August 5, 1959: The 1st Football Game Between U.S. & Canadian Teams

August 5, 1959: For the 1st time, a professional football team from the United States played one from Canada.

The game was played at the Canadian National Exhibition Stadium (or just "Exhibition Stadium"), the brand-new home of the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, and later also the home of baseball's Toronto Blue Jays and soccer's Toronto Blizzard.

The Argos were in a down period in their history: This would be the 4th straight season in which they didn't make the Playoffs, and from 1953 to 1970, they didn't make the Grey Cup Final even once. They would finish 4-10 in CFL play that season.

The NFL team was the Chicago Cardinals, and they weren't doing so hot, either. They would finish 2-10. They'd had only 1 winning season since 1949. The team had won the NFL Championship Game in 1947 and gotten back but lost it in 1948, but the death of team owner Charles Bidwill had left the team in the hands of his widow, Violet. She soon remarried, to Walter Wolfner, and neither one of them knew much about running a football team.

This was a week off in the CFL's regular season, and the preseason for the NFL. The rules of the 2 leagues were mixed. The field had the larger dimensions of Canadian football: 110 yards long instead of 100, 25-yard-deep end zones instead of 10, 65 yards wide instead of 53 1/3rd. They used CFL rules on kicks and returns, with no fair catch. They used the NFL's rules of 11 men on a side instead of the CFL's 12, and 4 downs to make a 1st down instead of the CFL's 10.

But the Cardinals had an unfair advantage: Their coach, Frank "Pop" Ivy, had coached in the CFL, with the Edmonton Eskimos (the team now known as the Edmonton Elks). The Argos jumped out to a 13-1 lead -- the Cards having scored a "single," or "rouge," a dead-ball foul that doesn't exist in American football rules -- but it was all Cards after that, as they won, 55-26.

Tired of playing 2nd fiddle in Chicago to the Bears, the Cardinals moved to St. Louis for the 1960 season. In that season, the Argonauts invited the Pittsburgh Steelers to play them. The Steelers won, 43-16. In 1961, the Cardinals came up to Toronto again, and won, 36-7. That same year, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats hosted the AFL's Buffalo Bills, and won a victory for Canada, 38-21. There have been no more games between CFL and U.S. professional teams.

Violet Wolfner died in 1962. Her sons Bill and Charles Jr. won a power struggle with their stepfather for control of the team, and rebuilt. They went 9-3 in 1963, 9-3-2 in 1964 (finishing 2nd in the Western Division), and were usually at least good for as long as they were in St. Louis.

Bill bought Charles Jr. out in 1972, and the Cards won the NFC East in 1974 and 1975. But they mostly struggled in the 1980s, and Bill moved them to the Phoenix area in 1988. In 1993, he changed the name from the Phoenix Cardinals to the Arizona Cardinals. They reached Super Bowl XLIII in 2009, and the NFC Championship Game in 2016.

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August 5, 1959 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-0 at Yankee Stadium. Bobby Shantz pitched a 5-hit shutout. Mickey Mantle hit a 2-run home run. Al Kaline went 0-for-4.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Kansas City Athletics, 17-6 at Fenway Park in Boston. Frank Malzone hit 2 home runs, and Ted Williams went 1-for-3 with an RBI.

* A doubleheader was split at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. The Chicago White Sox won the opener, 2-0. Barry Latman pitched a 3-hit shutout. The Baltimore Orioles won the nightcap, 7-1. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-7 on the day.

* A doubleheader was split at Griffith Stadium in Washington. The Cleveland Indians won the 1st game, 7-3. The Washington Senators won the 2nd game, 9-0. Tex Clevenger pitched a 7-hit shutout.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-4 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Ernie Banks hit a home run in the losing cause.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-0 at Busch Stadium (formerly Sportsman's Park) in St. Louis. Ernie Broglio, later to be traded for Lou Brock, pitched a 4-hit shutout. Stan Musial went 1-for-4. Roberto Clemente went 0-for-4.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 6-3 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Duke Snider hit 2 home runs. Frank Robinson went 1-for-4 with an RBI.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Milwaukee Braves, 4-1 at Seals Stadium in San Francisco. Willie McCovey, on his way to being named National League Rookie of the Year, hit 2 home runs. Willie Mays went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Hank Aaron went 0-for-4, but still went on to win the NL's batting title.