Quebec Rifles
March 5, 2019
The Quebec Rifles joined the United Football League as an expansion team in 1964. The Montreal-based team adopted the nickname of its local hero Head Coach, former Montreal Alouettes quarterback Sam “The Rifle” Etcheverry. The Rifles were a geographic anomaly in the eight-team UFL, a minor league loop based in the Midwestern U.S. with clubs in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and West Virginia. In Canada, the Rifles were the first team to play pro football under American, rather than Canadian, rules. The team moved to Toronto in 1965.
