A quarter-century ago, the Canadian Football League had teams in established Canadian markets such as Sacramento, Calif., Memphis, Tenn., and Birmingham, Ala. They were Gold Miners and Mad Dogs and Barracudas, and things got pretty strange.



An anthem singer in Las Vegas sang “O Canada” to the tune of “O Christmas Tree,” prompting angry letters from Canadians watching at home. A group in Florida wanted to add another expansion team for the 1996 season, naming it the Miami Manatees and promising to direct profits to support the endangered species.



That team never played a down.



The CFL’s U.S. expansion plan collapsed, leaving behind little more than a trail of forgotten logos and strange stories. It is a testament to the league’s enduring charm that only a few of those tales made it into The Athletic’s list of Top 10 Can’t-Believe-It’s-True Stories from the CFL.



Shreveport Pirates,...