Oh Yeah...The Renegades...

I've had a fair amount more time to dedicate to this hobby of late. This past weekend was spent trying to fill some gaps in the information that I've gathered to this point.

That usually means finding more details about specific games (especially high school and midget championships) or teams. Earlier today, I looked around the site and realized that I had info about the short-lived and obscure Ottawa Deacon Demons semi-pro team, about some long-dead high school programs, about a junior league that many never knew existed in the IJFL, and so on and so forth. And yet...Nothing about the Ottawa Renegades.

That might have been due to a mental block of some sort because most of my memories of the Renegades are actually quite lousy. I met some great people as a result of my interest in that team, but the 'Gades never made the playoffs in their four seasons and accomplished little more than to strengthen the perception of Ottawa as an irredeemable football market.

Looking back on them with hindsight is almost more irritating than living through it. The team had Kent Austin on its coaching staff and let him walk. Austin may not be among my favourites but he's certainly achieved some success (more so than Joe Paopao, anyway).

Current Ticats offensive coordinator and top head coaching candidate Tommy Condell was on the Renegades staff for two years as well. Less known is that they had Doug Nussmeier coaching quarterbacks in 2002. Nussmeier coaches tight ends for the Dallas Cowboys these days but he has been offensive coordinator and QB coach for Alabama, Michigan and Florida. Not too shabby.

It wasn't all bad though. The seven-win 2003 season included a few exciting games at home.

But the one game that would stand out to most fans of team, however, is the Canada Day miracle in 2005. I've tracked down the Citizen article about that game and share it with you below.

"Alouettes defensive back Reggie Durden breaks up a pass to Renegades running back Sean Bennett during the first half..." Jim Young, Reuters.

Watching the game later, it was still hard to understand how they managed to pull this off. They weren't exactly known to be a clutch bunch.

Fans starving for football success, naturally, were out of their minds. I recall hanging out with a bunch of them near the west endzone after the game when Lonie Glieberman walked by. Clearly uncomfortable near our group of intoxicated and loud celebrators, Lonie basically directed us to bother the cheerleaders instead and got out of there.

There isn't much to celebrate about the Renegades beyond that one game but in the spirit of completeness, I'll record their brief history as well at some point. Being that much of the information is available elsewhere and that they accomplished very little, they won't be a priority.