Canadian Armchair Football

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sj-roc
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Location: Kerrisdale

Anyone recall this board game from the 1980s? I suppose some on here had it at one point, perhaps still have it.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/257 ... r-football

I was unaware of the existence of this boardgame until just the other day when I spotted the box it comes in from a perhaps unlikely source.

Hill's, a clothing store in the Kerrisdale shopping district near the corner of W Boulevard & 41st Avenue, almost always has some sort of themed window display going on, often of a retro nature and sometimes having little/nothing to do with clothing. The theme of their current display is old board games. Some of the familiar ones of broader appeal that almost anyone old enough to recall the 70s and 80s were there, like Sorry!, Battleship, Operation, Mad Magazine game, etc etc. CAF, an officially licenced CFL product with the old leaf-on-helmet league logo on the box, was also among them. In most cases (CAF is one) they only have the box each game came in hung up on the back wall of the display as opposed to the actual board/game pieces.

There was also another Canadian football board game box in the display; it was a more generic product — not CFL-sanctioned — simply called "Canadian Football" IIRC. The artwork on the box was a very generic live action football scene with no logos on helmets.
Sports can be a peculiar thing. When partaking in fiction, like a book or movie, we adopt a "Willing Suspension of Disbelief" for enjoyment's sake. There's a similar force at work in sports: "Willing Suspension of Rationality". If you doubt this, listen to any conversation between rival team fans. You even see it among fans of the same team. Fans argue over who's the better QB or goalie, and selectively cite stats that support their views while ignoring those that don't.
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David
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sj-roc wrote:There was also another Canadian football board game box in the display; it was a more generic product — not CFL-sanctioned — simply called "Canadian Football" IIRC. The artwork on the box was a very generic live action football scene with no logos on helmets.
I used to have that board game - it was from the early to mid 70s IIRC. Kind of a dumb game; you just spin a dial and move the cardboard block of 12 "players" forward (or backward) down the 'field' depending on what you spin.

Hills in Kerrisdale always has cool retro window displays even though it's a fashion outlet. Not sure how they obtained them, but they do a display every year of (blown up) public school class photos from the late 60's and early 70s from all the neighboring schools. Pretty hilarious!


DH :cool:
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