The

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

(CFL) played an

all-star game An all-star game is an exhibition game that showcases the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or division, bu ...

regularly during the 1950s and 1970s and twice in the 1980s.

1950s

The first game in 1955 actually precedes the establishment of the Canadian Football Council and the CFL, and was known as the Shrine Game, sponsored by the Shriners to raise funds for Shriners Hospitals for Children. It was held each year from 1955 to 1958 the week after the

Grey Cup The Grey Cup () is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested between the winners ...

, as the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union All-Stars took on the Western Interprovincial Football Union. After the 1956 contest, five players that played in the game (four from the Saskatchewan Roughriders and one from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers) were killed when Trans-Canada Air Lines Flight 810 crashed in what was then the worst air disaster in Canadian history. After poor attendances in the next two Shrine Games (the fact that they were outdoor football games played in Canada in December didn't help), the idea of an All-Star game was dropped.

1970s

The CFL All-Star Game returned in 1970, now played as a pre-season contest in late June and early July, with the league all-stars taking on the previous season's Grey Cup champion. After no game was held in 1975, the contest returned for three more years (1976–78), with East again meeting West. These games were played ''before'' the pre-season (similar to the NFL's Pro Football Hall of Fame Game), in late May and early June; again, poor attendance led to the game's cancellation.

1980s

Two more CFL All-Star Games were played, in the 1980s: a post-season contest in December 1983 (held indoors in Vancouver), pitting East and West; and a June 1988 game between the CFL All-Stars and the hometown Edmonton Eskimos. Even though the 1988 contest drew a CFL All Star-record 27,573 fans,Archived a
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and th
Wayback Machine
no game has been held since then.

List of games

There have been 14 CFL All-Star Games. Of the eight games that have featured teams from the East versus West (or IRFU versus WIFU), the West leads the series 5–2–1. The remaining six games featured a CFL All-Star team versus the defending

champion. The league team won four of these games, with the

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division (CFL), West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium a ...

and Ottawa Rough Riders each winning once.

References

{{CFL

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that showcases the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or division, bu ...

All-star games 1955 establishments in Canada Recurring sporting events established in 1955