In Canadian football, the title of commissioner dates to no later than the 1940s. Like many of the NFL's rivals south of the border, the top Canadian football leagues then in existence (the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union and Western Interprovincial Football Union) appointed commissioners in a bid to assert their leagues' independence from the NFL commissioner. When the two leagues formed an umbrella organization (the Canadian Football Council) in 1956, the posts of IRFU Commissioner and WIFU Commissioner were abolished and former WIFU Commissioner Sydney Halter was appointed Commissioner of the CFC. When the CFC itself evolved into the modern Canadian Football League in 1958, Halter carried on in the office as that league's first commissioner.