The 1980–81 Calgary Flames season was the first season in Calgary and ninth for the Flames in the National Hockey League. The Flames came to southern Alberta from Atlanta, Georgia, where the franchise was known as the Atlanta Flames for the first eight years of its existence. The Flames became the third major-league team to represent the city of Calgary after the Calgary Tigers of the 1920s, and the Calgary Cowboys, which had folded in 1977. __TOC__