Canadian Football League (CFL) Team Media Guides Collection

Collection

Identifier: FBP 545

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection contains media guides published by teams in the Canadian Football League. The annual guides published prior to each CFL season generally included a review of the previous season (including statistics), a preview of the upcoming season (including schedules and opponent information), and photographs and bios of players, coaches, and staff. Other content sometimes included broader material about the history of the franchise, information about the city, and other information for members of the media. Some guides contain information about other personnel associated with the team like cheerleaders. Some guides contain advertisements. The media guides tend to become larger, longer, and more substantial through the years. Formats include media guides.

Dates

Creation: 1960-2003

Conditions Governing Access

There are no access restrictions on this collection.

Conditions Governing Use

Copyright status for collection materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Biographical / Historical

Media guides—also known as press guides or “dope books”—originated by the 1930s as a way for sports teams to provide information to members of the press about their teams, players, coaches, schedules, and other topics. Originally typed, mimeographed, and stapled sheets, the guides evolved dramatically after World War Two to highly informative trade paper publications available to the public. By the early 21st century, many teams began replacing printed guides with online guides.

The Canadian Football League (CFL) is the highest level of professional football in Canada. The league was founded in 1958 by the merger of two predecessor leagues, Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and the Western Interprovincial Football Union (WIFU). By the 1950s, the IRFU and the WIFU were Canada’s two primary professional football leagues, and they broke away from prior sanctioning organizations that had also included amateur teams. The rules of Canadian football have long been distinct and different from the rules of American football. Teams in the CFL compete annually for the Grey Cup.

From 1993 to 1995, the CFL—a summer and fall league—attempted to increase its market by expanding south into the United States. During the short-lived experiment the CFL placed teams in San Antonio, Sacramento, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Birmingham, Shreveport, and Memphis.