Canada. From the ashes of NASL professional football was reborn in Canada – it was a second attempt, after short-lived Eastern Canada Professional Soccer League, which lasted from 1961 to 1965. 8 teams participated in the first championship of the Canadian Soccer League – their rosters were mainly made of former NASL players, but it was modest affair compared to NASL: no big foreign names were hired, it was largely domestic talent. The difficulties were old and obvious: travel concerns, which inevitably were money concerns. Soccer existed in Canada since late 19th century, failing to even register in the minds of the mainstream population, so there was little hope for big attendance to cover the costs. Thus, the championship formula was odd – the teams were divided in two Divisions, Eastern and Western, 4 teams each. They played 4 times against opponents in the same Division and twice against opponents from the other Division – that made a regular season of 20 games, after which the play-offs started – first a Division final, between the top in each division: a semifinal between the 2nd and the 3rd and then the winner played against the division winner. And then the division champions played the final for the league title. The original members were: Hamilton Steelers, Otawa Pioneers, Toronto Blizzard, and North York Rockets in the Eastern Division and Vancouver 86ers, Calgary Kickers, Edmonton Brickmen, and Winnipeg Fury in the Western Division.
Here is the long forgotten Winnipeg Fury – they happened to be weak in the opening season – only North York Rockets finished with worse record than theirs.
The very first league game was played in Aylmer, Quebec, which was the home of Ottawa Pioneers, in front of 2500 fans. That sums it all: a team had no big money to play on big venue, sometimes having to play out of town just because of it and in turn it was practically impossible to get real exposure and built bigger fan-base. Small crowds, small out of the way venues, just trying to survive. But never mind, football is tough. Hamilton Steelers won the Eastern Division followed by Ottawa Pioneers. In the Western Division Calgary Kickers was best, followed by Vancouver 86ers. Then the real championship started in earnest: in the Eastern semifinal Ottawa lost to Toronto 1-2. However, Hamilton was best – at the final they won 1-0 against Toronto Blizzard.
In the West Vancouver eliminated Edmonton 2-1, but in the final Calgary still remained best, beating Vancouver 86ers 4-3.
In the big league final the West prevailed: Calgary won 2-1 vs Hamilton.
Hamilton Steelers ended second – not bad at all.
Calgary Kickers won the first professional championship of Canada Soccer League.