Samuel Berger, (January 1, 1900 – July 24, 1992) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

owner of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

Ottawa Rough Riders The Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based in Ottawa, Ontario, founded in 1876. Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine ...

and

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

and president of the CFL.

Life

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

by profession, he was an early football fan who became involved with the

team as its legal advisor, president, and as an owner. He served three, three-year terms as the club's president during which time the team made it to the

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

seven times, winning the championship on four occasions. He loved football, and played for

Ottawa Collegiate Institute Lisgar Collegiate Institute is an Ottawa-Carleton District School Board secondary school in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The school is located in downtown Ottawa by the Rideau Canal. History In 1843, a grammar school with 40 paying students was ...

’s team. After high school, he worked as a reporter for the Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Journal and Toronto Star. In 1925 he started at Osgoode Hall Law School and two years later started his own law firm in Ottawa. Active in the Ottawa community, Berger twice ran for mayor of the city, losing to

Charlotte Whitton Charlotte Elizabeth Whitton (March 8, 1896 – January 25, 1975) was a Canadian feminist and mayor of Ottawa. She was the first woman mayor of a major city in Canada, serving from 1951 to 1956 and again from 1960 to 1964. Whitton was a Cana ...

in the 1960 and 1962 elections.

CFL

Ottawa Rough Riders

Highlights of his Rough Rider career include: * 1930 hired by the Rough Riders as legal adviser. * late 1930s founded real estate company, Ottawa Commercial Realties Ltd. when he was the Rough Riders’ vice-president. Without Sam Berger, the Grey Cup might have remained tucked away for years in the basement of an east Ottawa apartment; discovered it stored in a locker underneath The Strathcona apartments on Laurier Avenue East, a building he owned and lived in at the time. * 1940 became Rough Riders’ president. * Second World War service as an RCAF officer in London. * 1955 He and several colleagues bought Rough Riders.

Montreal Alouettes

In 1969 Sam Berger sold his shares in the Ottawa club and donated the proceeds to

charitable The practice of charity is the voluntary giving of help to those in need, as a humanitarian act, unmotivated by self-interest. There are a number of philosophies about charity, often associated with religion. Etymology The word ''charity'' or ...

causes. He then purchased the troubled

franchise and in the ensuing twelve years built it into a powerhouse that made six Grey Cup appearances and won it three times. He retired in 1976 as the active owner of Alouettes, handing over the presidency to his eldest son,

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

. On March 6, 1981, Berger sold the Alouettes to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

businessman

Nelson Skalbania Nelson Mathew Skalbania (born February 12, 1938) is an engineer and businessman from Vancouver, British Columbia who is best known for signing a then 17-year-old Wayne Gretzky to the Indianapolis Racers of the World Hockey Association, and for his ...

CFL Administration

He was President of the Canadian Football League in 1964 and 1971 and as an attorney and owner played a key role in putting together the League's first

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

contract.

Honours

In 1986, Sam Berger was made a Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

, one of Canada's highest civilian honours, for "his commitments to the sport and to the City of Montreal". In 1993 he was inducted into the

Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berger, Sam 1900 births 1992 deaths Businesspeople from Ottawa Canadian King's Counsel Lawyers in Ontario Jewish Canadian philanthropists Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees Members of the Order of Canada Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Ottawa controllers Ottawa Rough Riders owners Montreal Alouettes owners Montreal Alouettes team presidents Canadian sportsperson-politicians Lisgar Collegiate Institute 20th-century philanthropists