Football Canada

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Football Canada
Formation1880
TypeNational Sport Organization
HeadquartersOttawa, Ontario
Membership
Paid by individual, team and/or league
Official languages
English and French
President
Jim Mullin[1]
Key people
Shannon Donovan (Executive Director),
Websitefootballcanada.com Edit this at Wikidata
Football Canada national team uniforms since 2016

Football Canada is the governing body for amateur gridiron football in Canada.

Football Canada focuses primarily its own Canadian form of the game, and is currently the world's only national governing body for Canadian football. However, it is also Canada's representative member of the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), the world's governing body for American football. In this capacity, it organizes a national team which competes in IFAF competitions using American rules.

Football Canada is headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario.

History[]

1880–1955, Canadian Rugby Union[]

The organization, which is now known as Football Canada, was founded on June 12, 1880, as the Canadian Rugby Football Union, revived on February 7, 1884, and re-organized as the Canadian Rugby Union on December 19, 1891.

The CRU was founded to govern a sport which at the time had rules similar to the rugby football being played in the United Kingdom. In 1909, Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey, Governor General of Canada, donated a trophy to the CRU to be awarded for the Rugby Football Championship of Canada. This trophy became known as the Grey Cup.

Even by this time, however, the rules being played in Canada were vastly different from the rules used in countries that were part of the International Rugby Board (IRB). In the years that followed, the CRU made numerous rule changes that resulted in a game reasonably similar to the American one but unrecognizable to a rugby union enthusiast.

Despite the divergence, the sport continued to be referred to as rugby for many years. The CRU did not change its name despite the obvious confusion (rugby union was known as English rugby in Canada). By the 1940s, however, another development was to cause further changes to the CRU's mandate. It was now clear that two of its member leagues, the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union in Eastern Canada and the Western Interprovincial Football Union in the West were far more competitive than other circuits.

1956–1967, shift to amateur governance[]

By the 1950s, the two major unions had become openly professional, and in 1956 formed the Canadian Football Council (CFC) as an umbrella organization. In 1958, the CFC seceded from the CRU and became the Canadian Football League, which was solely awarded the Grey Cup (though the amateurs had effectively been locked out since 1954). During the CFL's Grey Cup meetings in November 1966, the CRU transferred its ownership of the Grey Cup to a CFL trusteeship. In exchange, the CRU received $50,000 per year to assist the development of amateur football.

As an organization with no direct jurisdiction over the professional clubs and having become a distinct sport from rugby union by this time, the CRU changed its name to the Canadian Amateur Football Association (CAFA) in 1967. The CAFA changed its name again to Football Canada in 1986. In French, its name had long been Football Canada.

Sandwich Sabres football.jpg

Provincial members[]

  • British Columbia Provincial Football Association
  • Football Alberta
  • Football Saskatchewan
  • Football Manitoba
  • Ontario Football Alliance
  • Football Quebec
  • Football New Brunswick
  • Football Prince Edward Island
  • Football Newfoundland and Labrador
  • Football Nova Scotia

Associate members[]

  • Canadian Football League
  • Canadian Football Officials Association
  • U Sports
  • Canadian Junior Football League

National championships[]

  • Football Canada Cup
  • Flag Football National Championships
  • 6 Nations Challenge
  • Women's Challenge Cup

National teams[]

Men's

  • Junior National Team
  • Senior Flag Football National Team

Women's

  • Women's National Team
  • Senior Flag Football National Team

Former national teams

  • Senior National Men's Team

International Bowl series[]

First played in 2014, the annual International Bowl series is a collaboration between Football Canada and USA Football featuring a series of exhibition games between the rival football nations in Texas in January and February. The event built on the previous International Bowl (2010 – 2013) format of Team USA vs. Team World.

Canada's under-18 team for the International Bowl is selected from the top players and coaches at the prior summer's Football Canada Cup.

National Coaching Certification Program[]

Football Canada offers coaches training through the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) for flag, touch and tackle football.

NCCP streams

  • Community Sport
  • Competition-Introduction
  • Competition-Development

Safe Contact[]

As part of its NCCP program, Football Canada's Safe Contact module teaches safe contact tackling and blocking as well as concussion education. In 2014, the organization partnered with the CFL to further refine the program.[2]

Champions prior to 1909[]

These are the CRU champions before the dedication of the Grey Cup.

  • 1892 – Osgoode Hall (Ontario) defeated Montreal (Quebec)
  • 1893 – Queen's University (Ontario) defeated Montreal (Quebec)
  • 1894 – Ottawa University (Quebec) defeated Queen's University (Ontario)
  • 1895 – Toronto University (Ontario) defeated Montreal (Quebec)
  • 1896 – Ottawa University (Quebec) defeated Toronto University (Ontario)
  • 1897 – Ottawa University (Quebec) defeated Hamilton (Ontario)
  • 1898 – Ottawa (Ontario) defeated Toronto University (Intercollegiate), Ottawa (Ontario) defeated Ottawa University (Quebec)
  • 1899 – No game.
  • 1900 – Ottawa (Ontario) defeated Brockville (Quebec)
  • 1901 – Ottawa University (Quebec) defeated Argonauts (Ontario)
  • 1902 – Ottawa (Ontario) defeated Ottawa University (Quebec)
  • 1903 – No game.
  • 1904 – No game.
  • 1905 – Toronto University (Intercollegiate) defeated Ottawa (Quebec)
  • 1906 – Hamilton (Ontario) defeated McGill University (Intercollegiate)
  • 1907 – Montreal (Interprovincial) defeated Peterborough (Ontario)
  • 1908 – Hamilton (Interprovincial) defeated Toronto University (Intercollegiate)

The 1909 game was the first game for the Grey Cup. See the article 'List of Grey Cup champions' for the complete Grey Cup listing.

Source: Ottawa Citizen, November 28, 1910, page 8.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ http://footballcanada.com/mullin-elected-as-new-president-of-football-canada/
  2. ^ http://SafeContact.ca

External links[]

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