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Canadian football
DCHP-2 (Jun 2016)
Spelling variants:Canadian Football
n. — Sports, Canadian Football
a ball game played by two teams that is similar to American football (see Image 1, see Video).
Type: 1. Origin — Canadian football developed from rugby and early quotations refer to a form of rugby. It developed its own set of rules that differ from those of American football. The biggest difference is that teams have three downs per possession and not four, as in American football. Since 1956 Canadian football has had its own national league. See Canadian Football League.
Canadian football differs from American football in a number of respects (see the 1970 quotation for some differences).
Quotations
1890
The Rovers, ex-champions of the United States, defeated the Canadian football team yesterday, 3-1.
1935
Because it had been impossible to arrange a guarantee with the Scottish Football Association of 83 pounds per game, the proposed tour of Scotland and England, by the Canadian football touring team, originated in Drumheller, has been definitely cancelled for this year at least.
1948
Wholeheartedly the congratulations of this Community last Saturday went to the Calgary Stampeders Football Team for a victory, emblematic of Canadian football supremacy over the Ottawa Rough Riders.
1961
The smallest man in Canadian football doesn't spend all his spare time pounding books - he commutes to Ottawa to attend practice one night a week.
1970
U.S. football is played on a field 100 yards long and 53 yards wide with seven-yard end zones. Canadian football is played on a 110-yard field, 65 yards wide and with 25-yard end zones. U.S. teams have 40 men, Canadian 32. U.S. teams play with 11 men at a time, Canadian teams with 12. There is no single point score in U.S. football. A ball kicked into the end zone may be downed for a touchback, which brings it out to the 20-yard line. There is unlimited blocking in U.S. football. The defensive line does not have to give the offensive line one yard. A punt does not need to be caught and returned if the returner signals a fair catch. U.S. quarters are called "periods." The "Duke" football is narrower and easier to pass than the Canadian ball.
1978
The reason for the deal was a fear on both sides that - even though the game will be played mainly under Canadian football rules - a team from the best U.S. schools probably could overwhelm a team of Canadians, even if they were all-stars.
1995
The earliest record of football being played in Canada was at the University of Toronto in 1861. However, it was during the Harvard and McGill football match in Montreal, Canada, in the fall of 1874, that Canadian and American football developed.
2007
Daniel, the B.C. Lions statistician, is painstakingly researching back copies of newspapers, reaching back to the origins of Canadian football in a quest to find inaccuracies and new information from the game's Neanderthal past.
References
- Grey Cup Promotional Video (2014) • Video
Images
