1983 CFL season

1983 CFL season
Playoffs
East Champions	Toronto Argonauts
West Champions	BC Lions
71st Grey Cup
Date	November 27, 1983
Champions	Toronto Argonauts
← 1982 CFL seasons 1984 →

The 1983 CFL season is considered to be the 30th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 26th Canadian Football League season.

CFL News in 1983[]

The CFL re-signed with Carling O'Keefe Breweries to another record television contract worth $33 million to cover a three-year period from 1983 to 1986.

The BC Lions opened their new stadium, BC Place this season, and with it, introduced shorter endzones to its stadium (20 yards in length as opposed to the then-standard 25 yards). This was because the floor of the stadium was too short to accommodate the 25 yard endzones; the shorter endzone length would become standard in the CFL three years later, in 1986.

The league's attendance levels reached an all-time high for all football games with 2,856,031. The Grey Cup game between the Toronto Argonauts and the BC Lions was played in front of 59,345 football fans at BC Place Stadium (the first lion gross gate).

In addition, CBC, CTV and Radio-Canada's coverage of the Grey Cup game attracted the largest viewing audience in television history for a Canadian sports program with 8,118,000.

The Toronto Argonauts won their first Grey Cup Championship since 1952. This would be the last season all three of the CFL's Ontario-based teams qualified for the playoffs until the 2015 season.

Terry Greer set a pro football record for most receiving yards with 2,003.

Regular season standings[]

Final regular season standings[]

Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, PF = Points For, PA = Points Against, Pts = Points

West Division

Team	GP	W	L	T	PF	PA	Pts
BC Lions	16	11	5	0	477	326	22
Winnipeg Blue Bombers	16	9	7	0	412	402	18
Edmonton Eskimos	16	8	8	0	450	377	16
Calgary Stampeders	16	8	8	0	425	378	16
Saskatchewan Roughriders	16	5	11	0	360	536	10

East Division

Team	GP	W	L	T	PF	PA	Pts
Toronto Argonauts	16	12	4	0	452	328	24
Ottawa Rough Riders	16	8	8	0	384	424	16
Hamilton Tiger-Cats	16	5	10	1	389	498	11
Montreal Concordes	16	5	10	1	367	447	11

• Bold text means that they have clinched the playoffs.
• BC and Toronto have first round byes.

Grey Cup playoffs[]

The Toronto Argonauts are the 1983 Grey Cup champions, defeating the BC Lions, 18–17, in front of their home crowd at Vancouver's BC Place Stadium. This was Toronto's first championship in 31 years, ending the league's longest drought at that time. The Argonauts' Joe Barnes (QB) was named the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player on Offence and Carl Brazley (DB) was named Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player on Defence. The Lions' Rick Klassen (DT) was named the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian.

Playoff bracket[]

November 13: Division Semifinals

November 20: Division Finals

November 27: 71st Grey Cup @ BC Place Stadium – Vancouver, BC

E3

Hamilton Tiger-Cats

36

E3

Hamilton Tiger-Cats

33

E1

Toronto Argonauts

41

E2

Ottawa Rough Riders

31

E1

Toronto Argonauts

18

W1

BC Lions

17

W2

Winnipeg Blue Bombers

21

W3

Edmonton Eskimos

22

W1

BC Lions

39

W2

Winnipeg Blue Bombers

49

CFL Leaders[]

• CFL Passing Leaders
• CFL Rushing Leaders
• CFL Receiving Leaders^[1]

1983 CFL All-Stars[]

Special teams[]

• P/K – Lui Passaglia, BC Lions

1983 Eastern All-Stars[]

Special teams[]

• P/K – Bernie Ruoff, Hamilton Tiger-Cats

1983 Western All-Stars[]

Special teams[]

• P/K – Lui Passaglia, BC Lions
• P/K – Trevor Kennerd, Winnipeg Blue Bombers

1983 CFL Awards[]

• CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award – Warren Moon (QB), Edmonton Eskimos
• CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian Award – Paul Bennett (DB), Winnipeg Blue Bombers
• CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award – Greg Marshall (DE), Ottawa Rough Riders
• CFL's Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman Award – Rudy Phillips (OG), Ottawa Rough Riders
• CFL's Most Outstanding Rookie Award – Johnny Shepherd (RB), Hamilton Tiger-Cats
• CFLPA's Outstanding Community Service Award – Henry Waszczuk (C), Hamilton Tiger-Cats
• CFL's Coach of the Year – Cal Murphy, Winnipeg Blue Bombers

References[]