National Defence Football League

There will be a new page going up soon for the National Defence Football League. This was a small league made up largely of police and military personnel that began play in 1968.

As the article below from a November 1968 issue of the Ottawa Journal explains, the RCMP Huskies were quite dominant initially and that may have made for some lackluster contests in that initial season.

If not particularly competitive, the league seemed to strike a chord with folks. Its teams became better organized and professional in appearance and for the next couple of years, their games were often said to draw in the range 1,500 to 2,500 spectators.

In 1970, a fifth team joined the league, the Trenton Broncos but at the start of the 1972 season, the Uplands team was no longer included.

Coverage of the league is minimal in 1973 and non-existent beyond that year from what I can gather so perhaps the novelty wore off. But the league did capture the imagination for a few years in the late 60s and early 70s and for that, I plan on keeping a record of its results.