List of Canadian Football League mascots

The following is a list of the mascots of each Canadian Football League team.

Current mascots

The Saskatchewan Roughriders mascot, Gainer the Gopher

West Division
Team	Mascot(s)	Introduced	Ref.
BC Lions	Leo the Lion	n/a	[1]
Calgary Stampeders	Ralph the Dog	1975	[2]
Edmonton Elks	Punter and Spike	2004, 2021	[3]
Saskatchewan Roughriders	Gainer the Gopher	1977	[4]
Winnipeg Blue Bombers	Buzz and Boomer	1984	[5]
East Division
Team	Mascot(s)	Introduced	Ref.
Hamilton Tiger-Cats	T.C. and Stripes	1984, 2004
Montreal Alouettes	Touché and Blitz	1996, 1999	[6]
Ottawa Redblacks	Big Joe	2014	[7]
Toronto Argonauts	Jason	2005	[8]

Other and former mascots

In 2003, the Calgary Stampeders introduced another mascot of sorts, "Quick Six," which is an actual horse. Quick Six continues a Stampeders tradition, which began in 1993, of having a horse charge down the east sidelines of a field, after Calgary scores a touchdown.

Out of the nine current CFL teams, only one has replaced their mascot, the Toronto Argonauts. Prior to Jason, the Argonauts had a mascot named "Scully," who was "traded" by the team, for Jason, in 2003. Jason was later, "promoted to starting mascot," in 2005. ^[9] The now defunct franchise, the Ottawa Renegades' mascot was Ruffy the Beaver.

The Edmonton Eskimos first introduced costumed mascots in 1972 as part of the Eskimos CHQT "QT's" Cheerleader team. The original gorilla-like mascots were redesigned in 1976 as two cartoon-like gorillas, custom made in Salt Lake City. Green and gold, respectively, the two were called Eski and Mo. Nanook was the Edmonton Eskimos' only mascot from 1997–2003. Punter was introduced in 2004, as a secondary mascot. They were together from 2004–2020. When the Eskimos' name changed to the Elks, Nanook was retired in 2021. While Nanook was replaced by an elk named Spike, Punter remains the secondary mascot.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers original mascot was Captain Blue, who was introduced in the early 1970s. Since 1984 with the introduction of Buzz and Boomer, Captain Blue was made the secondary mascot. Captain Blue is always seen driving his full scale Blue Bomber biplane, which is a life like cartoon replica of the WWI biplane flown under the British Royal Air Force. After every touchdown and field goal scored by the Blue Bombers, Captain Blue drifts his biplane around the end zones.

Before Ottawa's mascot Big Joe, the city had a very prominent history of mascots. ^[10]

References

1. "Leo the Lion".
2. "Ralph the Dog". Calgary Stampeders. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
3. "Meet the Mascots". Edmonton Eskimos. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
4. "Gainer the Gopher". Riderville.com. Retrieved August 20, 2022.
5. "Mascots". Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Archived from the original on 20 November 2010. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
6. "Touché and Blitz".
7. "Big Joe". Ottawa Redblacks. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
8. "Jason the Mascot - Toronto Argonauts". Archived from the original on 2015-12-12.
9. "Jason the Mascot - Toronto Argonauts". Archived from the original on 2015-12-12.
10. "The colourful history of Ottawa's CFL mascots | 3DownNation". 12 July 2020. Retrieved 2022-02-18.