Month: July 2021

When I think of Canadian pro football teams that played by American rules, the Montreal Machine always comes to mind.

Maybe it’s because I was at Legion Field and saw them defeat the Birmingham Fire, 20-5, on opening weekend of the World League of American Football back in 1991. Or maybe it’s because when Montreal originally had a pro football team that played by American rules, I was only 3-years-old.

The Machine was, in fact, 27 years late to the party because Quebec’s largest city had a franchise competing in a league that used American rules way back in 1964.

And the history of the Quebec Rifles – who spent only one campaign in Montreal before becoming the Toronto Rifles – is short but interesting.

After three seasons the United Football League had established itself as a quality minor league and decided to expand into Canada, giving fans north of the border an American-rules team to call their own. While not competing directly with the Canadian Football League and fans of the Montreal Alouettes, the team wanted to make a splash and did just that by hiring former Als quarterback Sam “The Rifle” Etcheverry as head coach. Already a CFL legend, Etcheverry was a six-time all-star and had set numerous passing records in the CFL. His coaching staff – Frank Filchock, George Brancato and Herb Trawick – also had ties to the Alouettes.

They even nicknamed the team the Rifles in honor of Etcheverry.

“Sure, we were thinking of publicity when we made those appointments,” Quebec general manager J.I. Albrecht told The Gazette of Montreal. “But we also think we’ve put together a good staff. Sam is going to go right from the player ranks to head coach’s job. The only other quarterback who did that was Norm Van Brocklin, but I think he’ll do as good a job as Van Brocklin.

“Frank Filchock has had plenty of coaching experience and he’ll look after the defense. Herb Trawick will be the line coach. I’ve watched his technique and he rates with the best. George Brancato, who has a good football mind, will be in charge of the defensive secondary.”

Albrecht also wanted football aficionados in Montreal to know the quality of play would be solid.

“It’s not a bush league,” Albrecht said. “There are a lot of good football players in it and I think fans are going to be pleasantly surprised by the kind of football they play.”

The UFL already had working agreements with NFL and AFL teams, and developed one with the CFL in 1964 with Quebec getting first shot at cuts from Montreal, the Ottawa Rough Riders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Calgary Stampeders.

 “There are 3,000 college footballers graduating each year and the major teams only take three or four each,” UFL commissioner George Gareff said. “There’s a wealth of material wasted with no place to go.”

The team played at 13,000-seat Delormier Stadium – home of the Alouettes from 1946-53 – and the expectation was that the local ties would help the Rifles be a big success at the gate.

And since fans were accustomed to cheering for Canadian players, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce linebacker Phil Chiarella was the first homegrown star to sign with the Rifles.

Yet despite fullback Joe Williams rushing for 835 yards and tallying a league-leading 18 touchdowns and quarterback John Henry Jackson throwing for 11 more, Quebec stumbled to a 5-9 record and averaged 5,950 fans per outing. Attendance wasn’t bad, but not nearly good enough to escape the shadow of the Als.

Two days after the season ended, team co-owner Hy Katz said the club would definitely be back in Montreal in 1965, although it might be in another league.

“We may not operate in the same league next year,” Katz told The Gazette. “Any club is at liberty to leave the United League and I guess we would be willing to forfeit the $7,500 franchise fee.

In December the 34-year-old Etcheverry signed a two-year contract extension to remain as coach and hinted he might also be behind center in 1965.

“It was really tempting for me to go in there and play (in 1964), especially for a new coach,” he said to the Ottawa Citizen. “But I realize you can’t do that and have a confident man on the field. He has to be his own boss and do his own thinking.”

In February, 1965, however, the team officially relocated to Toronto and joined the new Continental Football League. On March 1 Etcheverry resigned, saying he had no interest in following the team out of Montreal, and on May 4 Leo Cahill – a former Alouettes assistant coach – took the reins.

After the move the team did much better on the field (11-3 and COFL runners-up in 1965 and 9-5 in 1966) and at the box office (7,066 fans per game at Maple Leaf Stadium in 1965 and 8,985 at Varsity Stadium in 1966). But in April, 1967, Cahill was signed away by the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts, and the Rifles (under new coach Jackie Parker) made it through just four games that season before folding with a 1-3 record.

As for Montreal, its American football experiment continued with the Montreal Beavers – who began as the Indianapolis Warriors of the UFL. They played two years in the COFL (1966-67) before folding prior to the start of the 1968 season.

Just some food for thought the next time you think of Canadian football teams that played by American rules.

Man, did I ever go down a rabbit hole.

In an effort to write an alternative football column for your amusement, I wound up in a state of bemusement – all because I wanted to pay tribute to the United Football League of 1961-64. And I still managed to do that, but not before almost losing the plot after discovering that its inception ushered in a new era of relevance in minor league football.

Anyway, let’s follow the bunny …

When it comes to the modern gridiron game, the American Football League was the first “alternative” to the NFL. But a year after the AFL played its inaugural season, a smaller circuit gave professional players a more modest alternative to the bigger leagues.

The United Football League (not to be confused with the 2009-12 league with the same name) was a nice landing spot for near-miss gridders who hoped to work their way up to the NFL or AFL. Announced on April 8, 1961, and playing regular season games just five months later, the UFL was designed as a bridge league and unapologetic about that status. While the minor league model had been a relatively successful venture in the early days of tackle football, it had fallen out of favor by the late 1940s.

The American Football Conference (1959-61) had aspired to give it a reboot, but was strictly semi-pro its first two seasons and was overshadowed by the UFL in its final campaign.

Commissioner George Gareff said the league’s goals were to allow fans in UFL cities a chance to see professional football with professional talent, and provide players with proven or potential ability “that extra seasoning, physical conditioning and training needed to attain player status in the major football circuits.”

“We don’t expect to make money, but believe there is a definite need for our type of league,” Gareff told the Associated Press. “Call it kind of a farm system, if you like, but I’m sure we’ll give the fans a good brand of football.”

When the UFL debuted, it featured the Akron Pros, Cleveland Bulldogs, Columbus Colts (which bolted from the AFC), Grand Rapids Blazers, Indianapolis Warriors and Louisville Raiders.

“When a National Football League team starts making its final cuts, the difference between the players kept and the ones cut loose is small, indeed,” Gareff said in an interview with the Akron Beacon Journal. “So there are plenty of top-flight players available – players who would like to give the pros a second fling.”

Franchise fees were $2,500; a $25,000 season performance bond was set; and $5,000 in travel money had to be paid in advance. A share of stock in a team was available for $25.

Each club had 30-man rosters and a $15,000 payroll, and players were paid $50 per game. By way of comparison, that translates to $454.34 today or roughly $4,540 per 10-game season. Considering the median income of American families was $5,700 in 1961, this was far more than semi-pro pay.

“I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised at the brand of football our league will offer,” Gareff told United Press International. “We don’t say we’re in the same league with the National or American football leagues, but we’re certainly a cut above the ordinary semi-pro leagues.”

By the time the first season ended the UFL was successful enough to grow by two franchises for 1962 (including a Chicago entry) and increase the regular season from 10 games to 12.

But this time there would be competition as the Atlantic Coast Football League was founded in March, 1962. Teams announced were to be located in Paterson, Franklin, Newark and Hammonton, New Jersey; Mount Vernon and Utica, New York; Providence, Rhode Island; Charlestown, Quincy and Holyoke, Massachusetts; Portland, Maine; Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; and possibly Baltimore.

And instead of $50 per game for players, ACFL officials were promising $100.

When the UFL rivals hit the field later that year they actually started with just six teams (Portland, Paterson, Providence, Stamford, Connecticut, Ansonia, Connecticut, and Frankfort, New York) but established themselves as a legitimate second-tier league.

(The 1962 season also saw the birth of the Midwest Football League, a strictly semi-pro outfit with just four teams – all in Michigan. But keep the MFL in the back of your mind because it wound up making a little noise before it was done).

The UFL contracted to six teams in 1963 but was back to eight in 1964, with the addition of the Quebec Rifles giving it an international flavor. (More on that team in an upcoming piece).

The ACFL, meanwhile, doubled in size in 1963 – adding major markets Baltimore and Pittsburgh to a 12-team lineup – and fielded 14 teams in 1964, including Boston and Atlanta.

In 1964 officials from the UFL, ACFL, New England Football League, Southern Pro League, Central States League and Midwest Football League decided to form the American Association of Minor Football Leagues in an effort to strengthen all lower leagues and ultimately set up a national championship, although nothing really came of it.

And there were hits and misses in both the UFL and ACFL, with several teams folding and/or moving and others simply failing to attract interest in their markets. So instead of continuing the battle for minor league supremacy for another season, some members of both leagues decided it was time to combine resources and aim higher. With the UFL folding outright and five clubs jumping the ACFL ship, a brand new, 10-team league was formed.

It was announced on February 6, 1965, and officials of what would soon be christened the Continental Football League said instead of feeding the NFL and AFL, the COFL would fight them.

“This will not be a minor league,” Alex Schoenbaum, formerly of the UFL and chairman of the league’s executive committee, told AP. “Ours will be a league stretching from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. We are throwing away salary restrictions and plan to go big-time all the way.

“We are dealing with men able to finance big budgets, such as those in the National and American leagues. We’ll bid for top player talent. We’ll go for big crowds and national television.”

The leftovers of the defunct UFL joined a team from Omaha to form the Professional Football League of America, while the ACFL regrouped and vowed to play on. And it did, lasting until 1973.

The North American Football League also showed up in 1965 with hopes of growing into an NFL farm system league, but made its biggest waves in 1966 Commissioner Donald T. Loy sent a directive to teams demanding they institute “scoring caps” to prevent blowout games. The NAFL was out of business by November of that year.

The Continental League, which never achieved major league status, absorbed teams from the North Pacific Football League, PFLA and Texas Football League during its run, with its final season played in 1969. When it called it quits, the Jersey Jays, Indianapolis Capitols, Norfolk Neptunes and Orlando Panthers applied for membership in the ACFL.

But wait – as the screaming man on the television commercial says – there’s more! The Seaboard Football League (1971-74) also paid decent per game money to its players, with some quarterbacks (including minor league legend King Corcoran) earning more than $500 per game. It was born by cobbling together teams from the Interstate Football League, Mason-Dixon League and eventually ACFL clubs looking for a home after that league folded.

And remember the little ol’ Midwest Football League? It outlived them all, playing through the 1979 season. And while it was mostly a revolving door, semi-pro league with a shoestring budget and franchises coming and going, in 1973 three of its teams had working relationships with NFL teams and the big league agreed to pay $1,000 for each player it plucked from the MFL.

Overall, minor league football had a pretty good run in the 1960s and early 70s. And even though the ACFL and Continental League are better remembered – and remembered more fondly – the United Football League deserves a great deal of credit for opening the floodgates and ensuring that playing days were paying days for more football players.

Sorry to take so long getting to the point, but it wasn’t easy climbing out of that rabbit hole …