1994 CFL season

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.

1994 CFL season
Regular season
DurationJuly 6 – November 6, 1994
Playoffs
Start dateNovember 12, 1994
East ChampionsBaltimore Colts1994-11-20
West ChampionsBC Lions1994-11-20
82nd Grey Cup
DateNovember 27, 1994
SiteBC Place Stadium, Vancouver
ChampionsBC Lions
CFL seasons

CFL news in 1994

Expansion

The CFL admitted three more United States-based teams, to add to the Sacramento Gold Miners, who were introduced in 1993.

The Las Vegas Posse, the Shreveport Pirates and the Baltimore CFLers made the league 12 teams in total, six in each division. 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The Baltimore team was to be called the Baltimore Colts, but the Colts name was revoked due to a successful trademark infringement lawsuit filed by the Indianapolis Colts, and they played the entire season as the "Baltimore CFLers".

Regular season structure

Due to the expansion, this was the first season since 1980 when CFL teams did not travel to every other stadium in the League during the season.

CFL teams played each team in their own division twice, two teams in the other division twice, and the four remaining teams in the other division only once. The two inter-Divisional opponents to be played twice were determined by the previous season's regular season standing. Teams who had finished first and third in 1993 played the first and third teams from the other division twice – and the same applied to the teams who had finished second and fourth in each division, and the effective "fifth" and "sixth" place teams. 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 the schedule, this format ensured that the U.S. teams all played one another twice for the 1994 season.

The divisions were rearranged again in the 1995 CFL season, when the league expanded to 14 teams for one 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 that still stands.

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.

Regular season standings

Final regular season standings

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

West Division
TeamGPWLTPFPAPts
Calgary Stampeders18153069835530
Edmonton Eskimos18135051840126
BC Lions18116160445623
Saskatchewan Roughriders18117051245422
Sacramento Gold Miners1898143643619
Las Vegas Posse18513044762210
East Division
TeamGPWLTPFPAPts
Winnipeg Blue Bombers18135065157226
Baltimore Colts18126056143124
Toronto Argonauts18711050457814
Ottawa Rough Riders1841404806478
Hamilton Tiger-Cats1841404355628
Shreveport Pirates1831503306616
  • Bold text means that they have clinched the playoffs.

Grey Cup playoffs
Main article: 82nd Grey Cup

The BC Lions are the 1994 Grey Cup champions, defeating the Baltimore Colts 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.

Playoff bracket
November 12 & 13: Division Semifinals November 20: Division Finals November 27: 82nd Grey Cup @ BC Place Stadium – Vancouver, BC
         
E3 Toronto Argonauts 15
E2 Baltimore Colts 34
E2 Baltimore Colts 14
East
E1 Winnipeg Blue Bombers 12
E4 Ottawa Rough Riders 16
E1 Winnipeg Blue Bombers 26
E2 Baltimore Colts 23
W3 BC Lions 26
W3 BC Lions 24
W2 Edmonton Eskimos 23
W3 BC Lions 37
West
W1 Calgary Stampeders 36
W4 Saskatchewan Roughriders 3
W1 Calgary Stampeders 36

1994 CFL All-Stars

Offence

Defence

Special teams

1994 Western All-Stars

Offence

Defence

Special teams

1994 Eastern All-Stars

Offence

Defence

Special teams

1994 CFL Awards
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References
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