"Hall of Famer Moe Segal Still a Winner"

I spent a bunch of time adding and updating pages the other night. To be specific, I tracked down some details about the Cumberland Panthers junior club that played in the Quebec Junior Football League from 2004 to 2012 and am recording their accomplishment during that period in the hope that like the Jr. Riders and Carleton Ravens, they return some day.

I also rebuilt the Ottawa Rough Rider player list and while doing so, found an article I'd saved years ago about one Moe Segal. The original, complete version from 2008 by Irv Osterer for the The Canadian Jewish News is still available here, at least for the time being.

Moe Segal...competed in an era that featured leather helmets and cleats, canvas football pants and players that played their hearts out on offence and defence. 

At Ottawa Technical High School, Moe was an offensive and defensive lineman, and co-captain of the 1943 City of Ottawa Junior Championship team. 

Upon graduation, 18 year old Moe joined the navy and was assigned to a wireless communications training course on the HMCS Donnacona in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. When the navy fielded a team in the Quebec Rugby Football Association, he decided to try out for the squad. The five-foot-nine, 190 pound, Segal made the team... 

The Montreal St. Hyacinthe-Donnacona Navy team – ‘the Donnies’ – had a terrific season...During the pre-CFL war years, the Grey Cup was contested between the amateur Ontario and Quebec Rugby Football Associations and the Big Four professional teams in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton.

Moe starred in the playoffs, blocking punts and picking up fumbles on the way to securing the 1944 QRFU title. Montreal St. Hyacinthe-Donnacona Navy then beat York to advance to the Canadian Championship, but in that game, Segal was injured in a freak collision with CFL Hall of Famer Annis Stukus. Moe was convalescing in the hospital, when Navy upset the Hamilton Wildcats 7-6 to win the Grey Cup at Varsity Stadium.

The triumph was short lived. The team was disbanded after the season and by December 1944 Segal was serving in Plymouth, England...Even overseas, football was not far from Moe’s mind as Ottawa scout Tom Daley had contacted Moe about trying out for the Rough Riders, which he did upon discharge from the navy.

Moe made the team as a two-way lineman in 1946, the first year the Big Four allowed American imports. Moe received the princely sum of $50.00 per game to play in the 1946 season..

Moe jumped to the Ottawa Trojans in 1947 for a guaranteed $500 contract. In the league semi-final, he recovered two fumbles to help defeat the Hamilton Wildcats 16-7. Ottawa then beat Toronto Balmy Beach to win the ORFU title. In what was to be Segal’s final professional game, the Trojans were defeated by Joe Krol’s Argonauts in the Grey Cup semi-final. Moe had suffered two concussions during the season and decided that it was time to retire.

The image above is not from that article. Rather, it was included in a separate piece  (by the same writer) from August 2016 shortly following Mr.s Segal's passing. The video referred to in that article is embedded below.