Who we
are:
The Northern Football Conference
(NFC) was formed in 1954 as the Northern Ontario
Rugby-Football Union (NORFU). Its purpose, then as it is
now, is to provide an opportunity for athletes over the age
of 19 to play football beyond the high school level. Over
6700 players have availed themselves of the opportunity to
play in the over 900 scheduled NFC games. Many players have
gone on to star in University/College and Professional football.
Likewise, many star University/College players have chosen to
continue playing competitive football in the NFC. NFC
football is played at a very high calibre and is very
entertaining and exciting brand of play.
The newly formed league began
playing in 1954 with four teams participating: Kirkland Lake
Alouettes, North Bay Roughriders, Sudbury Hardrocks and
Tri-Town (Cobalt, Haileybury, New Liskeard) Raiders, and has
operated annually with as many as seven teams and as few as
three teams since that time.
In the intervening years other
teams, communities and clubs have entered and departed the
league. In total there have been thirty
teams representing 19
communities and 1 team representing Laurentian University.
The former membership includes: Sturgeon Falls Bombers,
Rouyn-Noranda Fantassins, North Renfrew Rams, North Bay
Ti-Cats, Val D'Or Jets, Timmins Falcons, Kirkland Lake
Kougars, Sault Ste. Marie Steelers, Laurentian University
Voyageurs, Bramalea Satellites, Orillia Silver Bombers,
Etobicoke Argonauts, Stoney Creek Patriots, North Bay
Northmen, Hamilton Wildcats, Brampton Bears, Brampton
Bulldogs, Scarborough Crimson Tide, Hamilton Wild Cats,
Toronto Eagles, North Bay Bulldogs and Peterborough
Packers. The current league is composed of six
members: Markham
Raiders, Oakville Longhorns, Sault Ste. Marie Storm, and
Sudbury Spartans.
The league continues to have a
Northern Ontario flavour as befits it name, but, it is now a
province-wide Ontario/Quebec from intermediate to junior to senior amateur football group that has a very
storied history.
Origin :
Competitive football was introduced
into Northern Ontario in 1923 when the high schools in
northern communities began to play. Later, exhibition games
between graduates of the high school competitions and the
high school teams were staged to allow the high school
graduates an opportunity to play the game they loved one
more time. In the years prior to World War II
inter-community exhibition games, or "intermediate calibre"
games, were played between the graduates of high school
teams. The exhibition games involving high school graduates
ceased during the war years.
During the early years of the 1950s
High school football players, upon their graduation, began
looking for an opportunity to continue to play intermediate
football in their own communities. Newspaper accounts show
that in 1950 interested players in Kirkland Lake played
exhibition games against their counterparts in the the
Tri-town (Cobalt, Haileybury, New Liskeard) area. In 1951
the Kirkland Lake Youth Club football team was formed and
continued to stage exhibition games. This Club would later
become the Kirkland Lake Alouettes. The Tri-town team would
later become the Tri-town Raiders. At a meeting in June 1952
at the Red Cross Centre, Sudbury, the Sudbury Amateur
Football Club was formed. The club organised exhibition
games against neighbouring communities through the fall of
1952 and 1953. This Club would later become the Sudbury
Hardrocks. In 1953 a group of players from North Bay formed
to compete in these exhibition football games. This group
would later become the North Bay Roughriders.
During the 1953 home and home
series of exhibition games between Sudbury and North Bay,
Britt Jessop, a prominent North Bay sportsman, felt that if
these players were willing to play "outlaw" games they were
deserving of an organised league. He sent telegrams to
delegates of the northern community football clubs to invite
them to a meeting in North Bay in the spring of 1954. The
delegates met at the North Bay City Hall and created an
organised league for competitions and named it the Northern
Ontario Rugby-Football Union. This newly formed Northern
Ontario Rugby-Football Union petitioned the Canadian Rugby
Union for the privilege of operating a "recognised" northern
Ontario league. The league was granted admission and
affiliated with the intermediate class of the Canadian Rugby
Union and granted a league logo.
Bill Plaunt, a Sudbury, sportsman
and business man, donated the Donald Plaunt Memorial Trophy
to the league to be competed for as the league championship
trophy. The trophy was donated in memory of Bill's brother
Donald Plaunt who was killed in action during World War II.
Henry Kangro, an outstanding player in the "outlaw" and
early years of the league, donated the August Kangro
Memorial Trophy for the league's leading scorer. The trophy
was donated in memory of Henry's older brother August Kangro
who was killed in action during the Korean
Conflict.
1954 -
1963:
The early years of the Northern
Ontario Rugby Football Union were exceedingly grim as the
clubs had to struggle to survive. They had to finance
equipment purchases and seasonal operating costs and
establish the league as a viable form of entertainment to
the northern sports fan.
To overcome the financial struggles
most clubs turned to the high schools and the professional
teams at the time for old equipment, and, prominent
sportsmen, local merchants and fund raising ventures for
financial support.
The league and intermediate
football also had to be sold to the communities as a
spectator sport and this was accomplished by the manner in
which the clubs staged intermediate football games. The
ensuing media coverage and the institution of an in-depth
statistical records package, in 1959, allowed the local
sports fan to follow the exploits of the players competing
in the league. The league also instituted league awards to
recognise outstanding play. In 1958 the Northern Ontario
Rugby-Football Union instituted the Most Valuable Player
award, in 1960 it instituted the Lineman of the Year award,
and, in 1963 it instituted the Leo Troy Trophy, named in
honour of long time executive and league supporter Leo Troy,
for the Rookie of the Year award. All these awards were
voted on by the players and the coaches. The packaging of
the games, the media coverage and the recognition of
outstanding play through league awards allowed the league to
be embraced by the northern communities as exciting
entertainment.
The league began with four teams:
Sudbury Hardrocks, North Bay Roughriders, Kirkland Lake
Alouettes and the Tri-Town Raiders. During the ensuing
decade the league had expanded by three teams but by 1963
only Sudbury Hardrocks, North Bay Roughriders (renamed
Ti-Cats), Kirkland Lake Alouettes and Sturgeon Falls
Bombers, who entered in 1955, remained. The Tri-Town team
participated for two years then took a three year leave of
absence before returning for one more season, whereas, the
Rouyn-Noranda Fantassins participated for a three year
period then took a three year leave of absence before
returning for another two years. The other team to join the
league was the North Renfrew Rams who participated for only
one season.
Perhaps not so ironically, the
teams that completed the first decade where also the most
competitive teams on the field. The Sudbury Hardrocks
captured the Plaunt Memorial Trophy five times, the Sturgeon
Falls Bombers captured it on three consecutive occasions and
the North Bay Ti-cats captured it once. The exception to the
pattern was the North Renfrew Rams who won a championship in
their only year in the league.
Beginning in 1955 the Plaunt
champion went on to compete for the Ontario Intermediate
championship. The first nine competitions were all won by
the teams from the south but the games became very close as
the decade wore on.
By the time of the Northern Ontario
Rugby-Football Union's tenth season, in 1963, the league had
resolved its early financial struggles and established
itself as a "major" sport in many northern
communities.
1964 -
1972:
The growth of the Northern Ontario
Rugby-Football Union continued over the next nine years but
the league saw many changes. In 1967 the Northern Ontario
Rugby-Football Union changed its name to the Northern
Football Conference. The name change was to coincide with
the year in which the parent Canadian Rugby Union renamed
itself to the Canadaian Football League and designed to follow the lead established by the
professional leagues a few years earlier. Along with the new
name came a new league logo.
The number of members in the league
remained relatively stable during this period but there was
much change among the membership. Sudbury, North Bay and
Kirkland Lake remained constant throughout most of this
period although the Sudbury team renamed itself the Spartans
in 1967 to coincide with the league's name change and the
Kirkland Lake team changed its name to Kougars in 1968
before folding after the 1971 season. Sturgeon Falls Bombers
were forced to take a leave of absence following the 1963
season but returned for four more seasons before ultimately
folding in 1968. The Rouyn-Noranda club returned for one
more season of play in 1965 but ceased operations
thereafter. There were a number of new teams entering the
league during this period. Val D'Or, another western Quebec
community, entered a team in the league in 1965 and remained
until 1970 but took a leave of absence in 1969. Timmins
Falcons entered in 1966 and remained until 1971 but took a
leave of absence for the 1970 season. The 1972 season saw
two new entrants to the Northern Football Conference. Sault
Ste. Marie Steelers, which took over the Timmins operation,
and, Laurentian University, which purchased much of the
Kirkland Lake assets and needed a place to compete while
awaiting admission to the Ontario University Athletic league both
commenced operation in 1972.
Despite all the changes in teams
during this time the dominant teams remained the more stable
clubs. Sudbury captured five Plaunt Memorial Trophies and
North Bay won three. The only other team to win a Conference
title during this period was the first year Sault Ste. Marie
Steelers in 1972.
Other changes saw the Clubs
progressing to competition at the Senior level, dating from
1966. Northern Football Conference teams fared very well in
the senior competition twice reaching the Canadian Finals in
the last years of the 1960s. By 1970 only two senior leagues
remained in contention for the national title of Canada, the
Northern Football Conference and the Ontario Rugby-Football
Union, later the Ontario Football Conference. The two league champions faced each other on three
occasions in the early 1970s and only the memorable 1972
championship was captured by the Northern Football
Conference representative Sault Ste. Marie
Steelers.
In terms of recognition in the
community the league began naming an all-Conference team and
a Coach of the Year award in 1971. These awards were
selected by the players and coaches of the Northern Football
Conference.
1973 -
1977
With the commencement of the 1973
season, the leagues twentieth anniversary, the Northern
Football Conference had become the only remaining senior
football league in Canada. The remaining senior teams in the
Province of Ontario, the Bramalea Satellites and the London
Lords applied for admission to the northern league and were
welcomed but the London team never participated in the
league. With the addition of the southern teams and no other
senior leagues in Ontario the Northern Football Conference
became a province wide league and its champions were
recognised as Ontario Provincial Champions.
Despite the growth in the first
twenty years the league experienced rough times following
its anniversary. With the withdrawal of the Laurentian
University team to compete in the Ontario University Athletic league
after the 1973 season and the Bramalea Satellites
withdrawing to compete at the Ontario junior level after the
1974 season the Northern Football Conference had declined to
three teams for the 1975 season, Sudbury Spartans, North Bay
Ti-Cats and Sault Ste. Marie Steelers. Interest in competing
at the senior level appeared to be waning in Ontario. The
league decided to attempt innovations to encourage new clubs
to join the league. The innovations included adopting a
summer schedule for the 1976 season and playing with four
downs rather than the traditional three downs. The summer
schedule was accepted because it is more suited to weather
conditions in northern communities and it would allow
University players an opportunity to further hone their
skills during their summer holidays by competing in the
Northern Football Conference. The change to four down
football was accepted because of the adoption of this rule
by many of the high school leagues in Ontario.
The innovations proved a boon as
the Orillia Silver Bombers joined the league commencing in
1976 making the league a solid four team league. With the
new found stability many applications for league expansion
began to appear.
The league championship had new
meaning during this five year period as it was also
recognised as the Ontario Provincial championship. The newly
admitted Bramalea Satellites captured back to back crowns in
their only two years in the Northern Football Conference and
the Sault Ste. Marie Steelers returned to league prominence
by capturing back to back championships as well. Sudbury
added its eleventh title to its illustrious list of
accomplishments when the Spartans captured the championship
in 1977.
1978 -
1991
Nineteen seventy-eight marked the
25th Anniversary of the Northern Football Conference. To
commemorate the occasion the NFC revitalised their league
logo. The Northern Football Conference looked forward to a
prosperous future but all would not be well.
The league quickly expanded to a
high of seven teams by the 25th Anniversary year of 1978 by
adding three new teams, the Etobicoke Argonauts, the
Oakville Longhorns and the Stoney Creek Patriots. Etobicoke
lasted only one season as they withdrew to compete in the
Ontario junior league for the 1979 season and set the tone
for the many changes over the next few years in the Northern
Football Conference. The 1980 season saw the Orillia team
cease operations and the North Bay team change its name to
the Northmen who then ceased operations after the 1982
season. The 1982 season also saw the Stoney Creek Patriots
move to Hamilton and become the Wildcats. They moved again
in 1985 to become the Brampton Bears. By its 35th
Anniversary, 1988, the Sault Ste Marie Steelers folded
before the start of the season and the league had again
declined to three teams, Sudbury Spartans, Oakville
Longhorns and Brampton Bears. The addition of the Brampton
Bulldogs in 1989 and their subsequent move to North Bay for
the 1991 season stabilised the league for a couple of
years.
Despite the concern in some
quarters that the southern teams would dominate the league
the Plaunt Memorial Championship Trophy bounced back and
forth between northern and southern teams during the 14 year
period. Stoney Creek Patriots and Oakville Longhorns each
captured three titles and the Brampton Bears captured one
championship for southern teams while Sudbury captured six
more titles, including four in a row, and Sault Ste. Marie
Steelers captured one title for northern teams. The Plaunt
Memorial Trophy travelled between north and south equally
proving no one region of Ontario could dominate senior
football.
The Northern Football Conference
also instituted new awards and expanded the all-Conference
team to include Special Teams performances. The new awards
recognised Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year in
1981 and in order to enhance the excitement of the
Championship Game the league awarded a Championship Player
of the Game recognition in 1982. Also, commencing in 1985
the Northern Football Conference formed a Hall of Fame to
recognise players of outstanding merit over a period of
years, as well as honouring coaches, officials as well as
club and league administrators whose contributions to the
league over a period of time was seen as being of a
consistently high level.
1992
- Present
On the eve of the Conference's 40th
Anniversary, member clubs of the province's lone
intermediate calibre league, the Central Ontario Football
League, approached the Northern Football Conference to merge
leagues. After considerable negotiations the intermediate
league disbanded and two of its members, the North York
Eagles, who entered as the Toronto Eagles and the
Scarborough Crimson Tide, joined the Northern Football
Conference thus stabilising the Conference at six members.
The stability was only slightly damaged as Scarborough
ceased operations after the 1994 season but were replaced by
the Hamilton Wild Cats, who had competed in the American
Football Association, in 1995.
By 1995 the Northern Football
Conference established itself as a very strong and vibrant
football league. At the end of the year the Ontario Amateur
Football community recognised Sid Forster, long time
administrator and coach with the Sudbury Spartans as Builder
of the Year, Tony Molnar, long time coach with the Oakville
Longhorns, as Coach of the Year, and Jack Leitch, Conference
Referee-in-Chief, as Official of the Year. The recognition
of the talent that works for the Northern Football
Conference and the reputation that the league has
established as a leader in community football programs had
placed the Northern Football Conference at the forefront of
amateur football in Ontario.
The euphoria of the 1995 season was
short lived. The Brampton Bears withdrew from the league
before the 1996 season to compete in the newly formed midget
developmental league but were replaced by the Sault Storm,
who had competed in the Ontario junior league. The North Bay
Bulldogs took a leave of absence from the league for the
1996 season and the Hamilton Wild Cats ceased operations
after the second week of the season leaving the Northern
Football Conference with four teams for the 1996 season.
Only one year after the memorable 1995 season the league and
senior football was seen to be struggling.
As always the Northern Football
Conference rebounded. The 1997 season saw the Conference returned to six teams with return of the Peterborough Packers
and the entrance, yet mysterious departure of the North Bay Bulldogs. Add this and many other
centres had expressed interest in participating in senior football. The league was looking forward again!
The Northern Football Conference went from the modern 6 to a Original 4. The 1998 campaign has the Peterborough Packers cease operations before the season with no replacement yet found, the Packers left to competed in the American Football Association
Despite the chaos of the 1990s in
the Northern Football Conference one team has set the
standard of play for senior football. The Oakville Longhorns
captured seven straight Plaunt Memorial Trophy Championships.
The Longhorns, and other league teams, have also dominated
play in inter-conference games against American minor league
teams proving that the play of the Northern Football
Conference is very high.
The Northern Football Conference
enters its 47th season in 2000 with a strong field of 4 teams, Sudbury Spartans, Sault Storm, Oakville Longhorns and Markham Raiders and
an exciting summer schedule, its status intact as the last
remaining senior football league in Canada, its reputation
as a leader in football in Ontario and its eyes set on
celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2003.
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