BC Lions


The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League, and play their home games at BC Place.
The Lions played their first season in 1954, and have played every season since, making them the oldest professional sports franchise in British Columbia. They have appeared in the league's Grey Cup championship game 10 times, winning six, with their most recent championship occurring in 2011.
The Lions were the first Western Canadian team to win the Grey Cup at home, doing so in 1994 and 2011, before Saskatchewan achieved the feat in 2013. Also in 1994, the Lions became the first and only team to play and defeat an American-based franchise for the Grey Cup. The Lions hold the second-longest playoff streak in CFL history, making the postseason 20 consecutive seasons, from 1997 to 2016. With the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Grey Cup win in 2019 after a 29-year wait, the Lions currently have the longest Grey Cup drought of the West Division teams, and the longest drought since appearing the Grey Cup, last playing and winning in 2011.

Team facts

Ownership

The BC Lions Football Club is owned by businessman Amar Doman, who was introduced as the club's owner on August 18, 2021. As of 2026, the BC Lions Football Club executive committee consisted of four people:
  • Duane Vienneau, President
  • George Chayka, Senior Vice President of Business
  • Carolyn Cody, Vice President of Business Operations & Marketing
  • Colby Fackler, Vice President of Sales & Service
  • Neil McEvoy, Vice President of Football Operations

    History

Before the Lions

Compared to the rest of the country, senior football arrived late in British Columbia. Rugby unions had been organized in all of the Prairie provinces by 1907 and the Western Canada Rugby Football Union had been formed in 1911.
However, it was not until 1926 that the British Columbia Rugby Football Union was formed, and not until 1930 that the BCRFU competed to represent the West in the Grey Cup. The black and orange Vancouver Meralomas were the most successful British Columbian team of the era. They played in the Western Final in 1930 and again in 1934, only to lose on both occasions to the Regina Roughriders of the Saskatchewan Rugby Football Union.
The BCRFU stopped challenging for the Grey Cup following the formation of the Western Interprovincial Football Union. After the BCRFU disbanded in 1941, the Vancouver Grizzlies joined the WIFU. They played only one season, finishing 1–7, before the WIFU suspended operations for the duration of the Second World War. The Grizzlies did not return after the war.

Origin of the Lions

In 1951, a group led by Ken Stauffer and Tiny Radar were inspired by Vancouver Sun columnist Andy Lytle's article to start a new football team in Vancouver that would play in the WIFU. The ownership group sent Radar and Orville Burke to represent them at the off-season WIFU meetings to initiate Vancouver's bid for a team. Radar and Burke were told to return to the meetings the following year with a $25,000 good-faith bond if they could generate sufficient interest in the Vancouver area. The first meetings were held at the Arctic Club in November and a committee headed by Burke and Harry Spring of the Meraloma Rugby Club, set out to sell memberships for $20 each.
Though Burke, Vic Spencer, and John Davidson offered the good-faith bond to the WIFU in 1952, the idea of having a Vancouver team was rejected when both Winnipeg and Saskatchewan voted against the idea of a fifth team. The group in Vancouver, however, did not give up their efforts to have a franchise in the WIFU.
On January 22, 1953, the first annual meeting of the club was held, and Arthur E. Mercer was confirmed as the club's first president. Later in the year, Mercer, Bill Morgan, Bill Ralston, and Whit Matthews went back to the WlFU meetings. One of the founding members included Indo-Canadian businessman, Jab Sidhoo. This time, they sold the idea of a fifth Western team, and Vancouver was granted a conditional franchise. They were required to provide a 15,000-seat stadium, sell at least 6,500 season tickets, and guarantee travel expenses for the visiting teams.
All the pieces began to fall into place when it was announced that Vancouver would host the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. That entailed the building of Empire Stadium, which seated 32,300 people and would be more than suitable for the new WIFU team once the Games concluded. By Easter of 1953, Annis Stukus was then lured away from the Toronto Argonauts to return to the West to become the first public relations manager, general manager, and head coach of the franchise.

Naming the team

During the rest of 1953, a fan contest was held by all of the local media to pick the new team's name. Lions was chosen because it represented a local landmark and legend of the area. The Lions are twin mountain peaks that rise northwest of Vancouver, and according to legend, resemble two mountain lions guarding the city.
After the name was chosen, Stukus decided that the team should represent and embrace the entire province of British Columbia, introducing the team to the Canadian football world as the British Columbia Lions or "BC Lions" for short.
Native to BC, the mountain lion has a strong connection to team's brand, as it is renowned for speed, courage and strength, and carefully respected as a remarkable, but dangerous predator. The new team's logo combined this animal with the black and orange colours of the Meralomas.

Indigenous recognition

In 2021, the Lions embarked on a special project to commemorate Indigenous residential schools and missing children by recognizing Orange Shirt Day, later known as the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation. Kwakwaka’wakw/Tlingit artist Corrine Hunt created a rendition of the team's logo in an Indigenous design to call attention to the families and survivors. This marked this first time attention was brought to the movement by a CFL team. The Edmonton Elks followed suit shortly afterward. The remaining teams joined in the recognition in 2023 and 2024 with redesigned logos of their own.

Notable seasons

The BC Lions have won 13 Western Conference/West Division regular-season championships and played for the Grey Cup 10 times, winning six.

First seasons (1954–1960)

For their inaugural season in 1954, Stukus sold football fever on the streets of Vancouver. The team made history when they stepped on the field of Empire Stadium for their first home game, against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, on Saturday, August 28, 1954. Fullback By Bailey scored the first touchdown in franchise history in an 8–6 loss. The first Lions win came on September 18, 1954, with Bailey scoring the winning touchdown to overtake the Calgary Stampeders 9–4. Fans celebrated in the streets, but it turned out to be their only win, as the Lions went 1–15 for the year.
In 1955, the team improved to a 5–11 record, eking out fourth place ahead of Calgary, but missing the playoffs. In October, the team's directors asked Stukus to step down as the team's head coach. While fan reaction to his dismissal was loud and divided, Stukus asked the fans to continue their support of the BC Lions. Stukus' assistant Clem Crowe was later named head coach for the upcoming 1956 season.
In 1956, the Lions again finished fourth in the West and missed the playoffs, despite improving to 6–10 in Crowe's first year.
During the offseason, Bill McMahan assumed the role of team president. One of his first duties involved him bringing back Kelowna native Herb Capozzi from the Montreal Alouettes as the new general manager. BC continued to struggle on the field, finishing the 1957 season with a 4–11–1 record, missing the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
1958 marked the beginning of the CFL era, but the Lions lost their first 5 games, en route to a league-worst 3–13 record. The team's on-field struggles compelling Capozzi to fire Crowe as the head coach and replace him with Danny Edwards, who returned after playing with the club during the 1957 season. Although it was a season to forget, rookies Tom Hinton and Sonny Homer showed promising signs of being future football stars.
Capozzi improved the team for the 1959 season, first by hiring Wayne Robinson, from Winnipeg, as the new head coach, then bringing in a corps of veteran players to add more experience to the team. This was followed by signing rookie running back Willie "the Wisp" Fleming, adding more youth to play alongside Hinton and Homer. Capozzi's moves proved successful. By winning their final regular season game, at home, over Calgary, the 1959 Lions managed both their first winning season, with a 9–7–0 record, first playoff appearance. The postseason ended with two straight losses to the Edmonton Eskimos, but the team's future looked bright heading into the 1960s.
The high hopes of the Lions heading into 1960 faded and the team finished with a 5–9–2 record, which eliminated them from playoff contention again. It was disappointing considering the addition of rookie talents Steve Cotter, Lonnie Dennis, Jim Carphin, and Neal Beaumont to a strong core of veteran and young players from the previous season. The only positive for the Lions was Beaumont winningWIFU Outstanding Rookie of the Year honors, becoming the first Lions player to win a major CFL award.

Dave Skrien and the first Grey Cup title (1961–1967)

The Lions started the 1961 season by signing former Minnesota Golden Gopher Tom Brown, but the team continued performing poorly on the field.
In September, in a trade that was considered a major gamble, the Lions received quarterback Joe Kapp from Calgary, in exchange for four players. A week later, Robinson was relieved of his duties as head coach and replaced by assistant Dave Skrien. The year ended with a 1–13–2 record.
In 1962, Skrien made an immediate impact in his first full season as head coach, finishing with a 7–9 record. After eight years of hard work, the Lions were on the verge of success for the first time.