Where did I get the idea for this book?

On September 21, 2018, I took my family to Investors Group Field in Winnipeg, Manitoba, to watch the Winnipeg Blue Bombers play the Montreal Alouettes in a Canadian Football League (CFL) regular season game. At halftime, the Bombers posthumously inducted a player into their Ring of Honour, a guy named Fritz Hanson who had played college football at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. His visage graces the cover of this book.

After the game, I searched through old newspapers to find out more. I quickly discovered that many more players, including more players from Fargo and from Moorhead, Minnesota, contributed to the story of Canadian football in the early 1930s, and that Canadian fans both celebrated and disapproved of the presence of these “imports” on the field.

This is their story.