Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Have recently become interested in the history of the Continental Football League which existed from 1965-69. Haven't been able to find any books on this circuit. Have any been written? Or is it going to fall upon me to write one?

By coincidence, Don Jonas, the Continental League's greatest player, was here in Winnipeg last week to promote the new coffee table book, "The Jonas Era", which highlights his three and a half seasons with the Blue Bombers. Jonas will always be my local sports hero.

JohnH19 wrote:By coincidence, Don Jonas, the Continental League's greatest player, was here in Winnipeg last week to promote the new coffee table book, "The Jonas Era", which highlights his three and a half seasons with the Blue Bombers. Jonas will always be my local sports hero.

Don Jonas - MVP in both CFL's!
Would love to get a copy of his book ... will have to check Amazon (hope they have it).

There are no books about the CFL listed in my bibliography.

It's a fascinating story, and the Continental League would make a great subject for a book. All of its surviving people are now senior citizens, so there's not much more time to interview anyone.

Although no individual book has been written about the CoFL, the best information about the league is in the books by the team of Bob Gill, Tod Maher and Steve Brainerd-- Minor League Football 1960-1985 was one, and there's more depth in their more recent book, Outsiders. Besides giving the background on the Continental League, it also covers the four leagues that contributed teams along the away (the ones from ACFL and the UFL that started it, the PFLA, and the Texas Football League). Not necessarily the last word on the subject, but Outsiders is a classic.

One of my football memories is seeing the Brooklyn Dodgers play the Hartford Charter Oaks
(called the Hartford Artichokes by the P.A. announcer) in a Continental Football League exhibition game at Randall's Island
in New York in 1966. I believe the general manager of the Dodgers was Jackie Robinson and their coach
was Andy Robustelli.

Among the stars of that game were Bob Gaiters, former running back for the Giants and
Tom Kennedy, who later that year in his only NFL start was the Giants quarterback in the infamous 72-41 loss
to the Redskins.

I just did some research on the game and found out that I must have gotten free tickets
since all 23,000 seats at Downing Stadium were purchased by the King Korn trading stamp company
and free tickets were given out if you purchased $5 worth of goods at one of the supermarkets
or gas stations that distributed the trading stamps.

Being a Nittany Lions football fan, I never knew of Don Jonas. From what little I just gathered, he seems like a player who Bill Belichick would have liked to have on his team; all-purpose abilities, leadership, and all.

Retro Rider wrote:

JohnH19 wrote:By coincidence, Don Jonas, the Continental League's greatest player, was here in Winnipeg last week to promote the new coffee table book, "The Jonas Era", which highlights his three and a half seasons with the Blue Bombers. Jonas will always be my local sports hero.

Don Jonas - MVP in both CFL's!

Don Jonas 1969 Orlando CFL.jpg

Would love to get a copy of his book ... will have to check Amazon (hope they have it).

You should be able to order it through mcnallyrobinson.com

JohnH19 wrote:You should be able to order it through mcnallyrobinson.com

Thanks John. I also found some information about it here (a future volume about early Winnipeg FB will be another welcome addition):

http://forums.cfl.ca/cfl-talk/1/new-cfl-books/104497/

Retro Rider wrote:

JohnH19 wrote:You should be able to order it through mcnallyrobinson.com

Thanks John. I also found some information about it here (a future volume about early Winnipeg FB will be another welcome addition):

http://forums.cfl.ca/cfl-talk/1/new-cfl-books/104497/

You might also want to order this one:

http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/97809869 ... quiet-hero