I have only included books with either their central subject matter being Canadian football, or (in the case of more broad works) where their content includes a substantial contribution to the available scholarship of Canadian football history (e.g. TA Reed's The Blue and White); additionally, biographies of players who went on to further careers and successes (e.g. Don Getty--if one considers his political career a success!) have also been included.
Allan's later books are all repackagings of Grey Cup or Bust, with additions to bring it up to the date of publication. The books cover western football quite extensively, although no more than a page or two are given to anything prior to 1920, and the narrative through the mid-1930s is taken at a fairly brisk pace. While it would have been nice to have more written on the origins of football in the west, Allan's account of the 1935-1960 era, to which he was an eyewitness, are most useful and without many questionable areas.
Cosentino, Frank. A Passing Game: A History of the CFL. Winnipeg: Bain & Cox, 1995.
The above two books represent the definitive works on Canadian football history from 1909 onward. Both have been thoroughly researched by one of the best sport historians in Canada, and contain more useful information on the evolution of the game itself than any other sources. These books spend little time on descriptions of single players, but rather focus on the evolution of the rules and organisation of football, with the on-field results summarised quite nicely, albeit in rather concise descriptions. The 1995 book is almost entirely a corporate history of the CFL from 1969 to the beginning of the 1995 season. It is most unfortunate that the book was not written a year later, as the inside description of the collapse of the American teams would have been a most interesting read.
Many football fans have complaned about Cosentino's works--particularly the 1995 book--for their dry presentation. The tone of both texts is very formal, and the colour that many sports fans have come to expect from modern "journalistic histories" is somewhat lacking. Indeed, many have criticised Cosentino's works for the simple fact that they are rather unwieldy and are seen as "unreadable" by some. (The 1995 book lacks an index, a rather regrettable oversight.) Cosentino's works are, however, the only continuous critical account of twentieth century Canadian football--not an easy resource for any trivia buff who mascarades as a sport historian, but quite interesting to students of history. I suggest that these books be sought out by anyone with a serious interest in Canadian football history.
A single caveat applies to Cosentino's first book: it must be used with extreme caution in the pre-1909 era. From my understanding, this work derived from a University thesis which Cosentino wrote, focusing on the 1909-1968 period. As such, he did not engage in any truly detailed research of the previous era, as it was merely introductory material. His statement that the CRU adopted a system of downs in 1897 has absolutely no basis in fact, and his reconstruction of the pre-1891 years is particularly misleading.
One of my Classics professors had a wonderful way of describing the first edition of the Cambridge Ancient History: "It was bad when it came out, and time has only made it worse." The same applies to significant parts of this often-encountered book. Currie makes an utter hash of the 1800s, relying heavily on T.A. Reed's confused reconstruction of the early history of Canadian football and whatever official misinformation the CFL and CRU had available. Furthermore, this book suffers from poor proofreading of dates (e.g., U of T is stated to have adopted Rugby rules in 1887, not 1877), and cannot be relied upon implicitly for the pre-World War One era. Currie's accuracy gets better after he passes World War One, but for that period Cosentino's work is so immeasurably more detailed and reliable that I cannot recommend Carrue's book as much more than a collectible.
This lengthy book is mis-titled, as it is not really a proper history of the Grey Cup: Kelly has effectively written a history of post-war CFL teams, using the Grey Cup as a common thread throughout his work. Little time is spent on the Grey Cup prior to World War Two, which is rather unfortunate in a book claiming to portray the history of the championship; however, the book is quite an interesting read. Kelly undertook many interviews with players and coaches of the post-war era, and has included anecdotes from these personalities in his narrative, preserving the colourful, if often exaggerated tales of many Canadian football legends. Kelly's work provides a useful resource that compliments Cosentino's weighty scholarly histories for the post-war era, and ranks highly as a general text on the post-war era of CFL teams.
Written as a book for schoolchildren, McAllister gives short (8-10 pages) biographical sketches of Canadian football stars of the interwar years and 1940s, including Joe Krol, Lionel Conacher, Ab Box, Brian Timmins, Warren Stevens and others. I believe that all of these sketches were written while most or all of the players were still alive. No exhaustive biographies here, but it is virtually impossible to find any other biographies of these legends without going through miles of microfilm. A good starting point for one wanting more specifics on key players that are given in Cosentino's work.
Quite a lively book by one of the best known football reporters in Canadian history. Amongst other things, Reeve provides decent summaries of Grey Cup games through the 1930s, 40s and 50s. Printed on very acidic paper (even the best copies should start crumbling into oblivion in the next 15-25 years), thus a reprint of this valuable (and obscure) book on acid-free paper would be a welcome development.
A slim, magazine-gormat volume giving brief (1-2 paragraph) biographical sketches of all of the members elected into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame prior to 1972. I believe that this booklet may have been printed as a souvenir for the opening festivities of the Hall.
Sullivan's research was amongst the first to investigate the history of Canadian football before his own time, and his results are still amongst the better resources available. The scope goes a bit beyond just the Grey Cup, necessarily so because of the lack of other material at the time he was writing. Not a critical history, but a most enjoyable and lively read, and still quite reliable. (I have not had the opportunity to go over the various magazine editions issued in the 1950s, and thus cannot say how much changed between the 1955 publication and the 1970 and 1974 re-issues.)
Little more than somewhat detailed game summaries of each Grey Cup final, this work fails to capture the atmosphere of the games, or recount any of the politics surrounding the often-controversial Dominion Championships. (In many instances, the political dirt was of more interest than the game itself--particularly when east and west were still on bad terms!) The results are not bad, as no other convenient source provides easy access to such detailed game summaries, although microfilm is still the best source for the earlier games.
Barrett, Warrick with Scott Michel. Johnny Bright, Champion. Edmonton: Commonwealth Publications, 1996.
A very, very curious book. From the back cover summary, one expects this book to be a typical inspirational biography, describing a black boy raised in poverty and overcoming a series of obstacles to attain his dream, etc., etc. The work reads like a children's book of such ilk, leaving one to wonder how much portrayed conversation is a work of the author's mind. The author's biography refers to the work as a "novel", and the work is elsewhere called a "success metaphor." Credibility goes out the window when Johnny Bright's death is portrayed with a visit from the "Great Saviour" (p. 169), who entrusts the ex-CFLer with a spiritual mission, making it clear to even the non-cynical reader that this work blends fact and fiction to create a work akin to mediaeval hagiography, mascarading apparently-fabricated inspirational stories as a personal biography. An interesting piece for those interested in the diffusion of religious ideals through mass media, but this should be approached with great caution as a representation of historical fact as it relates to Canadian football, as the goals of the author suggest that inspiration was of greater importance than historical reality.
Cahill, Leo with Scott Young. Goodbye Argos. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1973.
Clemons, Michael "Pinball". All Heart: My story. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1998.
Crawford, Rufus with Bill Strecker. Rufus Baby: A Dream to Defeat the Odds. Hamilton: Mini Mocho Press, 1990
Flutie, Doug with Perry Lefko. Flutie. Toronto: Warwick, 1997.
Gabriel, Tony and Stanley Fillmore. Double Trouble. Toronto: Gage, 1978.
Kepley, Dan and Jim Taylor. The Edmonton Eskimos: Inside the Dynasty. Toronto: Methuen, 1983.
MacCabe, Eddie. Profile of a Pro: The Russ Jackson Story. Toronto: Prentice Hall, 1969.
Neilson, Robert F.. Garney Henley: A Gentleman and a Tiger. Hamilton: Potlatch, 1973.
Profit, Mel. For Love, Money, and Future Considerations. Toronto: D C Heath Canada, 1972.
Ridgway, Dave. Robokicker. Red Deer: J. Gorman Publishers, 1995.
Tadman, Peter. Don Getty, All Canadian. Hanna: Gorman and Gorman, 1993.
Thomas, Willie. Third and Long: Inside the CFL. Saskatoon: Western Producer Prairie, 1987.
Young, Jim and Jim Taylor. Dirty 30. Toronto: Methuen, 1974.
Really quite a well-researched and well-written history, focusing on the final twenty years of the Ottawa franchise, although some reasonably good overview material is given of the team from its original formation in 1876. Dowdall provides particularly good treatment of the Gliebermans and the Horn Chen fiasco. A superb illustration of the half-baked business decisions that caused the decline and collapse of the Rough Riders.
Racicot, Lyne. Third and Long: The Proud History of Football in Ottawa. Ottawa: Avant-Garde Communications, 1995.
Quite bluntly, this book is worthless as a team history. Racicot seems to have done precious little research into the history of the Rough Riders, and done little more than summarise what was available from pre-existing materials (e.g. Cosentino, Currie, CFL press releases, etc.). Whole seasons are often given little more than a few sentences, and the pre-1940 period is really quite thin on details. Brief histories of amateur teams--Carleton Ravens, Ottawa Gee-Gees, Ottawa Sooners--are unfortunately short, and not terribly accurate (e.g. a blatantly inaccurate claim that the Gee-Gees played in the IRFU "Big Four"!). Really quite poorly done as a work of history that tried--and failed--to be definitive.
In addition, the 1982 Argos media guide contains the most reliable summary history of the team from 1873 through 1981. Do NOT use the 1989 media guide history, or those from 1976 through 1981, as these are based on earlier research which was revised in 1982, and subsequently forgotten by the collective genius of Argoland.
I still believe this to be the best account of the history of the Blue Bombers, despite the publication of Matheson's book in the early-1990s. The book suffers from poor organisation (I'm really not sure how Leah chose the order of his chapters/articles), and is not terribly well bound, but the detail it provides is somewhat better than Matheson's book.
Ling, Nils. TrueBlue: An Inside Look at a Championship Season. Winnipeg: Wordsnorth Communication, 1984.
Matheson, Jack. 60 Years and Running. Winnipeg: Jostens, 1991.
Very professional in formatting with many illustrations and an extensive appended record book, Matheson's work is somewhat thin on content: a problem likewise shared by the Forty Years of Excellence history of the Eskimos. Not a bad book, as it provides an interesting read and a summary introduction to the Blue Bombers, but hardly the sort of work to prove exhaustive and definitive, and it makes comparatively little contribution to the information available in print on the team.
Spector, David. Contenders and Champions: The Winnipeg Blue Bombers, 1933-1977. Winnipeg: Sports Talk Publications, 1979.
Froggett, Louise. Gridiron Greats of Saskatchewan. Hamilton: Canadian Football Hall Of Fame, 1995.
Short and lightweight, this brief document was put out but the Hall of Fame. Brief summary histories of the Roughriders, Rams and Huskies, along with some other Saskatchewan football bits.
Kelly, Graham. Green Grit: The story of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Toronto: Harper Collins, 2001.
A superb book. Kelly recounts the history of the Roughriders at a level of detail seen only in Rider Pride for a CFL team's history. His narrative is well-written (excepting a few curious digressions on foot-and-mouth disease and a witness tampering trial), and contains numerous extended comments from players and executives on specific and general events in the team's history. The off-field financial problems that have faced the Roughriders might have merited greater attention than Kelly gave them, but otherwise his work is a superb anecdotal history of the green Riders.
Virtually impossible to find, this book, which is entirely devoid of illustrations, provides a concise and coherent year-by-year summary of the Stampeders and their predecessors.
An account of the Eskimos' glory years of the 1970s. Was in large part re-cycled for A Tradition of Excellence.
Redmond, Gerald. Forty Years of Excellence: The Edmonton Eskimos 1949 to 1989. Edmonton: ESP, 1989.
Somewhat curiously, this book is illustrated entirely with photographs from the late-1980s, despite its broad chronological scope. Like Matheson's book on the Blue Bombers, this work shows well in its printed form, and there is nothing terribly wrong with its narrative as an introduction for the more-than-casual fan, but the content is far too thin to be terribly useful for anyone with a serious interest in the team.
This slants somewhat more toward the personal memoir/autobiography category, being the account of the BC coach of the Lions' run to the 1964 Grey Cup.
Reed, T. A. The Blue and White. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1945. (hardcover)
Reed wrote a reasonable history of football at U of T which he included in this work on the history of men's athletics at the university. From 1880 onward, he does very well with the U of T portion of the history, but never really bothered to check anything about the development of football in the 19th century, or what actually happened at U of T prior to 1880. The result is a two-fold problem: his mistakes about the playing style and early development of Canadian football in the 19th century have been repeated by Currie and Cosentino and become accepted as official untruths at a national level; and his presumption that football at U of T prior to 1877 was both disorganised and undocumented has led to a lack of understanding of early football in Toronto. Reed provides a prime example of the dangers of an overreliance on secondary and anecdotal accounts of history--all of the newspaper and archival material that I have used in my research to disprove Reed's assertions were all available to him (e.g. old copies of the Toronto Mail).
Edwards, Johnny. Canadian Football. Toronto: Copp Clark, 1947. (hardcover)
Sommerville, Tedd. Canadian Football: The Pigskin Preacher. Agincourt: Sportbook, 1974.
Swinburne, Donald G., The Complete Toronto Playbook. Toronto: Book Marketing Ideas, 1978.
Cross, W. K. ed. The Charlton CFL Football Card Price Guide. Toronto: Charlton, 1991 -1993. (annual, trade paperback)
Jones, Terry. Canadian Pro Football.PaperJacks, 1981-?1985.(annual, paperback)
Stebbins, Robert. Canadian Football: View From the Helmet. London: Centre for Social and Humanistic Studies, University of Western Ontario, 1987.
Dudley, Brian. A Fan's Guide to: Canadian Football (CFL), American Football (NFL). Vancouver: Titan Pub., 1996.
Fischler, Stan. Amazing Trivia From the World of Football. Markham: Penguin Books Canada, 1984.