The Centennial Bowl

The University of Ottawa celebrated 100 years of football in 1981 and in doing so, attempted to add a little significance and emphasis to its regular match-ups against (very) long-time rival Queen's.  

The plan was to hand out a trophy to the winner of the game annually, much like what is done with Pedro for the Panda Game or the Old Boys Cup that was in play for the Ashbury / Bishop's meetings for many years. The trophy to be put in use had some interesting history of its own, as did the gentleman after whom it was named. 

Unfortunately, the result of the Ottawa U. / Queen's game was not what the university had hoped for.  

Bummer. Ottawa won a close one the following year though...

...but beyond that the Centennial Bowl aspect of the game is rarely mentioned. Not all recaps are available but the last mention I have found of it after a quick search was in 1987. That's too bad, being that the trophy itself dates back to the 1800s.

I became curious as to its origins. The first article above mentions that it was donated by the city in honour of five straight ORFU championships. That could be true but if so, I have yet to locate the actual report of such an offering, if such a report even exists. 

I did find out that there was a dispute following what was Ottawa's fifth Ontario Rugby Football Union championship, earned by defeating Queen's in 1889. If my understanding is sound, Ottawa was asked to travel to neutral sites to defend its title and refused to do so for a number of reasons.

The Ottawa Journal copied commentary from other papers a few days later to illustrate and reinforce that Ottawa was in the right to refuse any other challenges, or at least that their position was a reasonable one. 

Good point. A team could send its scrubs to get hammered following your first challenge, then challenge a second time and force that game to a neutral site by the rule at the time. You could conceivably remove home field advantage from a team and send your top performers to play them on "neutral" ground. To use Toronto as an example, playing in Kingston might not be home game for them, but it's a hell of a lot closer to being one than playing in Ottawa. Clever!

It would seem then that Ottawa meant business and turned the trophy over. Then this appeared in the November 25th Journal.

Well that was nice of them! 

Is this what almost a century later became the Robert Lancaster trophy? Perhaps. It's difficult to know for sure. What we do know is that Ottawa College did follow through with its intentions of leaving the ORFU and an era of success came to an end over a rule that was too easy to abuse.

1991 Junior Eastern Final: Ottawa Sooners 40, Winnipeg Hawkeyes 03

(Most of) the 1991 Sooners results are up!

I was unable to locate a final score for one game, likely from early September, but you'll get the idea. They lost their first contest, won seven straight to clinch the Conference, rattled off four playoff games but the bottom fell out in the national championship game. 

Ah well. I know that when I sit down to flesh out the 1992 season, things will end far better. 😉 In the meantime, enjoy the game that earned the Sooners a trip to Saskatoon.

Just Added: Ridgemont's 1962 Results and Championship Game Recap

In continuing with my little mission to add much more info to the various past high school seasons, Ridgemont's been more or less randomly selected for the spotlight today.

The Spartans were not a dominant team in 1962. They entered the playoffs with a 4-2 record.

One of those losses game in the final game of the regular season against Fisher Park, who ended up being their semi-final round opponent.

They dispatched Fisher by a score of 14-06 then entered the final against the other team to which they lost in the regular season, Laurentian. They convincingly avenged that loss as well.  

Just Added: 1978 Panda Game

I don't know why it took so long to get this one done because it was super easy to find.

No special story, background or particular inspiration here, I just spotted a gap on the Panda Game page and filled it. 

Aug 7th, 2003: "Backups Miller, Ranek Help Ottawa Rally, Upset Roughriders"

The 2005 Canada Day game gets more press but this was a hell of a game for the renegades too. I recall waiting for a confirmation on Kelly Wiltshire's interception to know whether I should celebrate a rare victory.

That 2003 Ottawa Renegades team held up strongly at home, if nothing else, and that's about all you can ask for of a second-year team.

They ended up out of the playoffs on the crossover rule but you know, the BC Lions took their spot with an 11-7 record to Ottawa's 7-11 so it's hard to bitch. Saskatchewan would prove to be an 11-7 team as well so this was a solid mid-season victory by Ottawa by all accounts. 

During and just after the 2003 season, there was still cause for optimism where the Renegades were concerned. The ownership group hadn't gone cheap yet waiting for their 2004 Grey Cup payout, twats that they were, so it seemed like the arrow was pointing up.

Mismanagement (team and league) at several levels bungled the whole damn thing but we can still look back fondly on the the accomplishments of Josh Ranek, Kelly Wiltshire and those other few who truly put in a strong effort while they were here and overcame a lack of leadership. This was such an example.   

The End Of The Rideaus

The 1928 Junior City League championship (see earlier post) would not be the last for the Rideaus but 1929's would be.

The 1929 Rideaus were a scrappy bunch, to a fault. They started the season with a victory, predictably, against the South Ottawa Roamers and two weeks later found themselves challenged by a revived St. Brigid's club. They didn't take well to it.

They would continue their winning ways throughout the season, gathering a 5-0 record and securing first place. For the fifth time in a row, they would meet Montreal AAA for the QRFU championship but at long last, they won that two-game series by a total score of 17-14.

Way to go, Basil! 

The Rideaus continued their march towards the junior national championship when they defeated the University of Toronto 10-01 at Lansdowne Park. Two weeks later, they met a team from St-Thomas in the national semi-final and that's when things went south for the "Paddlers".

The St-Thomas Tigers won 10-05 and the Rideaus' "fighting" label from the article above would become prophetic. As the game was getting away from the Rideaus, one of the players got heated against a ref and things quickly got out of hand. 

The above description is from the December 2nd, 1929, Ottawa Citizen. The Ottawa Journal adds what might be an important detail.

It appears that while Johnson was being told to leave the field, "suddenly Umpire Bailey staggered under the impact of a blow to the face". In other words, the mob wasn't triggered by Johnson's behaviour towards Foster but by whoever corked Bailey. 

Whatever the case may be, the Rideau Aquatic Club was deeply embarrassed by the whole event and the following day apologized to all involved and withdrew from all sports not aquatic in nature. Just as well, the Canadian Rugby Union suspended them indefinitely later that month. 

Just like that, the top junior team in the city was done.

The following year, a team called the Ottawa Rangers, (not) coincidentally wearing the same colours, would emerge  but that's a story for another day.

As for Arnie Morrison's "lifetime" ban, it didn't hold up particularly well. He was reinstated in 1931, played for the Ottawa Rough Riders from 1933 to 1938 and would later coach Carleton's football team during its formative years. That's how you overcome a ban!

1928: "The Most Sensational Upset Of All Time in Junior Rugby In The City"

If you are particularly observant, you will have noticed a page in the banner above that appeared a few weeks ago and has changed names numerous times since. At this time, it bears the name "Junior QRFU (1918 - 1928)" and it will continue to change as I add seasons at the back end. 

The "Defunct Teams" page includes (at least for now) some details about a team from the Rideau Aquatic Club then often referred to as simply the Rideaus. While that team was undeniably the most successful of its little league, it didn't seem quite fair to ignore all the others. So instead of focusing on the Rideaus only, I started a page specific to the league in which they all participated.

The Rideaus were not a charter member of the league, entering it only in its second season in 1919. The league became affiliated with the Quebec Rugby Football Union the following year.

In short order, Rideaus became dominant to the point that some found it detrimental. While they constantly won the local title with ease, they fared very poorly against outside competition. Some speculated that this was due to a lack of a proper challenge in its own league.

Then in 1927, a team from Ottawa College joined the circuit and in 1928, they shocked the junior rugby football world (well, at least the local one) by defeating the Rideaus, breaking the "Paddlers'" 29-game local winning streak in the process!

The game is recapped below, as is the other game played in the four-team league that day, a matchup of the Ottawa South Roamers and Gladstone. 

As exciting as the win may have been as it happened, it would turn out to have little impact. Rideaus won the rematch 18-00 a few weeks later, and every other match on their schedule for that matter, to collect a 5-1 record. Ottawa College would stumble in overtime to the Ottawa South team in the last week of the season to be knocked off the top spot in the league at 4-2. 

And so this was the sixth straight city championship for the Rideaus and they would get skunked against the Montreal AAA team in the QRFU playoffs for the fourth year in a row, too. The City Junior League was pretty much business as usual in 1928, except for that one game which rattled the cage for a while.

1980 Atlantic Bowl: Ottawa U. Gee-Gees 28, Acadia Axemen 08

Runners-up obviously don't generate the same kind of interest as champions do, but the 1980 team sure captured the imagination while I was putting together their game results last night.

The gaps in talent are usually evident with with past U. of O. championship teams. Come a point, it ceased to come as a surprise when Ottawa would beat a Laurentian or Royal Military College team by 40+ points. 

This 1980 team was not like that. They ultimately lost the national championship game by a wide margin (I believe the halftime score was 35-00 against) to Alberta but put together a strong regular season record of 6-1 and won three playoffs games to get there.

(The one regular season loss? The Panda Game against Carleton by a score of 30-21.)

Throughout the season, an average score for the Gee-Gees was about 17-12. They didn't blow anyone out but they allowed very few points and kept plowing forward.

The game below was their peak and the one that launched them to the national championship game. I liked that it shone the spotlight on the offensive since that is such a rare occasion. 

Take a bow, 1980 team, reading about your exploits was a lot of fun.