It was another football first in the Maritimes on Saturday afternoon. For the first time, an American college team played a Maritime-based football team.
Members of the University of New Brunswick Saint John Seawolves took on Blue Boys from Illinois College.
In addition to being the first time a U.S college team had visited eastern Canada, the game was also a trial-run for the newly renovated Canada Games stadium.
Illinois head coach Garrett Campbell said the stadium was be perfect for an international event.
"This is even better than the pictures on the internet," he said. "I can't believe it. There's obviously a commitment here to doing things the right way. This is one of the nicest venues we'll play in as a college, as a university"
The tremendous growth that has been experienced in football in recent years around the Maritimes may be just the tip of the iceberg.
Moncton hosted a regular season CFL game last fall, and will do so again later this year. Saint John also wants to get in on the action and work on bringing more U.S. college teams to the city.
"It's endless what we can do," said UNBSJ head coach Dave Grandy. "Coach Garret Campbell says one of his buddies from the Chicago area has already expressed some interest in coming up here next year."
The U.S. is also witnessing a spike in football interest.
"The number of collegiate players in the last few years has gone up by 15 to 20 percent," said Campbell. "So it's growing in the United States and around here, but also internationally. I coached in Vienna and Austria for awhile and the game was just booming out there"
The rules Saturday's international match-up were a mix from the Canadian and American game.
On the final score, Illinois prevailed in a big way defeating the local team 35 to nothing.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Mike Cameron
