Saturday, March 23, 2024

2014, Oct 4th: Toronto 32 @ Carleton 53

Capturing the summary of one of Carleton's first wins following the return of the school's football program. They were winless in 2013 but recorded four wins in 2014, including the one below.

The cropped text is from the football team's website, which was uncredited. Oddly, it focused on Toronto quarterback Simon Nassar's accomplishments rather than that of the Ravens.

The statistical data is from the USports website from when it was referred to as CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sports). 

...Carleton pivot Nick Gorgichuk was 21-of-28 for 302 yards, two touchdown and no interceptions, while Jesse Mills was 3-of-4 for 91 yards and Kyle Van Wynsberghe was 1-of-1 for 76 yards and one touchdown.

The Blues, playing their 1,000th game, had little reason to celebrate with the exception of quarterback Simon Nassar who set a single-game Canadian Interuniversity Sport record with 49 completions.

The fourth-year pivot from Toronto was 49-of-62 for 547 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. He easily shattered the CIS mark of 41 completions set in 1981 by Varsity Blues pivot Dan Feraday and tied in 2012 by current Sherbrooke quarterback Jeremi Roch.

....

The Ravens jumped out to a 16-0 first quarter lead and made it 23-0 early in the second quarter.

The Blues finally managed to get on the board late in the second, but the Ravens responded with Van Wynsberghe connecting with Nathaniel Behar for a 76-yard touchdown pass. Carleton extended its lead as Emilio Galotta had a 13-yard fumble return to make it 37-7.

Michael Domagala added 24 and 26 yard field goals in the third quarter, while Nassar had a 24-yard touchdown pass making it 43-17 at the end of three quarters.

Nassar added two more touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, but the Ravens responded with a touchdown and field goal of their own to keep the game out of reach.



Wednesday, March 20, 2024

The 1974 Sooners' Two-Game Playoff Series Against Hamilton

As mentioned in yesterday's post, here are the summaries of the 1974 Ottawa Sooners' two-game series against Hamilton.

November 2nd


November 2nd


Tuesday, March 19, 2024

The 1974 Sooners' Two-Game Playoff Series Against Niagara

This post comes on the heels of the announcement that the 1974 Ottawa Sooners are being inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame.  



In looking at this site's content about that specific edition of the team, I was surprised at how thin it was. They're mentioned very little here.

Seeking to remedy that, I began to look for content from newspapers archives. I was quickly reminded why I've recorded so little. While there is plenty of information available, its quality is quite poor, as you'll see below.

Nevertheless...I added the team's first playoff game summary to the Sooners (Junior 1960-1980) page. That game was followed by a two-game series against Niagara. The first game's recap is directly below, from the Citizen. 


Chiarelli wasn't dicking around. The Sooners were far more dominant in the second game. Here's the summary of that one from the Ottawa Journal. 


This led to another two-game series, this time against Hamilton. I'll see what I can dig up about those two games. 

Saturday, March 9, 2024

1943, Nov 6th: "Early Lead Wins For Celts"

St. Patrick's College won the Senior Interscholastic championship in 1943 behind the guidance of former Ottawa Rough Rider Bunny Wadsworth. The article below, from the Ottawa Citizen, summarized the victory against Ottawa Tech that put the team in the finals against Glebe.   


1931, Oct 5th: "Gladstones Surprise Rough Riders To Win, 13-6"

Not THOSE Rough Riders. 

This partial article from the Ottawa Citizen summarizes one of three junior games played that day. It was the first weekend of action for the league as a whole, as it launched that year. 



I'll have summaries of the other two games played that day in separate posts. 

A portion of this article was used in a post on this blog a couple of years back in which I attempted to nail down the guy who threw the first-ever forward pass for an Ottawa team. Since this was the league's first year of operation, this Art Crain dude is likely the first to do it at the junior level.

There were two other games played that day, including St. Patrick's College vs Rangers, which started at the same time as the Gladstone / Ottawas match. Crain still seems likely to be the man, as his passing prowess appears to have taken place during the first quarter. We'll likely never know for sure, but a strong argument can be made for him.

1926, Oct 11th: "Senators Set Sail For Big Four Title Win By 8-6"

Aside from the championship game summary on the Grey Cup page, there is very little content about the 1926 Ottawa Rough Riders / Senators team. We're going to remedy that a little bit today.

The following cut outs are from the Ottawa Journal and recap the team's first game that season. Ottawa were launching the defense of their 1925 championship and doing so in style, winning on a field that had been nothing but trouble for them going back to 1912. 



As a sidenote, the article also mentions that Eddie Emerson was the only player on the field to be present when Ottawa last won in Hamilton. 

He wasn't anywhere near done. According to his Canada Sports Hall of Fame biography, he would play until 1937 and in 22 seasons overall. Upon retiring from the playing field, he held the record the longest playing career, which held until 2000. 

1925, Oct. 5th: "Senators Smother Montreal In Opening Game; Score 17-1"

The game summary below is a joint effort between the Ottawa Citizen and the Ottawa Journal. The lineup and scoring recap came from the former, while the unfortunately blurry game details are from the Journal.  




Let's take a moment to properly highlight the top performers.

Connell's first name was Charlie. He is a member of the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame for his success in lacrosse, but also recognized for his ability in football and boxing.

Mulroney is Edgar Mulroney, who also played lacrosse. He played hockey as well, and became a referee following his playing days.

Tubman is Joe, a Canadian Football Hall of Fame member, class of 1968. He played from 1919 to 1931 and was the team's captain for this championship season as well as the next.   

Monday, December 4, 2023

"REDBLACKS name Tommy Condell Offensive Coordinator"

OTTAWA - The Ottawa REDBLACKS announced Monday that veteran CFL coach Tommy Condell has been named the club's offensive coordinator. 

Condell, 52, has helped lead his teams to five Grey Cup appearances in the last decade and brings a wealth of CFL and collegiate experience to the REDBLACKS. Most recently, Condell spent four years as Offensive Coordinator for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, a position he held since he was promoted to the role in 2019 until the end of the 2023 campaign. In his first year as OC with the Tabbies, the team went 15-3 and reached the 107th Grey Cup. He added Quarterback Coach to his duties the following season. 

“Throughout the process of getting to know Bob Dyce, time spent exchanging values and beliefs of all things related to football and beyond, made this the ideal situation for myself and family,” said Condell. “The commitment that is tangibly shown in all areas by the Ottawa REDBLACKS and OSEG to bringing another Grey Cup championship to this great city was evident early on.”

The Utica, NY native joined the Argos as Receivers Coach in 2017 and won a Grey Cup championship that year. He was promoted to Offensive Coordinator in 2018. Prior to joining the Argos, Condell had his initial run with the Ticats as Offensive Coordinator and Receivers Coach, twice reaching the Grey Cup game while also losing to the REDBLACKS in the 2015 East Division Final. 

"We are excited to welcome Tommy and his family to Ottawa. The search process for an offensive coordinator was extensive and throughout it, Tommy’s name kept rising to the up of the list," said Head Coach Bob Dyce. "Not only were we impressed with Tommy's history of successful offensive production, but he has a proven ability to win at the professional level and play to the strength of his personnel. He has a track record of coming into teams and improving offenses, especially through explosive plays and red zone success."

This will mark Condell's second time coaching in Ottawa, having served as Quarterbacks Coach, Receivers Coach and Passing Coordinator with the Ottawa Renegades. Following a two-year stint in Ottawa and a year as Offensive Coordinator for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Condell again spent time coaching south of the border before returning to the CFL. 

Condell first coached in the CFL in 1997 when he was Special Teams Coordinator for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. His American collegiate coaching credits include time with the McNeese State Cowboys, Louisiana-Monroe Indians, Southeastern Louisiana Lions and Cornell Big Red. 

Thursday, November 9, 2023

uOttawa's Max Charbonneau Receives the OUA's President's Award

The image and text below are cut from a press release announcing the Conference's major award winners.

A senior season to remember for Max Charbonneau, the Ottawa Gee-Gees linebacker takes home the 2023 President’s Award as the OUA’s outstanding stand-up defensive player.

Despite missing time early last season and ultimately playing through a knee injury, the criminology major was still selected by the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers after earning a ticket to the national combine. Returning to the Garnet and Grey for a final season, however, Charbonneau showcases what being an elite tackler with outstanding consistency looks like from a middle linebacker.

A tackle-machine for the Gee-Gees this season, Charbonneau found himself atop the conference when it came to takedowns. The senior linebacker finished with 44 solo and 36 assisted tackles, good for 62.0 in total, which was second across the country. On a game-by-game basis, Charbonneau’s 7.8 tackles per contest also had him among the top three in the conference and nation.

Charbonneau also added a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, and blocked kick as part of his award-winning season, becoming the first Gee-Gee to earn the award since 2017 (Jackson Bennett).