EXPERIENCE CANADIAN PRO FOOTBALL'S EARLY DAYS--with the 1960 Canadian Pro Season for COLD SNAP!

Here's your opportunity to jump into a time machine and travel back fifty years in Canadian pro football history--with the new 1960 Canadian Pro Football Season team cards for COLD SNAP Canadian Pro Football Game! Legendary Canadian pros like "The Rifle," "The Wisp," "The Little General" and "Old Spaghetti Legs" all come to life on your table-top with this faithful re-creation of the history-making 1960 Canadian season.

In 1960, pro football was a sport in flux. It had moved beyond the leather-helmeted, grind-it-out single-platoon pounding of the 1940s, but had not yet reached the sophistication and precision of the modern era. The days of big salaries and saturated TV coverage were still well ahead, yet the players and coaches of the time were laying the foundation for that explosion with bigger play books and a new level of chess-like strategy. It was truly a "golden" period in pro football--a time of gridiron heroes, playing a version of the game that would be recognizable to a continent now captivated by the sport, but playing it mostly out of their love of the game and passion for competition.

Still, there were significant differences in the Canadian game of 1960, compared to today's game. There was a heavier reliance on the running game. Passing was riskier, with a much higher percentage of interceptions, typically seven or eight per cent. Field goal kicking was a low-percentage gamble, infrequently attempted and made. Thus, punting was a critical element of the game, as teams would often be content to gain 10 or 20 yards of field position, and then punt. Punt returns were kamikaze-like affairs, as no blocking was allowed for the return man. Also, in Canada, many stars routinely played both sides of the ball, for some or even most of the game--a stark contrast to America's 1960 pro game, which by then had developed into two-platoon football. (You may recall fans being enthralled by the two-way performance of Philadelphia's hall-of-fame linebacker, pressed into duty as a center for the 1960 league championship game! A rarity in the U.S., commonplace in Canada.) It's a pro football experience from out of the past, that you can re-live, using COLD SNAP Canadian Pro Football Game!

Canadian pro football of 1960 consisted of two conferences. The Western Interprovincial Football Union had clubs in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, and Winnipeg. The Eastern Football Conference, previously known as "The Big Four," fielded teams in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton.

Out west, Winnipeg dominated the rest of the division, winning fourteen of its sixteen games with a high-powered running game that piled up over 4000 yards. Edmonton finished with ten wins, and would likely have won the division most any other year. They got satisfaction in the post-season, though, as Edmonton's league-best defence shut down Winnipeg twice, with Edmonton winning both games, by scores of 10-5 and 4-2. Calgary (6-8-2) was an exciting, pass-happy club led by a charismatic signal-caller who would later head south of the border to lead Minnesota's "purple gang" to the American pro league's "Big Game" following the 1969 season. British Columbia had the league's most exciting runner in "Willie The Wisp," but a lack of spark at quarterback relegated the squad to a 5-9-2 record. Saskatchewan brought up the rear of the division, featuring a club that was respectable at stopping the run, but dreadful everywhere else--it finished with just two wins.

Back east, Toronto lured one of the American league's established quarterbacks north to Canada by offering to pay him the highest salary in the league--a reported $24,000. The former Green Bay and Detroit veteran jumped at the chance, and promptly threw 38 touchdown passes, leading his new team to a 10-4 record and the division title. Ottawa kept pace with Toronto all season, sparked by a pair of thousand-yard rushers, and wound up ousting Toronto in the division finals. Montreal, with its star passer "The Rifle," won enough games to make the playoffs in his final season with the club, but was ultimately undone by a ragged defence. Hamilton finished in the division basement at 4-10, doomed by 32 interceptions thrown, many of which were forced throws thanks to a lack of a running game.

The 1960 Canadian Pro Season for COLD SNAP Canadian Pro Football Game sells for $12 postage-paid, and includes over 300 pro stars, each rated for their individual abilities on nine team cards. You also get a league summary card, and an "Instant Results" card which you can use to "quick play" entire games with a single dice roll (without stats, of course). With the Instant Results card, you can play just your favorite team's complete schedule, quick-play the other games, and still get the feel of the race for the division title! Re-live the gridiron heroics of those golden afternoons in the autumn of 1960, with the 1960 Canadian Pro Season team cards for COLD SNAP Canadian Pro Football Game! Order YOUR copy today!