Origin of CFL Team Names...Did you know?

From time to time there have been questions about where the team names came from. I remember a heated discussion in the old huddle particularly, regarding the Alouettes. Anyway, for those who are curious here is the real story.

BC LIONS
Twin mountain peaks can be seen just north of the city of Vancouver and legend has it they look like lions. They are actually called the Lion Peaks.

TORONTO ARGONAUGHTS
The CFL’s oldest team is also its winningest. When the Argonaut amateur football club was formed it was made up of a crew of oarsmen from the Argonaut Rowing Club.

EDMONTON ESKIMOS
In 1938 a team from Edmonton calling itself the Eskimos joined adopting the moniker as an alliterative reference to the city’s northernmost CFL location.

HAMILTON TIGER-CATS
Prior to and after WWII the football team of the City of Hamilton was known as the Tigers, with the existing yellow and black colours established even pre-war time. After WWII, a new group in the city was formed and became known as the Hamilton Wildcats. The Tiger and Wildcat competition for fan participation was so great that both teams were unable to operate on a sound financial basis. The clubs decided to amalgamate and form one team.

SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS
There are two versions of where the name Roughriders came from. One states that Saskatchewan got the name from the histroy of the North West Mounted Police who were called the roughriders because they broke the wild horses used by the force. The other states there was a Canadian volunteer contingent that once fought with Teddy Roosevelt in the Spanish-American War.

MONTREAL ALOUETTES
In 1946 the Alouettes joined the Canadian Football League. The name Alouette is symbolized by a fictional red bird made popular in a French-Canadian children’s song.

WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS
This CFL team was the second franchise in pro sports to be named after world heavyweight boxing champion, Joe Louis. The first was the Cleveland Brown Bombers (later the Browns). Founded on June 30, 1930, Winnipeg became the first team west of Ontario to win the Grey Cup trophy. During a game one sportcaster referred to them as the Blue Bombers of the West and the name stuck.

CALGARY STAMPEDERS
During WWII Calgary had been entertained by several North Hill Blizzards and East End Stampeders games. In 1945, these teams combined to become the Calgary Stampeders.

Before the Stamps wasn't there a team called the Broncos?

There was a hockey team called the Bronc's

I believe Joe Louis,( known as the 'BROWN BOMBER' in the fighting game, one of the best heavyweights ever, was how the Bombers got their name but I always thought the name had something to do with an airforce squadron stationed in Wpg.after world war II . I also think the AL'S were named after the lark,if that's the mythical bird,hence their old nickname Larks'. The old logo on their helmets was a lark if not mistaken. :?:

What is an alouette? is it french for "Bird"?

:D

Geez, I hope you guys are kidding.

The alouette is a real bird. Nothing mythical about it. It's a small gray-ish or brown-ish bird. For the sake of the argument, let's say it's a Grey bird! :wink:

Actually to further your fact … Here’s a little bit I scraped off of an old newsgroup post by Walter Krawec in 98.


The Bombers have been the Bombers since 1936 (prior to that they were the “Winnipegs”). The team was christened by legendary Winnipeg sportswriter, the late-great Vince Leah. The following is quoted from page 89 of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 1997 Media Guide:

“During the 1936 season, the Winnipegs were playing an exhibition
game against the University of North Dakota, when a young reporter
named Vince Leah remarked ‘These are the Blue Bombers of Western
Football,’ coining the phrase from a Grantland Rice description
description of Joe Louis a.k.a. the Brown Bomber. And from that
day on in 1936, the team has always been known as the BLUE BOMBERS.”

There does seem to be some debate regarding the Cleveland Browns of the NFL were also named after Joe Louis … Whilst some will attest that they were named after their original team founder Paul Brown. (maybe this is purely coincidence … )

StatiK76
Go Bombers!!!

actually Third and Ten: an aloueete is a lark, it just has a french name

i was kidding, that was a fun argument in The Huddle.

Anyone want my opinion about an Alouette?

yes

As in the Lion’s Gate Bridge?

By the way, I may be the only one who noticed that, but there was nothing in the original post concerning Ottawa. So here it is:

RENEGADES
A renegade being a traitor who turned his back on his moral values and friends to give into personnal gains and profits, it seemed natural to give that name to the city where crooks from all areas gather in a house called Parliment to divide the loot plundered in your land, your house and your pockets. It was also natural for bad owners to start on the wrong note by giving their team a name no one would want to associate with. Just picture yourself flirting with a woman and saying: "You know babe, I'm a renagade!"... You'd have about as many chances to score as the Gades really do.

Hey Turd, don't they threaten to pluck the poor tweety in that children's song? :cry:

Sorry about Ottawa Third and Ten. Didn't miss them on purpose. I think the Rough Riders referred to the the Voyageurs who rode the waterways. As for Alouette I read that it was a small red bird made popular in a French Canadian children's song. I'm not trying to make thinks up. I think the CFL should officially let us know where the names derived from and settle the question. :roll:

Yup Moses. The song goes:

"Alouette, gentle Alouette,
Alouette, I will rip off your feather..."

Then it gets descriptive:

"I will rip off your beak... and your wings... and your legs... etc."

Really, I never understood why this was considered an appropriate children song.

Simple - The french are a sick and twisted group of bitter east coast freaks …

StatiK76

Somehow, that could explain it.

Let's not forget we were in part raised by a TV show called "Passe-Partout", in which three mature actors dressed like gay dolls smoked dope before chatting with trashcans, making us guess for half an hour on "what is corn" and sang repetitive songs about raw milk cheese coming from some foreign countries...

is an allouette a lark?

the 'LARK' would be how the topic of "raw milk cheese coming from foreign countries" has got anything to do with the price of wheat in China or this FOOTBALL FORUM.........LOL.LOL.LOL. :roll: :lol: :smiley:

is about more than football