Harman Patil (Editor)

1994 CFL season

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Start date
  
November 12, 1994

Champions
  
BC Lions

Date
  
27 November 1994

West Champions
  
BC Lions1994-11-20

Champion
  
BC Lions

Site
  
BC Place

Duration
  
July 6, 1994 – November 6, 1994

East Champions
  
Baltimore CFLers1994-11-20

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1995 CFL season, 1993 CFL season

1994 cfl season opener expansion to the united states


The 1994 Canadian Football League season is considered to be the 41st season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 37th Canadian Football League season.

Contents

Expansion

The CFL admitted three more United States-based teams with the Las Vegas Posse, the Shreveport Pirates and the Baltimore Stallions – making it 12 teams in total, six in each division. The Baltimore team was to be called the Baltimore Colts, but the Colts name was revoked due to a successful trademark infringement lawsuit filed by the Indianapolis Colts, and they played the entire season as the "Baltimore CFLers". The new teams started play in 1994, with Las Vegas joining the Sacramento Gold Miners in the West Division, and Baltimore and Shreveport joining the East Division.

The expansion required the League to alter its season structure. For the first of only two seasons since 1980 (the other being the following year's season), CFL teams were not scheduled to travel to every other stadium in the League over the course of the season. Instead, CFL teams played each team in their own division twice, two teams in the other division twice and each of the remaining four teams in the other division once. The identity of the two inter-Divisional opponents to be played twice was determined by the previous season's regular season standing, with teams finishing first and third playing first and third from the other division twice, second and fourth place teams playing second and fourth from the other division twice and "fifth" and "sixth" place teams playing "fifth" and "sixth" from the other division twice. Since Sacramento finished fifth in 1993, and since the other three U.S. expansion teams were deemed "fifth" and "sixth" place for the purposes of determining the 1994 schedule, this format ensured that the U.S. teams all played one another twice for the 1994 season.

Ownership changes

In February, Bruce Firestone purchased the Ottawa Rough Riders from the Glieberman family, clearing the way for the Gliebermans to assume the Shreveport Pirates.

In May, the JLL Broadcast Group purchased the Toronto Argonauts after John Candy died (Candy had put his stake in the team up for sale hours before he died) and Bruce McNall was arrested on fraud charges.

Uniform changes

The Ottawa Rough Riders unveiled a new logo based on a head profile of a mustached lumberjack. Their colours were also updated with light navy replacing black and the addition of metallic gold, red was kept.

New logos and uniforms also were designed for the expansion teams in Baltimore, Las Vegas and Shreveport. The Shreveport Pirates' team colours were purple, silver, orange and black with a side profile of a pirate's head inside a delta. The Las Vegas Posse chose a simpler logo and colour choice. The logo was a sheriff's tin star with "LV" imposed on it. Their colours were black and desert sand. Baltimore adopted a color scheme that added silver to the Colts' traditional colors of blue and white, as well as a stylized horse's head logo. Despite the team being unable to use the "Colts" name, it continued using the logo and colours for the entire season as well as the following season, by which time owner Jim Speros had settled on "Stallions" as his team's official nickname.

Game records set

In a July 14, 1994, matchup of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Edmonton Eskimos, Matt Dunigan passed for a remarkable 713 yards, setting a CFL record.[1]

Allen Pitts set the record for receiving yards in one season with 2,036 yards while his teammate Doug Flutie set the record for passing touchdowns with 48.

The Grey Cup

BC Place Stadium played host to the Grey Cup game on Sunday, November 27, making Vancouver the host city for the twelfth time-more than any other Western Canadian city. In the Grey Cup game, the hometown BC Lions were against the Baltimore CFLers, becoming the first ever Grey Cup game between a Canada-based team and a US-based team. The Lions ended up defeating the Baltimore team by a score of 26–23, on Lui Passaglia's game-winning field goal on the last play of the game.

Final regular season standings

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

  • Bold text means that they have clinched the playoffs.
  • Grey Cup playoffs

    The BC Lions are the 1994 Grey Cup champions, defeating the Baltimore CFLers 26–23, in front of their home crowd at Vancouver's BC Place Stadium. It was the first football championship game between Canadian and American teams. The CFLers' Karl Anthony (DB) was named the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player and Lions' Lui Passaglia (K/P) was the Grey Cup's Most Valuable Canadian.

    1994 CFL Awards

  • CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award – Doug Flutie (QB), Calgary Stampeders
  • CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian Award – Gerald Wilcox (SB), Winnipeg Blue Bombers
  • CFL's Most Outstanding Defensive Player Award – Willie Pless (LB), Edmonton Eskimos
  • CFL's Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman Award – Shar Pourdanesh (OT), Baltimore CFLers
  • CFL's Most Outstanding Rookie Award – Matt Goodwin (DB), Baltimore CFLers
  • CFLPA's Outstanding Community Service Award – O. J. Brigance (LB), Baltimore CFLers
  • CFL's Coach of the Year – Don Matthews, Baltimore CFLers
  • Commissioner's Award - Norm Fieldgate, BC Lions
  • References

    1994 CFL season Wikipedia