Campbell’s ive-in-a-row, 1978–82 team and Pop Ivy’s 1954–56 club are the two most celebrated teams in league history. Also through those years, Edmonton has made 23 Grey Cup appearances, Hamilton 20, Winnipeg and Montreal 16, Toronto and Calgary 14, Saskatchewan 12, B.C. 10, Ottawa 8, and Baltimore 2. Edmonton’s community-owned franchise has inished irst in the West 23 times, second on 21 occasions, and third 11 times. Campbell’s ive-in-a-row, 1978–82 team and Pop Ivy’s 1954–56 club are the two most celebrated teams in league history. And in 2016, with quarterback Mike Reilly leading a core group of talented players going into the prime years of their career, many expect yet another spectacular Edmonton era may be at hand. Add up the irst- and second-place inishes, and that’s a lot more home playof games than anybody else has posted. In fact, former head coach Hugh Campbell said that having a home playof game in each of his irst 25 years with the organization was his ultimate accomplishment, as he looked back on his six trips to the Grey Cup in six seasons as a coach and on all his years of keeping the playof streak alive until he stepped down as GM and CEO. “I took a lot of pride in having home playof games,” said Campbell. “It’s a remarkable record, and I really believe a lot of the credit should go to people like Joe Healy and Jim Hole, two former presidents. hey decided to put a guy in charge and let him do the job without interference from the board members. In all that time, there was only Norm Kimball and myself in that job. he orders from headquarters haven’t changed. Nobody else has had anywhere near that kind of consistency.” he numbers are impressive. Going into the 2016 season, the Eskimos had played 1,126 regular season games. hey’d won 646 of them and tied another 18. Edmonton’s all-time record at home is 372–184–7, and the team is only four games under .500 on the road, at 274–278–11. In Commonwealth Stadium, the Eskimos have put together a staggering record of 233–97–2. hey have a winning record against every team in the league. he CFL record book is loaded with numbers that tell the story of the Eskimos over the years: most consecutive winning seasons (14), most wins in a regular season (16), most yards rushing in a regular season (4,345), most touchdowns in a regular season (46), and on and on. he stats include dozens of playof and Grey Cup team records, as well as individual records galore. And these numbers don’t even include the two highest winning percentages among coaches of all time, Campbell’s .773 and Pop Ivy’s .772, or Campbell’s marks for most consecutive irst-place inishes (six), most consecutive Grey Cup appearances (six) and most consecutive Grey Cup wins (ive). he two most storied CFL teams are arguably Campbell’s ivein-a-row Eskimos of 1978 through 1982 and Ivy’s three-in-arow Eskimos of 1954 through 1956. But it hasn’t been about just the numbers. John Tory, Canadian Football League commissioner from 1996 to 2000, said, “I’ve been exposed to a number of leagues and a number of teams in pro sport, and I’ve come to know the Edmonton Eskimos are one of the great organizations in pro sports. here’s been something special about it for a long, long time.” 228
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