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 last won the Grey Cup championship in 2010. 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 winningest 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 Continental Football League (COFL) was a professional American football minor league that operated in North America from 1965 through 1969. It was established following the collapse of the original United Football League, and hoped to become the major force in professional football outside the National Football League (NFL) and the American Football League (AFL). It owed its name, at least in part, to the Continental League, a proposed third Major League Baseball organization that influenced MLB significantly, although they never played a game.
The Labour Day Classic is a week of the Canadian Football League (CFL) schedule played over the Labour Day weekend. Labour Day weekend, roughly 12 or 13 weeks into the CFL season, is known for its matchups that do not change from year to year, unlike other "rivalry" weeks of the CFL schedule. Labour Day weekend is also one of typically two weeks in the CFL schedule that the league plays on a Monday. Multinational Balkrishna Industries' OK Tire brand is the presenting sponsor of the event as of 2022.
The 1974 CFL season is considered to be the 21st season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 17th Canadian Football League season.
The 2008 CFL season was the 55th season of modern-day Canadian football, the 51st season for the Canadian Football League. It was also the first CFL season in which all of the league's regular season and post-season games, including the Grey Cup game, were aired on TSN. This meant the CFL was no longer aired on broadcast television in Canada. As of 2008, TSN was available in approximately 8.8 million of Canada's 13 million households. Montreal hosted the 96th Grey Cup at Olympic Stadium on November 23, when the championship was won by the Calgary Stampeders.
Tony "Paj" Pajaczkowski was a Canadian professional football player. He was an all-star offensive guard in the Canadian Football League (CFL).
James Thomas Popp is an American sports executive and coach currently working for the United States Football League (USFL) as the Director of Player Administration. He was previously a running back coach and assistant head coach for the Alabama State Hornets. He worked extensively in the Canadian Football League, and was most recently the general manager of the Toronto Argonauts. Popp spent over two decades as General Manager of the Montreal Alouettes including several stints as Head Coach. Popp has also had roles with the Baltimore Stallions, and the Saskatchewan Roughriders. As a CFL general manager, three separate franchises under Popp have won five Grey Cup championship wins out of 11 appearances.
George Washington Dixon was a professional Canadian football player and a Canadian Interuniversity Sport football coach.
Ryan Phillips is the defensive coordinator for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and a former professional Canadian football defensive back. He played most of his career with the BC Lions, where he has been part of two Grey Cup championship teams and was the last remaining active Lions player from the 2006 roster that won the 2006 Grey Cup. He holds numerous Lions franchise records and had been named a western all-star five times and a league all-star four times. Phillips was known for his durability, having only missed four games in his 12-year career which includes a consecutive games-played streak of 181 games. He was also a member of the Montreal Alouettes in 2017. He is a 2006 graduate of Eastern Washington University which is also where he played college football for the Eastern Washington Eagles.
Don Sweet is a former star football kicker for the Montreal Alouettes and Montreal Concordes of the Canadian Football League.
The Toronto Rifles were a minor-league professional American football team active between 1964 and 1967. It was based in Toronto, Ontario. The team's home fields were Maple Leaf Stadium (1965) and Varsity Stadium from 1966 to 1967. The team was owned by Montreal businessman Johnny Newman.
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.
Hénoc Muamba is a Congolese-Canadian football player for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was selected first overall by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 2011 CFL Draft, becoming the first player from St. Francis Xavier University to be chosen first overall in the draft. In 2022, he won the Grey Cup with the Argonauts and was named the game's most valuable player (MVP) and Grey Cup Most Valuable Canadian; the 2nd player in history to ever earn both awards.
Michael Soles was a Canadian professional football player who was a fullback in the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football at McGill University, where he was a two-time All-Canadian.
The 2015 CFL season was the 62nd season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it was the 58th Canadian Football League season. The Edmonton Eskimos won the 103rd Grey Cup on November 29, defeating the Ottawa Redblacks 26–20 in Winnipeg. The schedule was released February 13, 2015 and the regular season began on June 25, 2015.
The Indianapolis Capitols were a professional American football team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They played in the Continental Football League from 1968 to 1969 and Midwest Football League from 1972 to 1974 and 1977 to 1978.
The Philadelphia Bulldogs were a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that played in the Continental Football League beginning in 1965. Their regular season games were played at Temple Stadium and in December 1966 they won the league title there by a 20–17 score in overtime against the Orlando Panthers after finishing the regular season 9–5 and tied for the East Division lead with the Toronto Rifles. The winning field goal was kicked by former NFL/Canadian FL player Jamie Caleb. The team disbanded in 1967. The 1966 team was coached by Wayne Hardin, who also coached Temple University afterwards and had come to the Bulldogs from the Naval Academy. The starting quarterback throughout the team's tenure was Bob Brodhead, who was later athletic director at Louisiana State University. The Bulldogs were ranked 21st of the top 25 Philadelphia championship teams of all time in 2011.
