50 years ago Canada went metric. In 1979 Ottawa’s intrasquad game was metric. Field was marked in metres (no 55), 1 metre off the ball, 3rd & centimeters, 1st half was 3 downs to make 10 metres, 2nd half was 4 downs to make 10 metres. The CFL scraped it. Not an April Fools Joke!

After winning the Grey Cup in '99 the TiCats went to celebrate with the Cup & NBA player Charles Barkley, in town for a game with Phoenix. The Cup was gone by closing time. The next morning as the TiCats were leaving for the airport, Barkley pulled up at their hotel with the Cup

Piffles Taylor lost an eye in the war, but returned to play for Regina. A crushing tackle vs Calgary in 1919 knocked his eye out. Players on hands and knees found his eye, he popped it back in and continued playing. Taylor Field & Taylor Trophy for west champs are named for him.

In 1953, Miss Grey Cup held the ball for Lester Pearson’s kickoff. Pearson played & coached football and was competitive. As he approached the ball she pulled her hand away resulting in a 6 yard kick. The two sat together but Pearson refused to talk to her for the entire game.

Kevin Griffin and Matt Deane left Toronto Aug 31 1960 to walk 4863 km to Vancouver for Grey Cup. If Griffin did the walk in shoes from a sponsor he would get a $10,000 scholarship for medical school and $5,000 cash to be split with Deane. They arrived in time for the game Nov 26

When artificial turf was installed at Empire Stadium in 1970 the BC Lions had to buy 100 pairs of turf cleats for the opposition. It was unfair for BC to have special turf cleats and not the opposition, and it was too expensive for a team to purchase turf cleats for only one game

Commissioner Halter was guest speaker at the Football Reporters breakfast. They failed to get him a gift but “Cactus” Jack Wells appeared with a beautiful oil painting. When Halter checked out, hotel security asked him why he had an oil painting taken from the hotel lobby.

King Charles will be in Canada next week. In 1970 as 21-year old Prince Charles, he visited North America for the first time. He attended the CFL All-Star Game at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa.

In 2008 the Buffalo Bills played in Toronto & the Toronto Star's poll was "CFL or NFL?" Results were CFL:57%, NFL:42% and the poll was removed. Later the paper posted final results of NFL:47%, CFL:40%, Not Sure:12%. Many noticed and accused the anti-CFL Star of fudging the poll.

In 2014, when laying new turf at Frank Clair stadium, a lucky 1976 silver dollar was buried at the 55 yard line as a tribute to the last Ottawa Grey Cup winning team. Ottawa went on to appear in three of the next four Grey Cup games, winning the Grey Cup championship in 2016.

'37 Grey Cup Winnipeg recovered a fumble and ran it for a touchdown taking the lead, but were called for no yards. Bomber fans never forgave ref Eddie Grant, insurance salesman from Winnipeg; he never refed again, clients cancelled insurance policies & he had to leave Manitoba.

The Canadian Football Research Society is a not-for-profit organization that has been founded to promote, develop, and encourage the study of the game of Canadian football. canadianfootballresearch.ca

In 1993 Canadian QB Bob Torrance got the start for TiCats over Don McPherson, a Black QB. McPherson said “No one believed a Canadian could compete with an American quarterback. Everyone just assumes he will fail. He knew exactly how it felt for me trying to make it in the NFL."

In the '50s Winnipeg voted against a team in BC because of the unbalanced schedule, revenue divided by 5 teams instead of 4, & travel costs. BC sold 8,000 season tickets & had the stadium but BC also had to pay $25,000 annually to subsidize travel costs for the other 4 teams.

The NFL threatened to suspend Joe Namath if he didn't sell his bar. He refused and said he would play in the CFL. Alex Webster, NYG coach said Namath was not mobile enough for the CFL. NYG/CFL QB Gary Wood said Namath did not have the arm strength to play on the wider CFL field.

The day after the '56 All Star game a plane crashed killing all 62 on board. Bud Grant & Rollie Miles changed to an earlier flight. Jackie Parker & Norm Kwong were also booked on the flight, but Parker decided to visit relatives and Kwong stayed to court the women he would marry

In 1952 the Argonauts were accused of throwing games. They won their 1st 5 games and were leading in the next 3 by large margins only to lose all 3. The Argos led Ottawa by 16 points and lost 25-21; led Hamilton by 12 and lost 27-18; and led Hamilton 16 to 1 and lost 25 to 16.

Hal Patterson refused a raise saying give it to the Canadian players. He returned his Hamilton contract unsigned with a note saying it was for too much money. His 338 yds receiving in a game is a record 70 years later. He retired with 2600 more receiving yds than anyone else.

In the '70s St Louis broadcaster Dan Kelly says St. Louis coaches were asked: who do you want if it's 4th down on the 5 & you need a TD? 1 said Joe Namath, 2 said Jim Brown, and 3 coaches: Don Coryell, Jim Champion, & Ray Willsey, said Jackie Parker. All had experience in Canada.

Ferragamo took the Rams to the 1980 Super Bowl, but the Alouettes offered him more than twice as much money. He couldn't adjust to the Canadian game with motion and an extra DB throwing 25 INTs & 7 TDs. He was replaced by Canadian QB Datillio and was back in the NFL the next year