton Eskimos, and their +214 points differential dwarfed Ottawa's +117, which had the second-best total. Their first-place finish earned them the bye into the WIFU Finals. They took the first game of the best two-of-three Finals by defeating Edmonton 22–16 in Edmonton, but lost the next two in Winnipeg by scores of 10–5 and 4–2, bringing an abrupt end to an otherwise dominant season.

References

  1. ↑ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine : "1988 CFL All-Star Game". YouTube .
  2. ↑ "WIFU All-Stars 6 @ IRFU All-Stars 6" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  3. ↑ "IRFU All-Stars 0 @ WIFU All-Stars 35" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  4. ↑ "WIFU All-Stars 2 @ IRFU All-Stars 20" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  5. ↑ "WIFU All-Stars 9 @ IRFU All-Stars 3" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  6. ↑ "CFL All-Stars 35 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 14" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  7. ↑ "CFL All-Stars 30 @ Montreal Alouettes 13" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  8. ↑ "CFL All-Stars 22 @ Calgary Stampeders 23" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  9. ↑ "CFL All-Stars 22 @ Hamilton Tiger-Cats 11" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  10. ↑ "CFL All-Stars 22 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 25" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  11. ↑ "East All-Stars 16 @ West All-Stars 27" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  12. ↑ "West All-Stars 19 @ East All-Stars 20" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  13. ↑ "East All-Stars 12 @ West All-Stars 24" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  14. ↑ "East All-Stars 15 @ West All-Stars 25" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
  15. ↑ "CFL All-Stars 15 @ Edmonton Eskimos 4" . Retrieved 2013-09-27.
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