Carling O'Keefe was a brewing company in Canada that is now part of Molson Coors.
In 1969, Canadian Breweries was acquired by a subsidiary of Rothmans, which renamed the company as Carling O'Keefe in 1973.
In 1840, Thomas Carling began a small brewing operation in London, Upper Canada, selling beer to soldiers at the local military camp.
[1] O'Keefe was one of the first to use trucks for beer delivery, the first to build a mechanically refrigerated warehouse, and one of the first to advertise extensively.
The site is now part of the 10 Dundas East mixed-use development, including a movie theatre used as lecture rooms by Ryerson (as part of a deal for air rights over their parking garage), a parking garage and the Ryerson book store.
Other O'Keefe buildings on the east side of Victoria were converted for Ryerson's use, including the bottling plant and warehouse (built in 1953) at 122 Bond Street that became home to the School of Image Arts.
The main O'Keefe's regional office building (285 Victoria Street, built 1946-48) becoming home to the Faculty of Business in 1967 until they moved into the new Ryerson Business Building (renamed the Ted Rogers School of Management) at Bay & Dundas in 2006.
[4] In 1981, Carling O'Keefe, responding to the entry of Budweiser by Labatt's, licensed Miller High Life beer for production in Canada.
At the time of the merger, Molson was the second-largest Canadian brewing company, while Carling O'Keefe was third.
The merger put the combined company ahead of former market leader Labatt's and made it the sixth-largest North America brewery.
Their Company name was painted on the front stretch of the track and was part of the "Winner's Circle" celebration.
In 1974, Carling USA sponsored a NASCAR car driven by Canadian short track driver Earl Ross and owned by former NASCAR driver Junior Johnson in the Winston Cup Series.
In 1976, Carling O'Keefe became a minority partner in the Toronto Argonauts professional football team and continued to do so until 1991.
In addition, during the 1980s, Carling O'Keefe was a chief sponsor for the CFL game telecasts on both the CBC and CTV (and, when CTV ceased broadcasting the CFL after 1986, the league-operated Canadian Football Network) networks.