1.
Canadian Football League
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The Canadian Football League is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football and its nine teams, which are located in nine separate cities, are divided into two divisions, the East Division, with four teams, and the West Division with five teams. As of 2016, the features a 20-week regular season. The CFL was officially founded on January 19,1958, the league was formed from a merger between the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union founded in 1907 and the Western Interprovincial Football Union founded in 1936. Rugby football began to be played in Canada in the 1860s, the CRFU was reorganized as the Canadian Rugby Union in 1891, and served as an umbrella organization for several provincial and regional unions. The Grey Cup was donated by Governor General Earl Grey in 1909 to the winning the Senior Amateur Football Championship of Canada. By that time, the sport as played in Canada had diverged markedly from its rugby origins, in 1956, the IRFU and WIFU formed a new umbrella organization, the Canadian Football Council. In 1958, the CFC left the CRU and became the Canadian Football League, as part of an agreement between the CRU and CFL, the CFL took possession of the Grey Cup, even though amateurs had not competed for it since 1954. The CRU remained the governing body for amateur play in Canada, initially, the two unions remained autonomous, and there was no intersectional play between eastern and western teams except at the Grey Cup final. This situation was analogous to how the American baseball leagues operated for years. The IRFU was renamed the Eastern Football Conference in 1960, while the WIFU was renamed the Western Football Conference in 1961, also in 1961, limited intersectional play was introduced. It was not until 1981 that the two agreed to a full merger, becoming the East and West Divisions of the CFL. With the merger came a full interlocking schedule of 16 games per season, Other team names had traditional origins. With rowing a national craze in the late 19th century, the Argonaut Rowing Club of Toronto formed a team for its members off-season participation. The football team name Toronto Argonauts still remains though it. After World War II, the two teams in Hamilton—the Tigers and the Flying Wildcats—merged both their organizations into the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, after the 1981 season, the Alouettes folded and were replaced the next year by a new franchise named the Concordes. In 1986 the Concordes were renamed the Alouettes to attract more fan support, the demise of the Alouettes forced the League to move its easternmost Western team, Winnipeg, into the East Division. In 1993, the league admitted its first United States-based franchise, after modest success, the league then expanded further in the U. S. in 1994 with the Las Vegas Posse, Baltimore Stallions, and Shreveport Pirates
2.
Canadian football
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In Canada, the term football may refer to Canadian football and American football collectively, or to either sport specifically, depending on context. The two sports have shared origins and are related but have significant differences. Rugby football in Canada originated in the early 1860s, and over time, active teams such as the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats have similar longevity. The CFL is the most popular and only major professional Canadian football league and its championship game, the Grey Cup, is one of Canadas largest sporting events, attracting a broad television audience, though it has been shrinking in recent years. In 2009, about 40% of Canadas population watched part of the game, in 2014, it was closer to 33%, great achievements in Canadian football are enshrined in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame located in Hamilton, Ontario. Other organizations across Canada perform senior league Canadian football during the summer, the first documented football match was a practice game played on November 9,1861, at University College, University of Toronto. One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was Sir William Mulock, a football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. The first written account of a game played was on October 15,1862 and it was between the First Battalion Grenadier Guards and the Second Battalion Scots Fusilier Guards resulting in a win by the Grenadier Guards 3 goals,2 rouges to nothing. In 1864, at Trinity College, Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, Frederick A. Bethune, the game gradually gained a following, with the Hamilton Football Club formed on November 3,1869. Montreal formed a team April 8,1872, Toronto was formed on October 4,1873, and this rugby-football soon became popular at Montreals McGill University. McGill challenged Harvard University to a game, in 1874 using a game of English rugby devised by the University of McGill. Later both the Ontario and Quebec Rugby Football Union were formed, and then the Interprovincial and Western Interprovincial Football Union, the CRFU reorganized into an umbrella organization forming the Canadian Rugby Union in 1891. The original forerunners to the current Canadian Football League, was established in 1956 when the IRFU and WIFU formed an umbrella organization, and then in 1958 the CFC left The CRFU to become the CFL. The Burnside rules closely resembling American football that were incorporated in 1903 by The ORFU, was an effort to distinguish it from a more rugby-oriented game, the rules were an attempt to standardize the rules throughout the country. The CIRFU, QRFU and CRU refused to adopt the new rules at first, the primary differences between the Canadian and American games stem from rule changes that the American side of the border adopted but the Canadian side did not. The Canadian field width was one rule that was not based on American rules, as the Canadian game was played in wider fields, initially an amateur competition, it eventually became dominated by professional teams in the 1940s and early 1950s. The Ontario Rugby Football Union, the last amateur organization to compete for the trophy, the move ushered in the modern era of Canadian professional football. Canadian football has mostly been confined to Canada, with the United States being the other country to have hosted high-level Canadian football games
3.
Montreal Alouettes
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The Montreal Alouettes are a 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 and last won the Grey Cup championship in 2010. Their home field is Percival Molson Memorial Stadium for the regular season, the original Alouettes team won four Grey Cups and were particularly dominant in the 1970s. After their collapse in 1982, they were immediately reconstituted under new ownership as the Montreal Concordes, after playing for four years as the Concordes, they revived the Alouettes name for the 1986 season. A second folding in 1987 led to a hiatus of CFL football in the city. The current Alouettes franchise was established in 1996 by the owners of the Baltimore Stallions, many players from the Stallions 1995 roster signed with the Alouettes and formed the core of the teams 1996 roster. The CFL considers all clubs that have played in Montreal as one franchise dating to 1946, the Alouettes had from 1996 to 2014 the CFLs longest active playoff streak, having missed the playoffs twice since returning to the league. The streak came to an end in 2015 and they have hosted a playoff game every year except 2001,2007,2013,2015 and 2016 and have never finished with fewer than six wins. Their only four losing seasons came in 2007,2013 and 2015 and 2016,2015 and 2016 marked the first time the team missed the playoffs in consecutive years since their re-activation. Major stars of the recent era include Mike Pringle, the CFL career leader in rushing yards, and quarterback Anthony Calvillo, the Alouettes are owned by American investment banker Robert Wetenhall. It is currently the only CFL team to have non-Canadian ownership, Jim Popp served as the teams general manager, his tenure with the franchise, which extended back to the Baltimore era, ended on November 7,2016. Founded, The original Montreal club was founded on April 8,1872, the original club was renamed as the Montreal Alouettes in 1946. However, the original Alouettes club ceased operations following the 1981 season and was replaced by a new team, the Montreal Concordes, the Concordes were rechristened the new Alouettes for the 1986 season, but ceased operations the day before the 1987 season was due to start. The current Montreal Alouettes franchise commenced play in 1996, uniform Colours, Blue, red, silver, white, and black Home Stadium, The Alouettes play at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium for the regular season, while they play at Olympic Stadium for playoff games. The Alouettes were first formed in 1946 by CFL hall of famer Lew Hayman along with businessmen Eric Cradock and they named themselves after Alouette, a work song about plucking the feathers from a skylark, which had become a symbol of the Québécois. They won their first Grey Cup championship in 1949, beating Calgary 28–15 led by quarterback Frank Filchock, from 1954 to 1956, they reached the Grey Cup in three straight years, but questionable defensive units led the Alouettes to defeat against the Edmonton Eskimos all three times. The team was purchased in 1954 by Ted Workman – and while the team continued to enjoy success, that all changed at the end of the 1960 season. To be more specific, the team was shaken by an announcement on November 10 – namely the trade of Hal Patterson and Sam Etcheverry to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for Bernie Faloney, Workman had concluded the deal without consulting with general manager Perry Moss
4.
Montreal
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Montreal, officially Montréal, is the most populous municipality in the Canadian province of Quebec and the 2nd-most populous in Canada as a whole. Originally called Ville-Marie, or City of Mary, it is believed to be named after Mount Royal, the city has a distinct four-season continental climate, with warm-to-hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In 2016, Montreal had a population of 1,704,694, Montreals metropolitan area had a population of 4,098,927 and a population of 1,958,257 in the urban agglomeration, with all of the municipalities on the Island of Montreal included. Legally a French-speaking city,60. 5% of Montrealers speak French at home,21. 2% speak English and 19. 8% speak neither, Montreal is one of the most bilingual cities in Quebec and Canada, with 56% of the population able to speak both official languages. Montreal is the second-largest primarily French-speaking city in the world after Paris, historically the commercial capital of Canada, it was surpassed in population and economic strength by Toronto in the 1970s. It remains an important centre of commerce, aerospace, finance, pharmaceuticals, technology, design, education, culture, tourism, gaming, film, Montreal was also named a UNESCO City of Design. In 2009, Montreal was named North Americas leading host city for international events, according to the 2009 preliminary rankings of the International Congress. According to the 2015 Global Liveability Ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit, in the 2017 edition of their Best Student Cities ranking, Quacquarelli Symonds ranked Montreal as the worlds best city to study abroad. Also, Montreal has 11 universities with 170,000 students enrolled, the Greater Montréal region has the highest number of university students per capita among all metropolitan areas in North America. It is the only Canadian city to have held the Summer Olympics, currently, the city hosts the Canadian Grand Prix of Formula One, the Montreal International Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs festival. In 2012, Montreal was ranked as a Beta+ world city, in Kanien’kéha, or Mohawk language, the island is called Tiohtià, ke Tsi or Ka-wé-no-te. In Anishinaabemowin, or Ojibwe language, the land is called Mooniyaang, though the city was first named by French colonizers Ville Marie, or City of Mary, its current name comes from Mount Royal, the triple-peaked hill in the heart of the city. The most popular theory is that the name derives from Mont Réal, Cartiers 1535 diary entry, naming the mountain, according to the Commission de toponymie du Québec and the Geographical Names Board of Canada, Canadian place names have only one official form. Thus, Montreal is officially spelled with an accent over the e in both English and French. In practice, this is limited to governmental uses. English-speaking Montrealers, including English-language media, regularly omit the accent when writing in English, archaeological evidence demonstrates that First Nations native people occupied the island of Montreal as early as 4,000 years ago. By the year AD1000, they had started to cultivate maize, within a few hundred years, they had built fortified villages. Archeologists have found evidence of their habitation there and at locations in the valley since at least the 14th century
5.
Grey Cup
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The Grey Cup is the name of both the championship game of the Canadian Football League and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing Canadian football. It is contested between the winners of the CFLs East and West Divisional playoffs and is one of Canadian televisions largest annual sporting events, the Toronto Argonauts have 16 championships, more than any other team. The latest, the 104th Grey Cup, took place in Toronto, Ontario, on November 27,2016, the trophy was commissioned in 1909 by the Earl Grey, then Canadas governor general, who originally hoped to donate it for the countrys senior amateur hockey championship. After the Allan Cup was later donated for that purpose, Grey instead made his trophy available as the Canadian Dominion Football Championship of Canadian football. The trophy has a silver chalice attached to a base on which the names of all winning teams, players. The Grey Cup has been broken on several occasions, stolen twice and it survived a 1947 fire that destroyed numerous artifacts housed in the same building. The Grey Cup was first won by the University of Toronto Varsity Blues, play was suspended from 1916 to 1918 due to the First World War and in 1919 due to a rules dispute. The game has typically been contested in an east versus west format since the 1920s, the Edmonton Eskimos formed the Grey Cups longest dynasty, winning five consecutive championships from 1978 to 1982. While the Stanley Cup was created in 1893 as the Canadian amateur hockey championship, Grey instead offered an award to the Dominion amateur rugby football championship beginning in 1909. He initially failed to follow through on his offer, the trophy was not ordered until two weeks prior to the first championship game. The first Grey Cup game was held on December 4,1909, the trophy was not ready for presentation following the game, and the Varsity Blues did not receive it until March 1910. They retained the trophy in the two years, defeating the Hamilton Tigers in 1910 and the Toronto Argonauts in 1911. The University of Toronto failed to reach the 1912 Grey Cup, the Varsity Blues refused to hand over the trophy on the belief they could keep it until they were defeated in a title game. They kept the trophy until 1914 when they were defeated by the Argonauts, Canadas participation in the First World War resulted in the cancellation of the championship from 1916 to 1918, during which time the Cup was forgotten. Montreal Gazette writer Bob Dunn claimed that the trophy was later rediscovered as one of the heirlooms of an employee of the Toronto trust company where it had been sent for storage. Competition finally resumed in 1920 with the 8th Grey Cup game and it was the University of Torontos fourth, and final, championship. Competition for the Grey Cup was limited to member unions of the CRU, the Western Canada Rugby Football Union joined in 1921, allowing the Edmonton Eskimos to challenge. Facing the Argonauts in the 9th Grey Cup, the Eskimos became the first western team –, the Argonauts entered the game with an undefeated record, having outscored their opposition 226 to 55 during the season
6.
Edmonton Eskimos
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The Edmonton Eskimos are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta, competing in the West Division of the Canadian Football League. The Eskimos play their games at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium and are the third-youngest franchise in the CFL. The Eskimos were founded in 1949, although there were clubs with the name Edmonton Eskimos as early as 1895 and this includes a three-peat between 1954 and 1956 and an unmatched five consecutive wins between 1978 and 1982, and most recently in 2015. The Eskimos hold a North American professional sports record by qualifying for the playoffs for 34 consecutive years between 1972 and 2005, Edmonton has had the most regular season division championships in the modern era with 21, with their most recent coming in 2015. The team has a rivalry with the Calgary Stampeders and are one of the three community owned teams currently operating in the CFL. Founded,1949, although other teams named the Edmonton Eskimos existed 1895 to 1923 and 1929 to 1939 Formerly known as, The Esquimaux 1897 to 1910 and this was once the most common type of ownership in the CFL. In 2006 the Ottawa Sun reported that shares cost $10 each and this contrasts with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, one of the other community owned teams in the CFL, who have offered shares to the public. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are the community owned team. Edmonton Eskimos, Inc. is governed by a board of directors. The board consists of a chairman, treasurer, secretary six directors, the clubs president and CEO is Len Rhodes, he is not currently a member of the board. The story of teams name back to stories in the press from at least 1903 and possibly as far back as 1892. It is a legacy of the rivalry between the cities of Edmonton and Calgary, the so-called Battle of Alberta. In the early years of competition between the cities, the press in each town used colourful nicknames to insult the rival teams home. Edmontonian writers called Calgary the cow camp, horse country, or the village beside the Bow. Likewise Calgarys responded with insults about Edmontons northern latitude and frigid weather, the name remained an unofficial nickname, however until the arrival in Edmonton of American baseball coach and sports promoter William Deacon White in 1907. White founded the Edmonton Eskimos baseball team in 1909, the football Eskimos in 1910, of the three, only the football teams name has survived. Edmonton played its first series of organized games with the formation of the Alberta Rugby Football Union in 1895, in 1897 the name Esquimaux was adopted. In 1910 the club was named the Edmonton Eskimos
7.
Toronto Argonauts
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The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. Based in Toronto, Ontario, the team was founded in 1873, the teams origins date back to a modified version of rugby football that emerged in North America in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The Argonauts played their games at Rogers Centre from 1989 until 2016 when the team moved to BMO Field. The Argonauts have won the Grey Cup a record 16 times and have appeared in the final 22 times, Most recently they defeated the Calgary Stampeders 35–22 at home in the 100th Grey Cup in 2012. The Argonauts hold the best winning percentage in the game and have the longest active winning streak in games in which they have appeared. The Argonauts have faced every current western CFL team at least once in the Grey Cup, the team was owned by the Argonaut Rowing Club for its first 83 years, and has been owned by a series of business interests since 1956. The Argonauts were a fixture on the Toronto sports scene for decades, in May 2015 it was announced that a consortium of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainments Larry Tanenbaum and Bell Canada would acquire the team. Given the length of history, dozens of players, coaches. Since the teams foundation in 1873, the Argonauts name has been in continuous use, the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta Braves franchises of Major League Baseball are older, but both teams have changed their name more than once, and the Braves have also changed cities. The Argonauts also claim to be the oldest professional team in North America. The claim is debatable, as the Hamilton Tigers date to 1869, given its nautical theme, the name Argonaut was adopted by a group of amateur rowers in Toronto in 1872. The Argonaut Rowing Club, which exists today, went on to found the football club with the same name a year later. Given their roots in a squad, the team is often referred to as the boatmen. In the 19th century, the most renowned rowing teams in the world were from the University of Oxford, the Toronto rowers, many of whom had associations with the English schools, adopted uniforms incorporating the light blue of Cambridge and the dark blue of Oxford. In turn, the footballers adopted the colours and the double blue would become synonymous with the team. Blue has become the traditional colour of top-level teams in Toronto, the teams other official colour is white. Its current helmet design features an Oxford blue background, with an Oxford blue and Cambridge blue round shield inscribed with a white, for most of the teams history, the logo featured some form of a boat, often incorporating a football. The first recorded game of what would become known as Canadian football was played in Toronto on November 9,1861, the game at the time was a modified version of English rugby and it gained popularity throughout the 1860s
8.
NBC
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The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcast television network that is the flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is part of the Big Three television networks, founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007. In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, and acquired General Electrics remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBC Universal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke, during a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had an outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ. This station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&Ts manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas. The Bell System, AT&Ts telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, the 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs. In an early example of chain or networking broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island, AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines. The early effort fared poorly, since the telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its network were incompatible with the companys primary goal of providing a telephone service. AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&Ts phone lines for network transmission, the divisions ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC officially started broadcasting on November 15,1926, WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On April 5,1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network and this was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network, also known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18,1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, and the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network, initially, the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. The Orange Network name was removed from use in 1936, at the same time, the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC also developed a network for shortwave radio stations, in 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building designed by architect Floyd Brown
