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“We are finding a couple of hundred a year, but we are losing the same number,” secretary Bayne Norrie says.

The CFLPA pension plan was created in 1967, but players in the league at that time were able to purchase pension credit for as much as two years of previous service.

Registration forms have asked for dates of birth, mailing addresses and, more recently, email addresses and social-media contact information. Canadian residents have provided Social Insurance Numbers, but only in the past half-decade or so have United States residents been asked for Social Security Numbers.

A lot of them neglect to update their mailing addresses when they return to the U.S. after their CFL stints end, which explains why most “missing” pension members are from that country.

James says it can be difficult to find people if they don’t want to be found. Even when they are located, getting them to take the next step isn’t easy.

A couple of years ago, U.S.-based PensionBenefits received a list of 200 individuals and contacted 130 of them to verify identities. James, a defensive lineman with Calgary and Edmonton between 1967 and 1975, and the board of directors sent letters to the updated addresses to notify the former CFLers of possible pension benefits and asking them to contact administrators at Manulife so they could be re-activated.

Only 26 did.

“We seem to have found more players today that we did five years ago and 10 years ago, but the response. … When you find 130 and only 26 guys respond, that’s discouraging,” James says. “There are another 100 guys out there who know they have a pension plan, but don’t want to do anything to get activated.”