Flutie Freezes as Edmonton Defeats Calgary in Frigid, Snowy 1993 Western Final

Canadian football in November can be cold - especially when played on the Prairies. Bone-chilling temperatures, coupled with blowing snow, made the 1993 Western Final at McMahon Stadium between the Calgary Stampeders and the Edmonton Eskimos one of those games where the weather might have played a bigger role in the game than the players on the field. Coverage of the 1993 Western Final in the Calgary Herald (22 November 1993) Led by marquee quarterback Doug Flutie, the Stampeders entered […]

https://canadianfootballhistory.ca/2025/11/05/flutie-freezes-as-edmonton-defeats-calgary-in-frigid-snowy-1993-western-final/

Portland Hosts Fast Break CFL Football, Precursor to CFL USA Expansion

In 1992, the Canadian Football League was looking to grow. Larry Smith was appointed the CFL’s new commissioner with a mandate to expand the CFL. Of course, Montreal and Halifax were high on Smith’s list of potential sites. But so, too, were several cities south of the border. One of these cities was Portland, Oregon. Located in the northwestern United States, Portland was a mid-sized city with a suitable stadium and a credible ownership group with the needed capital to both pay for and […]

https://canadianfootballhistory.ca/2025/10/01/portland-hosts-fast-break-cfl-football-precursor-to-cfl-usa-expansion/

Sacramento Gold Miners in a Wild West Shoot Out

Source: The Sacramento Bee, 17 July 1993, page 17. In 1993, the CFL expanded into the United States with the addition of the Sacramento Gold Miners. Here is an ad that appeared in the Sacramento Bee hyping the Gold Miners' home opener at Hornet Field vs. the Calgary Stampeders. The ad features a comparison of Sacramento quarterback David Archer to Calgary quarterback Doug Flutie. Calgary won the game 38-36 in front of a crowd of 20,082.

https://canadianfootballhistory.ca/2024/11/28/sacramento-gold-miners-in-a-wild-west-shoot-out/

Sacramento Falls in Love with the CFL

That was the headline in my hometown's newspaper, the Hamilton Spectator, after the CFL’s debut in Sacramento, California. I became a CFL fan in the early 1990s. It was a tumultuous time for the Canadian Football League. Some teams across the country were on the verge of collapse. Several others were struggling to stay afloat. Against this backdrop, the CFL opted to add teams in the United States. The benefits of U.S. expansion were two-fold. First, expansion fees could bring in some […]

https://canadianfootballhistory.ca/2025/06/11/sacramento-falls-in-love-with-the-cfl/