The first organized
football
club in
Canada
was the
Hamilton Foot Ball Club
, a predecessor of the
Hamilton Tiger-Cats
, in 1869. This was followed by the formation of the
Montreal Foot Ball Club
in 1872, the
Toronto Argonaut Football Club
in 1873 and the
Ottawa Football Club
(the future Ottawa Rough Riders) in 1876.
[1]
[2]
The first organized competitions were formed in 1883, when the
Ontario Rugby Football Union
(ORFU) and the
Quebec Rugby Football Union
(QRFU) were founded. At the time the sport was generally called
rugby union
or
rugby football
because its rules were similar to rugby union's, although this would change drastically in the coming decades. The following year, the two provincial unions would form the
Canadian Rugby Football Union
(CRFU), with Montreal winning the
first national championship
later that year. The CRFU collapsed before the decade was out, but was re-organized as the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU) in 1891, with
Osgoode Hall
winning the first CRU championship the following year.
The turn of the 20th century was marked by fundamental changes in the rules of the game. The ORFU was the first competition to adopt the
Burnside Rules
, which were to revolutionize the Canadian game. The QRFU and CRU initially resisted the changes, but by 1906 the Burnside Rules were in force throughout
Ontario
and
Quebec
. Although substantial changes (such as
forward passing
) were still to come, modern Canadian football would ultimately evolve from John Thrift Meldrum Burnside's code.
W. A. Hewitt
was vice-president of the ORFU, and represented the Toronto Argonauts.
[3]
[4]
He sought for ORFU to have uniform rules of play with the CRU, with a preference to use the
snap-back
system of play used in Ontario.
[5]
In December 1906,
The Gazette
reported that a proposal originated from Ottawa for the ORFU and the QRFU to merge, which would allow for higher calibre of play and create rivalries.
[4]
Hewitt helped organize the meeting which established the IRFU in 1907.
In 1907, in a meeting organized by Hewitt,
[6]
the ORFU's Hamilton Tigers and Toronto Argonauts joined with the QRFU's Montreal Foot Ball Club and Ottawa Rough Riders (Ottawa had been moving back and forth between the two unions over the past few years) to form an elite competition, the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (also known as the "Big Four"). Montreal won the first championship that year, taking home the James Dixon Trophy. In 1909
Lord Grey
, the
governor general of Canada
, donated a trophy to be awarded to the CRU champion. The trophy, which became known as the
Grey Cup
, was not won by an IRFU club until the Hamilton Tigers captured the trophy in 1913. Following the 1915 season, the IRFU suspended competition because of
World War I
, and did not fully resume until 1920.
From 1925 until 1953, IRFU teams dominated Canadian football, winning 18 of the 26 Grey Cups its clubs contested in that timespan (the IRFU suspended operations from 1942 through 1944 because of
World War II
). During this period, the calibre of play in the IRFU was recognized as being on par with any league in North America. The Big Four attracted considerable interest in the
United States
and even had its games televised by the
National Broadcasting Company
for a time during the 1950s (in fact, these games were more widely available than their NFL counterparts). This interest eventually declined as the
National Football League
gained prominence and the
American Football League
rose in popularity. During this time, the IRFU became increasingly professionalized. However, in order to keep up the pretense of amateurism, players were usually paid under the table.
By the mid-1950s, the IRFU had dropped all pretense of amateurism, and it was clear that it was a far higher calibre competition than the ORFU (the Quebec union had faded from the scene in the early part of the century), the only purely amateur union still competing for the Grey Cup. Moreover, the
Western Interprovincial Football Union
had been gaining strength over the last two decades, and its level of play was almost on par with that of the IRFU. The WIFU's champion had faced the Big Four's champion in the Grey Cup final every season since 1945, and it proved capable of winning the Grey Cup on a regular basis during this decade. Following the 1954 season, the ORFU finally stopped challenging for the Grey Cup, thus making the game a contest between the champions of the IRFU in the East and the WIFU in the West. Although it was another four years before the amateurs were formally locked out of Grey Cup play, this marks the start of the modern era of Canadian football.
In 1956, the IRFU and WIFU agreed to form the
Canadian Football Council
. In 1958, the CFC withdrew from the CRU and renamed itself the
Canadian Football League
. The new league assumed control of the Grey Cup, though it had been the
de facto
professional championship for four years before then.
The IRFU changed its name to the
Eastern Football Conference
in 1960. In 1961, the EFC agreed to a partial interlocking schedule with what was known by then as the
Western Football Conference
. Although the EFC was part of the CFL, its merger with the WFC was only a partial merger for the next two decades. During this time, the conferences maintained considerable autonomy, much like
Major League Baseball
's two leagues operated during the 20th century. For example, the East had a different playoff format until 1973 and a shorter schedule until 1974. During this time, attendances increased substantially for most clubs and television revenue gained prominence and importance. By the 1980s, however, rising player salaries had caused considerable financial losses for some teams. In an effort to bolster the league's stability, the CFL decided to proceed with a complete merger of the two regional conferences.
East Division (1981?1994, 1996?present)
edit
In 1981, the CFL's two conferences agreed to a full merger and a full interlocking schedule. Although the EFC has carried on since that time as the CFL's East Division, full authority was now vested within the CFL. The decision to create a full interlocking schedule meant that the teams were playing fewer divisional games, consequently the league decided to add two extra divisional games per team, thus extending the schedule to 18 games per team starting in 1986.
The East Division has undergone major changes since the dissolution of the EFC. Following the 1981 season the
Montreal Alouettes
folded. They were refounded in time for the 1982 season as the
Montreal Concordes
. The new owners restored the Alouettes name in 1986, but this franchise folded shortly before the start of the 1987 regular season. Consequently, the
Winnipeg Blue Bombers
, the easternmost team in the West Division, were transferred to the East Division to keep the divisions equal in size. This led to the first "all-Western" Grey Cup in 1988 when the Blue Bombers won the East Division championship for the first time.
In 1994, the CFL decided to
expand further into the United States
after admitting the
Sacramento Gold Miners
as the first U.S. team a year earlier. This led to the addition of the two
American
-based teams in the East, the
Shreveport Pirates
and a team in
Baltimore
that would eventually be called the
Stallions
after the NFL successfully prevented the team from using the name "Colts". Baltimore would go on to win the East Division championship in 1994. For the 1995 season, all eight Canadian teams competed in the North Division, while the five American teams formed the South Division.
Prior to the 1996 season however, all of the American clubs disbanded. The owner of one, the Grey Cup champion Stallions, moved his organization to
Montreal
as the third and current incarnation of the Alouettes. However, while the Alouettes are now officially reckoned as having suspended operations from 1987 to 1995, they do not acknowledge their past as the Stallions. The pre-1987 divisional alignment was restored, only to see Winnipeg return to the East after one season when the
Ottawa Rough Riders
folded. The Blue Bombers returned to the West in 2002 after the
Ottawa Renegades
commenced play in the nation's capital. With the suspension of the Renegades in 2006, the Blue Bombers again were transferred to the East Division. With the East Division
Ottawa Redblacks
beginning play in 2014, the Blue Bombers moved back to the West Division again.
Prior to 1954, Eastern clubs dominated the Grey Cup. For most of the modern era, however, the West has generally been on an equal footing and in recent decades has often dominated the East in the regular season. From 1954 to 2016, the East won 27 Grey Cups and lost 35. This is not counting the 1995 season. Two of the East's Grey Cup wins were by the Blue Bombers, who have played in the West for most of their history.