In any event, the CFL frequently plays on Saturdays. Becoming the first American team to play in the CFL. But the record was only good enough for fifth place in the tough West Division. Copyright: © 2020 ESPN Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved. The Gold Miners also entered the CFL record books by recording the most wins by an expansion team with 6 wins (the record was broken the following year by the Baltimore Stallions). Unable to persuade Sacramento State to upgrade Hornet Stadium to something approaching professional standards, Anderson tried to get the city to build a new stadium for the Gold Miners and his minor-league baseball club, the Modesto A's. McKenzie Milton told ESPN he feels "normal" now that he is back out on the practice field and has experienced no problems with his surgically repaired knee. Additionally, several players and administrators made the switch from the WLAF to the CFL. Deciding that Hornet Stadium was inadequate even for temporary use, Anderson decided to look for a new home for the Gold Miners. Every player will be able to choose their favorite team to wear this season. FOOTBALL FLASHBACK: GAME NOTES FOR OCT. 11-17 October 16, 2020 Sacramento State was scheduled to play at Montana this weekend. Visit ESPN to view the Sacramento State Hornets team roster for the current season. But the team was fortunate enough to have leadership from Archer and got great plays from Harris. Their nearest opponent was the BC Lions, over 890 miles away. Becoming the first American team to host a CFL game, against the, Becoming the first American team to record a win in the CFL, against the, This page was last edited on 1 June 2020, at 03:58. These players included starting quarterback David Archer, Carl Parker (WR), Rod Harris (WR), George Bethune (DT), Mike Oliphant (RB) and Mike Pringle (RB). The franchise was the first American team in the Canadian Football League. American team in the Canadian Football League, Comparison of Canadian and American football, List of defunct American and Canadian professional football teams, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sacramento_Gold_Miners&oldid=960101351, Defunct American football teams in California, Canadian football teams in the United States, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Harris was also selected as a member of the 1993 CFL All-Star Team, which showed signs that the team had a good mix of players and staff to improve on for the following season. Gold Miners games were broadcast on KFBK radio and KRBK-TV with Tim Roye and Lee Grosscup on radio and Grant Napear and Jack Youngblood on television. Anderson, however, could not come to terms with the local governments. Jersey Selection January 14, 2020. The positives for the franchise were the facts that they had a 5–4 home record and were ranked 5th in team defense. The Gold Miners made a decided improvement from their 1993 inaugural season with a 9–8–1 record. Attorney for group of ex-players fires back at Iowa Hawkeyes. Toomey Field seated just over 10,000 people—only half the minimum capacity for a CFL stadium. The stadium was also uncovered, and offered no protection from Sacramento's often oppressive summer heat. Despite a mediocre on-field record, the Gold Miners represented a serious attempt to form a viable professional football organization. Attendance did hover around 15,000 per game, but it was widely known that as many as 2,000 of those 15,000 were given free tickets. As with the team, it took Stephenson some time to adapt to the Canadian game, but he was eventually successful. When the WLAF suspended operations in 1992, Surge owner Fred Anderson received a franchise in the CFL after that league expanded to the United States in 1993. Years later, Sacramento State would upgrade Hornet Stadium to professional standards to accommodate the Sacramento Mountain Lions. Las Vegas won the game, 32–26. In 1993 the average home attendance was 16,979, but in 1994 the average home attendance fell to 14,226. It only had threadbare amenities, and fans were forced to use port-a-potties. As it was, the Gold Miners finished one point behind the 10-8 Saskatchewan Roughriders for the last playoff spot in the West. The American Football League also played one game in Canada against a CFL team in 1961, with CFL's Hamilton defeating AFL's Buffalo, 38–21. Teams will play dark vs white jersey. Rick Mueller, the team's wide receivers coach (after serving as a defensive assistant with the Surge) and later director of player personnel, later would become general manager of the Omaha Nighthawks in the United Football League. Since the San Antonio club that was also supposed to be a part of the 1993 expansion had folded, the Gold Miners were the only American team in the CFL during the 1993 season. With the season being... Sacramento State was scheduled to play Dixie State this weekend in the first... Sacramento State was scheduled to play at Idaho State this weekend in its Big... Travis Adams threw seven shutout innings on the road Sunday at UC Irvine, leading the Hornets to an 8-0 shutout win in the series finale. Penn State RB Journey Brown could miss season with medical condition. Sacramento was ranked fourth in team defense, behind Calgary, Edmonton and Baltimore — the teams with the three best records in the league. A civil rights attorney stated a group of eight Black former Iowa players' demands in a letter to the university earlier this month, demanding $20 million and the firings of head coach Kirk Ferentz, offensive line coach Brian Ferentz and AD Gary Barta. In their second season, the Gold Miners were no longer the lone American team as the CFL introduced three new teams: the Las Vegas Posse, the Shreveport Pirates and the Baltimore Stallions (who were known as the CFLers when the NFL did not allow the Colts name to be used). The Texans only played one season in San Antonio before the CFL exited the American market. The two teams could be seen as one and the same. These players included starting quarterback David Archer, Carl Parker (WR), Rod Harris (WR), George Bethune (DT), However, the only other football stadiums in the area, Sacramento City College's Charles C. Hughes Stadium (where the Surge had played in 1991) and UC Davis' Toomey Field, were similarly unacceptable. Prior to that, the Columbus Bullies of the American Football League (1940) played the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1941 in a three-game series, which Columbus won, 2 games to 1. The Gold Miners inherited a home stadium, front office staff and much of the roster of the Sacramento Surge from the defunct World League of American Football. The Gold Miners finished the season with a 6–12 record, which placed them in last place of the West Division. Offer vaild through Oct. 31, 2020, FOOTBALL FLASHBACK: GAME NOTES FOR OCT. 11-17, SACRAMENTO STATE OPTS OUT OF 2021 BIG SKY SPRING FOOTBALL SEASON, FOOTBALL FLASHBACK: GAME NOTES FOR OCT. 4-10, FOOTBALL FLASHBACK: GAME NOTES FOR SEPT. 27-OCT. 3, FOOTBALL FLASHBACK: GAME NOTES FOR SEPT. 20-26. In their first season, the Sacramento Gold Miners entered the CFL history books by: It is sometimes stated that the Gold Miners were the first American team to play against a Canadian team and to play on Canadian soil when they were the guests of the Ottawa Rough Riders (losing 32–23) on July 7. The two teams could be seen as one and the same. When the 1993 CFL season started, the Gold Miners, with an all-US staff, took some time to learn the intricacies of Canadian football. Penn State running back Journey Brown could miss the 2020 season because of a medical condition discovered during the offseason, the team confirmed Monday night. UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton running scout team, eyes return. He planned to complete a project that had been started several years earlier to lure the Raiders to Sacramento, but had ended up being mothballed. Archer appeared to throw a game-winning touchdown pass to Freeman Baysinger, but the officials ruled that it had short-hopped into Baysinger's hands. Anderson and Baltimore Stallions owner Jim Speros were considered the only truly dedicated US CFL owners. As it turned out, this would be the last game the team would play in Sacramento. This distance was partially lessened when the CFL added the Las Vegas Posse for the 1994 season, but that team's collapse after only one season left the Gold Miners once again far isolated from even their American competitors (the only other American teams, Shreveport and Baltimore, were 1,900 and 2,700 miles away, respectively). The two entities had the same colors (aqua and yellow) and head coach (Kay Stephenson). Additionally, several players and administrators made the switch from the WLAF to the CFL. At the time, it was made up mostly of temporary-style bleacher seats. The team played its home games at Hornet Stadium. Sacramento State was scheduled to play at Montana this weekend. They had to market themselves, receiving no assistance from the CFL. Another drag on attendance was Hornet Stadium, which was well below the standards expected for a professional football team. One notable team administrator was Jack Youngblood, who was the Gold Miners' Director of Marketing in 1993 and 1994, which was a similar post he held with the Surge in 1991 and 1992. However, in the 1950s and 1960s the National Football League and the CFL (and the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union, forerunner of the CFL's East Division) played a series of exhibition games, all in Canada, with the NFL team winning all of those matches. When the WLAF suspended operations in 1992, Surge owner Fred Anderson received a franchise in the CFL after that league expanded to the United States in 1993. One area in which Hornet Stadium would prove to be ideal was field size; because it was built with a running track, it was relatively easy to accommodate the full length and width of the larger Canadian field (110 yards x 65 yards [with 20 yard endzones] vs 100 yards x 53 1/3 yards [with 10 yard endzones] for the American field) within the track and only cut small portions of the corners, a situation accommodated at a few other Canadian stadiums as well. The Sacramento Gold Miners were a Canadian football team based in Sacramento, California. San Antonio had the benefits of having a brand-new stadium, the Alamodome, and was geographically close to the American CFL clubs in Shreveport, Memphis, and Birmingham, greatly reducing travel burdens. Even if it could have been expanded, it was only connected to Sacramento by way of the narrow Yolo Causeway. The game was the first-ever game that involved two American-based teams in the CFL. Roye replaced Youngblood as TV analyst in 1994 and former San Francisco Giants announcer David Glass became the Miners' radio play-by-play announcer. Sacramento Football Home Mascot Dragons Team Varsity 2020 Colors Purple, White Coach Justin Reber Address 2315 34Th St, Sacramento, CA 95817 Overall 0-0 League 0-0 State (CA) Rank 379 The two entities had the same colors (aqua and yellow) and head coach (Kay Stephenson). The Miners would have finished fourth with a 10–7–1 record, if not for a poor call by the officials in the team's last game of the season in Edmonton. The Gold Miners were once again a part of CFL history when they played against the Las Vegas Posse in Sacramento on July 8, 1994. Faced with an unsustainable travel situation and the lack of a suitable facility, Anderson moved the team to San Antonio as the Texans for the 1995 CFL season. Hughes Stadium was ruled out because it was used by several high schools; the CFL plays many games on Friday nights, the same night as most American high school football games.