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Originally Posted by Razor
Good write up! The CFL really does have a long rich tradition that a lot of people aren't aware of...Someone please explain to me why two teams in a then 6 team league were named The "Roughriders"?
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Canada once had two separate leagues, one in the east and one in the west.
The Ottawa Rough Riders were the first team with that name. When a team was formed in Saskatchewan I suppose they liked the name (the early Ottawa club was also quite successful) and they chose it with a slight difference in spelling: Roughriders. It would be like if the NFL and CFL merged today, you'd have two Lions clubs: BC and Detroit. (Though not sure if the BC Lions are named for the Detroit club.)
When the two leagues merged to create the CFL (in the 1950s?) neither club wanted to give up their name. And initially the CFL's clubs played mostly regional schedules, west in the west, east in the east. So the Rough Riders playing the Roughriders didn't happen that often. Eventually they moved to a fully interlocking schedule where each team played the other team once at home and once on the road.
We've actually had the Rough Riders playing the Roughriders in the Grey Cup more than once. In 1976 I definitely recall.