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- Canada shares several major professional sports leagues with the United States. Canadian teams in these leagues include seven franchises in the National Hockey League, as well as three Major League Soccer teams and one team in each of Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_in_Canada
The Canadian Football League (CFL), which features teams based in 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 ...
Nov 12, 2018 · According to Hasbro, about 100 million people worldwide play Yahtzee on a regular basis. Other games invented by Canadians include Trivial Pursuit (1982), Balderdash (1984), Scruples (1984) and Pictionary (1986).
Jun 20, 2024 · Canada qualified for the Copa America 2024 the hard way after coming through a playoff against Trinidad and Tobago. Here's who they will face and when in the USA.
- Overview
- Football in Canada
The gridiron football played in Canada closely resembles the U.S. game, but it developed independently, and, overshadowed by ice hockey, it never achieved equal national importance.
Canadian football’s earliest history remains uncertain. It is generally agreed that rugby came to Canada with British soldiers early in the 19th century, and games were reported in the Toronto Globe as early as 1859. Students at the University of Toronto were playing football by the early 1860s, but it was clubs in Quebec and Ontario, rather than universities as in the United States, that led the way in developing the sport. Several of these clubs formed the Foot Ball Association of Canada in 1873, adopting Rugby Union rules in 1875. This initial association collapsed in 1877, to be followed by the first of the Canadian Rugby Football Unions in 1880; the final one, the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU), formed in 1891. Provincial unions were likewise formed in Ontario and Quebec in 1883, but football developed later in the West, with the Western Canadian Rugby Football Union not forming until 1911. The top senior clubs—the Big Four of Quebec and Ontario (Ottawa, Montreal, Hamilton, and Toronto), together with the five top Western clubs (Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, Calgary, Edmonton, and British Columbia)—eventually formed the major football organization in Canada, the professional Canadian Football League.
The Grey Cup, named for Governor-General Earl Grey, was first awarded in 1909, with college and club teams alike competing. Over time, the Grey Cup became Canada’s professional championship, as well as a weeklong festival and the premier single sporting event in the country.
The CRU became the umbrella organization for all the football unions, including the Canadian Intercollegiate Rugby Football Union, which was formed by eight universities in 1897 in reaction to the growing professionalism among the top senior clubs. In addition to the championship for senior clubs, the CRU sponsored an intermediate championship beginning in 1894 and a junior championship beginning in 1908.
No clear boundaries between intercollegiate and club football, or even amateur and professional, were drawn in Canada for several decades, nor were football’s commercial possibilities realized for some time. Unlike U.S. football, early Canadian football was a game for the players rather than the spectators. The University of Toronto’s victory over the Parkdale Canoe Club for the initial Grey Cup, for example, drew 3,807 fans and generated gross revenues of $2,616.40—at a time when top U.S. university teams were playing before 50,000 spectators and Yale was earning more than $1 million from football.
Developing a uniform set of rules in Canada was far more difficult than in the United States. The U.S. model was a powerful influence that was resisted by those who desired to preserve the Canadian-ness of Canadian football. Though clinging to certain rugby features, the Canadian game was gradually "Americanized" by U.S. coaches such as Frank ("Shag") Shaughnessy at McGill University (1912–29) and by pressure from Western clubs, which were more open to U.S. influence and to professionalism. The legalization of the forward pass in 1931 led clubs, particularly in the West, to seek U.S. players skilled at the passing game, to whom was offered local employment in the midst of the Great Depression rather than direct payments.
The gridiron football played in Canada closely resembles the U.S. game, but it developed independently, and, overshadowed by ice hockey, it never achieved equal national importance.
Canadian football’s earliest history remains uncertain. It is generally agreed that rugby came to Canada with British soldiers early in the 19th century, and games were reported in the Toronto Globe as early as 1859. Students at the University of Toronto were playing football by the early 1860s, but it was clubs in Quebec and Ontario, rather than universities as in the United States, that led the way in developing the sport. Several of these clubs formed the Foot Ball Association of Canada in 1873, adopting Rugby Union rules in 1875. This initial association collapsed in 1877, to be followed by the first of the Canadian Rugby Football Unions in 1880; the final one, the Canadian Rugby Union (CRU), formed in 1891. Provincial unions were likewise formed in Ontario and Quebec in 1883, but football developed later in the West, with the Western Canadian Rugby Football Union not forming until 1911. The top senior clubs—the Big Four of Quebec and Ontario (Ottawa, Montreal, Hamilton, and Toronto), together with the five top Western clubs (Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, Calgary, Edmonton, and British Columbia)—eventually formed the major football organization in Canada, the professional Canadian Football League.
The Grey Cup, named for Governor-General Earl Grey, was first awarded in 1909, with college and club teams alike competing. Over time, the Grey Cup became Canada’s professional championship, as well as a weeklong festival and the premier single sporting event in the country.
The CRU became the umbrella organization for all the football unions, including the Canadian Intercollegiate Rugby Football Union, which was formed by eight universities in 1897 in reaction to the growing professionalism among the top senior clubs. In addition to the championship for senior clubs, the CRU sponsored an intermediate championship beginning in 1894 and a junior championship beginning in 1908.
No clear boundaries between intercollegiate and club football, or even amateur and professional, were drawn in Canada for several decades, nor were football’s commercial possibilities realized for some time. Unlike U.S. football, early Canadian football was a game for the players rather than the spectators. The University of Toronto’s victory over the Parkdale Canoe Club for the initial Grey Cup, for example, drew 3,807 fans and generated gross revenues of $2,616.40—at a time when top U.S. university teams were playing before 50,000 spectators and Yale was earning more than $1 million from football.
Developing a uniform set of rules in Canada was far more difficult than in the United States. The U.S. model was a powerful influence that was resisted by those who desired to preserve the Canadian-ness of Canadian football. Though clinging to certain rugby features, the Canadian game was gradually "Americanized" by U.S. coaches such as Frank ("Shag") Shaughnessy at McGill University (1912–29) and by pressure from Western clubs, which were more open to U.S. influence and to professionalism. The legalization of the forward pass in 1931 led clubs, particularly in the West, to seek U.S. players skilled at the passing game, to whom was offered local employment in the midst of the Great Depression rather than direct payments.
- Michael Oriard
American football? Canadians introduced the U.S. to a new game that borrowed a lot from rugby. The Americans loved it, and so we helped them tweak the rules into that thing they now air...
Despite being popular in two countries that neighbor each other the rules of Canadian and American gridiron football have notable differences and each has its own unique identity. Here is a brief overview of how the two leagues are similar, how they are different, and the unique history of the biggest football leagues in each country.
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Jul 1, 2015 · Canadian football's version of the Super Bowl is called the Grey Cup. The current TV deal, first signed in 2013 and recently extended, is double the previous agreement. And teams have seen their...
