At the beginning of the 1987 season, there were 29 teams across five different Conferences in the CJFL.
Incredibly of those 29 teams, seven of them finished with just one loss. It showed just how well balanced the CJFL was in the “Year of the Rabbit.”
The road to the Canadian Bowl started with the Conference winners, who were:
BCFC – Okanagan Sun
PFC – Regina Rams
MJFC – St. Vital Mustangs
OFC – Windsor AKO Fratmen
QMJFC – North Shore Broncos
To determine the final two teams to play for national gold, three Inter-Conference playoff games need to be played. The Rams were the first team to punch their ticket to the Canadian Bowl, which they would host after a 45-23 win over the Sun.
Meanwhile the Ontario champion Fratmen disposed of the Quebec champion Broncos 24-6, but then were pounded by the Manitoba champion Mustangs 52-14. That victory advanced the Mustangs to face the Rams in the national championship game.
In 1987 the CJFL trophy was called the Armadale Cup, which was played in Regina on November 15th in front of 7,492 screaming fans. The Rams made sure they would continue to scream with a 31-23 victory to claim the national title on home soil. It was the Rams second straight championship and fourth of the decade.
The night before the big game the CJFL handed out some hardware at the Banquet of Champions. David Wheeler of the Winnipeg Hawkeyes was named the Offensive Player of the Year while Ian Gordon of Victoria Payless was named the Defensive Player of the Year.
Off the field in 1987, Three Men and a Baby was the top grossing movie at the box office collecting $167,780,960. It starred Tom Selleck, Ted Danson and Steve Guttenberg. Meanwhile The Bangles, Walk Like an Egyptian was at the top of the Billboard Charts. Speaking of music, U2 released Joshua Tree while Michael Jackson released “Bad” and Aretha Franklin becomes the first woman to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
In the 75th Grey Cup in Vancouver, Edmonton scored 17-fourth quarter points and beat Toronto 38-36. As a matter of fact the City of Edmonton celebrated another sports championship in ‘87 when the Oilers beat the Philadelphia Flyers in seven games to win the Stanley Cup. Down south the New York Giants took down the Denver Broncos 39-20 in Super Bowl 21.
Finally, there was an animated television showed that made its debut as a short on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987, and you may recognize this show as it still airs new episodes here in 2020; The Simpsons.
That was the year of 1987!
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