I'm absolutely loving these updates across the board. The Blue Wings look amazing, the updated wings are perfect, but I will admit I'm not the biggest fan of the winged B. I also really like the tweaks you made to Minnesota, the silver pants really bring the whole look together.

Calgary Tigers

The Calgary Football Club was founded in 1920. The club joined the WFU as a founding member. The team’s founding owner was Bill Barker, who was very close to Edmonton owner and WFU founder Greg Mackenzie. Bill led a very strong team during the first decade of the WFU, making 6 Mackenzie Cups and winning 2 of them. In the mid-30s Bill would become ill and handed over the team to his son, Hank Barker. Hank would breathe new life into the team and they would return to the Mackenzie Cup to win back-to-back titles in 1938 and 1939. Following WW2, the Tigers would not quite be at the level they were going into the war, but they would capture a 5th title in 1949. Under Hank’s leadership, the team would continue to be a consistent contender, winning 3 more cups in 1952, 1957, and 1959. The Tigers would go through a couple of tough seasons in the early 60s but made it back to the big game in 1965. The team would continue to be competitive through the 60s, but in 1967, Hank would, unfortunately, pass away, leaving the team to his son Albert Barker. Albert had zero desire to own a football team, so he sold the team, thus ending the Barker family’s ownership of the Tigers. 

Tyler McNeil would purchase the team from the Barker family ahead of the 1968 season. McNeil was certainly a different style of owner than the Barkers before him. The Barkers were very traditional football team owners, that cared for the history of the team and the success on the field. McNeil on the other hand was much different. Sure, he obviously respected the history, but he certainly seemed to have a much more open mind when it came to changes being made to the organization, which to some could be a good thing, to others, not so much. McNeil has not made too many dramatic changes, but that could change in the near future. Either way, the WFU owners, especially Mark Livingston of the Vancouver Wolves, appreciate the perspective that McNeil has when it comes to ownership, as the WFU has needed to start thinking about the future a little more. 

The Team
The 1960s saw the Tigers team fall from their usually competitive position. They still made a couple of Mackenzie Cup appearances, mostly due to their coach Arnold Irvine. Irvine is easily the best coach the team has ever had. He was great friends with Hank Barker, and so when Barker passed away, Irvine decided he would retire at the end of the 1968 season. Irvine led the team back to the Mackenzie Cup in his final year, and then parted ways with the organization. 

McNeil was thrilled with the opportunity to bring in a coach of his choosing. He would certainly make a wild decision, hiring Alberta Provincial University Coach, Travis Hobson. Hobson had been getting some attention for his unorthodox, wild west offence. The offence was quite wild with lots of options, reverses, passes onto passes, and just about everything you can think of. On top of that, it’s a very fast-tempo offence with lots of no-huddle play calls. Hobson’s first season in 1969 as head coach was not great, but they are hoping as Hobson has the chance to get the offence installed they will improve. 

Last season, the offence revolved around a pair of running backs. RB John Drexel brought the speed to make big plays happen, while the veteran RB Tyler Smith was more of a power back. The Tigers like to run a lot of looks with both players on the field. The team does have a bit of a QB controversy on their hands. QB Jerome Sheppard was a steady QB with decent arm strength, that helped the team get to the Mackenzie Cup in 1968, but he struggled in the new offence which allowed the younger QB Jesse Essex to get into the game. Essex’s run-first style does give the wild west offence another option on the ground and seemed to work better in Hobson’s system. The team also had a couple of solid WRs in Ted Jackson and Spencer Hicks. While the offence does get more of the attention, the Tigers are packing some punch on defence with one of the best DLs in the WFU in Damian Battles, who is paired up with the Barrett twins in Chris and Roger. Junior Abbott is the anchor at LB and DB Scott Summerhayes has done well to create a lot of turnovers for the team in the secondary. The Tigers may still not be the best team out of the WFU, but they are certainly one of the most intriguing. 

The Brand
Most of the WFU teams would not be getting a massive change to their looks with the designs coming on short notice. However, Tyler McNeil certainly had some changes he wanted to make. 

Logos: The team does continue to use the same “C” logo that they have had for a long time, but the colours are the most noticeable difference. For a while, the Tigers were an orange and black team, but in the last decade they had added red to the look, but now black was now gone from the brand. 

Uniforms: The new jerseys are a completely new design. The home remains orange primarily, but now 7 stripes (4 red, 3 orange) are on each sleeve which are on white bases. The number font was changed for the jerseys after Tyler McNeil got to see the Boston Independents’ numbers and asked for those specifically. The road is not too different, although the colour of the stripes on the sleeves is opposite the home jersey. 

Stadium and Field: The Tigers play out of Tigers Stadium at the Stampede, which is located on the Calgary Stampede grounds near downtown. The Stadium is the newest facility in the WFU, being opened in 1963, and seats 32,400 regularly. There are some plans to expand the stadium if the NAAF deal works out and the team gains more success. As for the field design, the new orange-red marks fill the endzone with “Calgary” and the “C” is at midfield. The field numbers also get the treatment of the team’s font.
 

Edmonton Rangers

The Edmonton Football Club was founded in 1910 and was a founding member of the Alberta Football Championship. By 1917, ownership of the team would transfer over to Greg Mackenzie. Mackenzie saw lots of potential for a strong inter-provincial league during his early days of owning the team. He would pave the way for the WFU to be formed with its original 4 teams. While Greg Mackenzie made waves off the field the team was dominant on the field. Edmonton would capture 3 of the first 4 Mackenzie Cups in the WFU. A few years later, the team would be the first to capture 3 Mackenzie Cups in a row between 1932 and 1934. During the second set of championships, the Edmonton Football Club would officially take on the nickname of Rangers. The name comes from the area around the team’s Stadium, located at Forest Heights Park. The building was surrounded by trees and a park, leading to the team being deemed the park’s rangers. The name would catch on and Greg Mackenzie would make it official in 1935. 

After WW2, the Rangers would continue to have success winning 3 more championships in the late 40s-early 50s. In 1952, Greg Mackenzie would fall ill and passed away at 79. His son, and current owner, Norman Mackenzie would take over. Norm admired his father. He was his hero and he would do everything in his power to keep his dad’s legacy intact. Norm’s leadership would keep the Rangers competitive as they would make 6 Mackenzie Cups during the remainder of the 1950s, winning 2. Then the team would rise to power in the 60s, winning 4 more Cups and replicating the Ottawa Royals’ 7 consecutive appearances in the Championship game. While Norm was hesitant about the decision to accept the partnership, he has now shifted focus to the upcoming season and hopes his team can remain competitive in the NAAF.

The Team
The Rangers are still riding the tail end of their 1960s success. They are led by Coach Pat Gilliam, who is a classic rough and tough coach. He believes games are won in the trenches, hence why the team has a very strong O-line and D-line. The stars on the OL are Matthew Miller, Charles Creighton, and Phillip Caron, while James Chambers, Stu Godfrey, and Steven Montgomery, man the D-line. They also have a pair of mean LBs in Frank St. John and Herb Landry. Offensively, expect strong play from their run game behind the O-line. RB Gary Hubbard is hoping to continue his strong run as one of the leading rushers in the WFU over the last 5 years. The team has some key pieces, but age is certainly going to become a concern with many stars hitting their 30s. The biggest concern could be 37-year-old QB Blair Collins. Luckily, Collins’ pocket passing play style isn’t too intense which could mean a couple of years of play still in him. The team does have some youth at WR with 26-year-old, Alex Browne Sr., and 24-year-old Shay Hopkins likely leading the way this season.

The Brand
Going into the NAAF, the Rangers had a pretty dated brand. The team’s logo was a drawn depiction of Eddie the Owl, the team’s mascot. Due to the NAAF’s new rules, the team would need a bit of a change in the logo. It certainly stung for Norman Mackenzie to have to see the logo changed, but Oscar Patterson made sure to work closely with Norman to make sure the brand felt right. Mackenzie appreciated the dedication.

Logos: The new logo features Eddie as he perches on a branch, inside of a roundel. The Roundel features the full name of the team. The team’s colours of Green and cream are primarily featured, but Eddie remains brown as he was in the previous design.

Uniforms: The Rangers uniforms are about as simple as you can get for uniforms. Plain green jersey with just numbers. Cream pants with a single green stripe, and plain green socks. The simple jersey has been a staple for the team for a very long time, so Mackenzie was very stubborn about making any changes. 

Stadium and Field: The team plays at Forest Heights Park, which is both the name of the park and the stadium that is located there. It’s an old and fairly cozy stadium, tucked in amongst the trees. The team has been playing at the building since 1914, but the stadium has seen countless renovations and expansions over the years to the point where it now holds 28,500 people and doesn’t feel too old. There are conversations starting about the city providing a new stadium for the team in a better location, but Norman has not been willing to part ways with the historic building yet. The field is pretty simple with no major designs, just the outline of the new Eddie the Owl logo.
 

Last edited by Wallflower (2/12/2023 5:47 pm)

Regina Wheat Kings

The Regina Football Club was founded in 1925, just two years before it made the move to the WFU. The Football Club had replaced a previous Regina team that had stopped operations 2 years before. The team’s founder, Archie Carson, was a great team builder and was able to put together some strong teams with limited talent throughout the 1930s. Unfortunately, the Great Depression would hit Carson and the Football Club. Despite an appearance in the Mackenzie Cup in 1936, the team would fold after the season. 

In 1948, football would return to Regina in the form of the Regina Threshers. Carson was the primary owner for the first couple of years, as he laid the foundation of the team’s only championship season in 1951. However, Carson would step away from the organization with money continuing to be an issue. Over the next decade or so, the team would go through a couple of different owners, but none were able to provide financial stability. Eventually, the team was bought by the city and funded by the citizens. It was not a long-term solution, but they hoped they would finally find suitable ownership. In 1964, they would finally get one in the form of agribusiness mogul, Bill Kingsley. Kingsley had deep pockets after creating a very successful business in the province and was easily the richest owner to take control of the team. Of course, he would make some changes to the team. The most notable was the team’s name. He renamed them the Regina Wheat Kings. Despite the marketing jargon that Kingsley spread about the name change, most knew it was to get his own name on the team. Many of the fans were not happy with the name change, but they would accept since they would get to keep their football team. Kingsley has stabilized the team over the last few years and hopes that he can eventually get a new stadium built for the team to bring in some more fans. Kingsley was the only owner to vote against the agreement with the NAAF, as he is concerned that Regina won’t be able to keep up with the larger markets and that he could lose his team.

The Team
While Kingsley has brought stability off the field, the team on the field is very rough. They are led by Head Coach, Wayne Combs. Combs is a pretty inexperienced coach, having only 2 seasons at the small school of Saskatchewan A&M prior to joining the Wheat Kings last season. Combs’ system is pretty bare-bones. On the field, the team is led by journeyman QB, Rusty Lamb, who had previous stints with Calgary and Winnipeg. RB Deion Chapman is a pretty solid option out of the backfield, with some potential. Luckily the team has an alright O-line made up of a lot of local talent that should help Chapman. Their best WR is Nick Spalding, who is pretty solid, but not a typical #1 option. Their biggest star is DL Pete Gingers, who is from Regina. The local star has desired to stay with the team over the years despite the poor play. DB Madison McGee, LB Brett Pride, and DB Chris Berrymore are also all solid players, but the depth is where the team is expected to crumble. Expect the Wheat Kings to be a bit of a mess in their first season in the NAAF.

Brand
The Wheat Kings have been using a basic script “R” as a logo for a while now, so Kingsley wanted the Patterson team to come up with a new set of logos. They were hard at work and they came through with an okay result given the time crunch. 

Logos: The team did try to pitch a logo with the R and a single stock of wheat next to it, as the primary, but Kingsley insisted on a crown being included. So, the team would make up a logo, that they were not as satisfied with. The crown featured the same “R” but with two stocks of wheat and 7 gems included on the crown. The other logo would remain as the secondary mark in the team’s brand. 

Uniforms: When the Regina Football Club originally joined the WFU they were forced to change away from their green uniforms since Edmonton already had dark green uniforms and only wanted one jersey. Regina, not having the money, would also want a single jersey so they simply changed to be a team that wore gold all the time both home and away. The new look stuck for the team and they have kept that branding going into this season. The home jersey is a gold-on-gold uniform with green features, while the road is much the same just with a white uniform. The helmet does feature the secondary mark, which the team convinced Kingsley to allow on the helmet after saying it would be cheaper and easier since they had already put the stickers into production, having thought that they had the design down.

Stadium and Field: The Wheat Kings play at Broad Street Stadium in downtown Regina. The stadium is far and away the smallest in the NAAF and the WFU, only holding 19,000, and that is with some temporary seating being added for this upcoming season. It was opened in 1948, just before the team returned to the WFU. Its age and size are both major reasons Kingsley is hoping to get a new stadium built soon. The field features the crown at midfield and a simple block letter “Regina” in each endzone. 

TheEnigmaticOne wrote:

Gotta say I really like the Regina Wheat Kings branding.

 Just a question, maybe I skimmed the owners meetings, but I've heard people say that the WFU membership in the NAAF was temporary, is this true? Last I had heard the merger was permanent.

I have no clue where you read about it being permanent because I have only said it was temporary. So yes it is temporary.

Last edited by Wallflower (2/13/2023 9:18 pm)