The Canadian Football League is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a city in Canada. They are divided into two divisions: four teams in the East Division and five teams in the West Division.
The Montreal Alouettes are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and are the current Grey Cup champions, defeating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 110th Grey Cup Game in 2023. Their home field is Percival Molson Memorial Stadium for the regular season and as of 2014 also home of their playoff games.
The Baltimore Stallions were a Canadian Football League team based in Baltimore, Maryland, in the United States, which played the 1994 and 1995 seasons. They were the most successful American team in the CFL's generally ill-fated southern expansion effort into the United States, and by at least one account, the most winning expansion team in North American professional sports history at the time. They had winning records in each season, and in both years advanced to the championship game. In 1995, they became the only American franchise to win the Grey Cup.
The Memphis Mad Dogs were a Canadian football team that played the 1995 season in the Canadian Football League. The Mad Dogs were part of a failed attempt to expand the CFL into the United States. They played at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.
The San Antonio Texans were a Canadian Football League (CFL) team that played in the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, in the 1995 CFL season. They had relocated from Sacramento, California, where the team had been called the Sacramento Gold Miners. After relocating, the team still had the same ownership in Fred Anderson and the same staff, including President Tom Bass and Head Coach/General Manager Kay Stephenson. The Gold Miners/Texans franchise played three seasons before folding in 1995. They were the southernmost team in CFL history and the only team in CFL history to have ever officially relocated from another market.
The Shreveport Pirates were a Canadian Football League team, playing at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States, in 1994 and 1995. Despite a relatively strong fan base, they were one of the least successful of the CFL's American franchises on and off the field.
The Montreal Machine were the sole Canadian team in the World League of American Football (WLAF), a springtime developmental professional league set up by the National Football League (NFL) that played in 1991 and 1992. There were also three European teams and six North America-based teams. Like all WLAF teams, the Machine played American rules football, 11 players per side on a 120-yard long/53 1/3-yard wide field, rather than Canadian rules football of 12 players per side on a 150-yard long/65-yard wide field.
The East Division is one of the two regional divisions of the Canadian Football League, its counterpart being the West Division. Although the CFL was not founded until 1958, the East Division and its clubs are descended from earlier leagues.
The 1996 CFL season is considered to be the 43rd season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 39th Canadian Football League season.
The Canadian Football League (CFL), the sole major professional sports league in North America to feature only teams from Canada, has made efforts to gain further audience in the United States, most directly through expansion into the country from the 1993 CFL season through the 1995 CFL season. The CFL plays Canadian football, a form of gridiron football which is somewhat different from the more common American football played in the United States and other parts of the world.
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In sports, a revival is a new club or franchise is using a name or colours of a previously active team. The previously active team may be defunct, temporarily suspended or may have transferred its operations to another city. The new team may be a new team or franchise, or it may be a transferred team taking over a previous team's colours and/or name. Sports teams names or nicknames are copyrighted in North America and elsewhere. Therefore, permission often must be granted from the owner or family of the defunct team.
Gerald Alan Alphin is a former professional gridiron football wide receiver and slotback who played eight seasons in the Canadian Football League (CFL) from 1986 to 1996, mainly for the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Alphin played college football at Kansas State University. Alphin recorded four 1,000-yard receiving seasons, including a period of three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons with the Rough Riders during which he was considered one of the best receivers playing in the CFL. He was named an East all-star in 1988.
The Miami Manatees was a proposed Canadian Football League (CFL) team scheduled to begin play in the 1996 season, and had plans to play out of the Miami Orange Bowl in Miami, Florida. After looking at a possible expansion franchise, the decision to relocate the Las Vegas Posse to Miami became the preferred choice to land a CFL team in Miami. The team never came to fruition as the CFL suspended its U.S. operations in spring 1996.
The 1995 Baltimore Stallions season was the second and final season in the history of the Baltimore CFL franchise. The team became the first American-based football team to win the Grey Cup. Despite the Stallions success, attendance dropped. The club only sold 9,000 season tickets. The 1994 and 1995 Stallions radio flagship station was WJFK, 1300AM in Baltimore. Owned by Infinity Broadcasting, Bruce Cunningham of Fox45 TV served as play-by-play announcer, with former NFL Baltimore Colts stars Joe Washington, Bruce Laird, and Tom Matte providing analysis, and Mark Thoner of WLIF-FM as Producer.
The 1996 Montreal Alouettes finished in second place in the East Division with a 12–6 record in the franchise's first full season in the Canadian Football League since 1986. Unlike the lean years from 1981–86, the revived Alouettes were going to be competitive, especially since most of them had won the Grey Cup in the previous season as the Baltimore Stallions. They had some nice talented offensive players from that team, such as Tracy Ham, Mike Pringle, kick returner Chris Wright, slotback Chris Armstrong, and two great defensive players in Irvin Smith, and Elfrid Payton. After a slow start they rebounded to finish strong and after defeating the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, they traveled to Toronto, where they were defeated in the East Final by the eventual Grey Cup champions, the Toronto Argonauts.
Dan Crowley is a former Canadian Football League (CFL) import quarterback from the United States. He played college football for the Towson Tigers, setting several school records. After college, Crowley professionally debuted in 1995 for the CFL USA team, the Baltimore Stallions. Crowley also played for the Montreal Alouettes in 1996, as well as the Edmonton Eskimos from 1999 until 2001. Known as a career backup, Crowley received his first major starting opportunity with the then-new Ottawa Renegades in 2002, becoming the team's first starting quarterback.
Canadian Football League Canada Day games are an occasional part of the league's schedule and occur only when the league schedule begins on or before July 1. The games are not an annual occurrence, unlike the Labour Day or Thanksgiving Day games. As of the 2023 CFL season, there have been 24 games played on Canada Day.