Calgary Stampeders

Description:

• The Stamps, as they're known, marked their 60th year of competition in 2005. The venerable Canadian Football League team has won the Grey Cup, the league championship, five times. The CFL game -- Canada's top pro football league -- has subtle differences to the one played in the National Football League, such as a larger field (110 yards long vs. 100 yards, and 65 yards wide vs. 53 1/2 yards) and only three downs vs. four. But aficionados argue that the extra room only serves to make the game more exciting. Some players who flourished in the NFL were CFL stars first, and the Stampeders boast two marquee quarterbacks in Doug Flutie, who starred later with the Buffalo Bills, and Jeff Garcia, who played for San Francisco, Philadelphia, Detroit, and Tampa Bay in the NFL. The Stamps, as they're known, play at McMahon Stadium, a gloriously open outdoor stadium on the campus of the University of Calgary.

• © Frommer's 2012