Extract from Chapter 13: ‘Radically Canadian?’ | Canadian football hits US TV
Halifax, Nova Scotia, had 12 rugby union teams in 1930, but none at all in 1955. A Canadian football league was formed there in 1947, a sign that Nova Scotia was loosening its British ties and becoming more integrated with the rest of Canada. The University of New Brunswick formed a team in 1948, and a league was set up in the province a year later. The Maritime Intercollegiate Football League was founded in 1958, with teams in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
Canadian football also found its feet on the West Coast after the war, finally becoming a truly national game in what many now regard as its golden age. A stadium was being built in Vancouver for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, providing an ideal opportunity for a big-time football team to be launched. The result was the birth of the BC (British Columbia) Lions, formed in 1953, who started play in the Western Interprovincial Football Union the following year. Their home, the Empire Stadium, became the first western venue to stage the Grey Cup, in 1955.
The Grey Cup was first televised (in Toronto) in 1952, after the Canadian Rugby Union had struck a deal with the state broadcaster, CBC. The first nationwide broadcast came in 1957. By that time, Interprovincial Rugby Football Union games had appeared on American screens, thanks to a contract agreed with NBC in 1954. It was a sign of Canadians’ confidence in their own brand of football, and prompted talk of a possible ‘World Series’ between the NFL champions and Grey Cup winners.
The demise of the All-American Football Conference left many American players looking for work. Canadian clubs, flush with money from the NBC deal, snapped them up in great numbers. While Canadian players entering the professional ranks could only be signed only via a draft, the clubs could sign Americans on a free-for-all basis.
Canadian scouts attended the 1954 East–West Shrine Game, US college football’s ‘all-star’ event, something that their NFL counterparts were prohibited from doing. Over 40 NFL players and draft picks were recruited by Canadian clubs that year, provoking an angry reaction from the NFL. Although Toronto and Ottawa had threatened to boycott the Montreal Alouettes when the latter considered signing a black player in 1946, many African-American players felt they would face less prejudice north of the border than in their homeland (including Drake University star Johnny Bright, as mentioned in Chapter 10).
The Canadian league seemed poised to overshadow the NFL, but it wasn’t to be. After a promising start, NBC’s viewing figures waned, as Americans struggled to get used to what they saw as a strange brand of football. The contract was not renewed for a second year. The NFL tightened up its player contracts, making it harder for Americans to join Canadian clubs, who soon found themselves being outbid by NFL teams as salaries escalated out of their reach. Cross-border pacts were agreed, and the normal order of things was swiftly resumed.
Canadian football also found its feet on the West Coast after the war, finally becoming a truly national game in what many now regard as its golden age. A stadium was being built in Vancouver for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, providing an ideal opportunity for a big-time football team to be launched. The result was the birth of the BC (British Columbia) Lions, formed in 1953, who started play in the Western Interprovincial Football Union the following year. Their home, the Empire Stadium, became the first western venue to stage the Grey Cup, in 1955.
The Grey Cup was first televised (in Toronto) in 1952, after the Canadian Rugby Union had struck a deal with the state broadcaster, CBC. The first nationwide broadcast came in 1957. By that time, Interprovincial Rugby Football Union games had appeared on American screens, thanks to a contract agreed with NBC in 1954. It was a sign of Canadians’ confidence in their own brand of football, and prompted talk of a possible ‘World Series’ between the NFL champions and Grey Cup winners.
The demise of the All-American Football Conference left many American players looking for work. Canadian clubs, flush with money from the NBC deal, snapped them up in great numbers. While Canadian players entering the professional ranks could only be signed only via a draft, the clubs could sign Americans on a free-for-all basis.
Canadian scouts attended the 1954 East–West Shrine Game, US college football’s ‘all-star’ event, something that their NFL counterparts were prohibited from doing. Over 40 NFL players and draft picks were recruited by Canadian clubs that year, provoking an angry reaction from the NFL. Although Toronto and Ottawa had threatened to boycott the Montreal Alouettes when the latter considered signing a black player in 1946, many African-American players felt they would face less prejudice north of the border than in their homeland (including Drake University star Johnny Bright, as mentioned in Chapter 10).
The Canadian league seemed poised to overshadow the NFL, but it wasn’t to be. After a promising start, NBC’s viewing figures waned, as Americans struggled to get used to what they saw as a strange brand of football. The contract was not renewed for a second year. The NFL tightened up its player contracts, making it harder for Americans to join Canadian clubs, who soon found themselves being outbid by NFL teams as salaries escalated out of their reach. Cross-border pacts were agreed, and the normal order of things was swiftly resumed.