Prior to and even after the formation of the CFL, the teams of the IRFU (which eventually became the CFL's Eastern Football Conference) were regarded, especially in Eastern Canada, as superior to the Western Canadian teams. Starting in the 1930s, Western Canadian teams had begun aggressively scouting for and recruiting players from the rich American talent pool, largely in an effort to achieve parity with the East. The American Pacific Northwest became a frequent site for WIFU and later CFL preseason games in the 1950s and 1960s with Western Canadian teams, particularly the BC Lions, being called upon to entertain their regional neighbours. News reports from the time suggest a hybrid game of three down Canadian ball played on the more restricted 100 yard American field. One BC–Winnipeg matchup in 1960 was held not on the west coast but in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, presumably because both teams had a number of former University of Iowa stars, including Willie Mitchell, who scored the Lions' only touchdown in a 13–7 loss in front of 12,583. Western teams were mostly ignored by U.S. clubs as potential opposition for preseason interleague contests, although this was in part due to the more onerous travel requirements to Western Canada in an era when rail travel was the norm and the fact the WIFU moved up the start of its regular season long before the Eastern section followed suit. It would not be until 2019 that NFL teams would play any sort of contest in Western Canada.