The 1995 Ottawa Sooners Midget Team

I have only vague memories of a Midget Sooners team. I don't recall how long they were around and was only reminded of them while trying to fill out the Junior team's page with scores from the 1995 season. A few brief Midget game summary summaries themselves into my search results.  

Still, at least their first (only?) season was quite successful.

At this point I'm unable to track down a final score for the game against Scarborough mentioned above, which is usually an indication that it didn't go the way local media would have liked.

Be that as it may, a 5-2 record for a team's inaugural season is impressive. I hope more info comes to light about this team so I can figure out a way to give them their spot in my little shrine to Ottawa football. 

St. Patrick's High School's Golden Era

The 1953 St. Patrick's senior high school team would lose that year's championship game 17-00 to Fisher Park in a contest that had to be played a second time because the first ended in a scoreless tie.

If that loss was discouraging for supporters of the "Celts", the next couple of years would prove to be quite rewarding. St. Patrick would go undefeated throughout the 1954 and 1955 seasons, playing in 17 contests without a loss (15 wins and two ties, to be exact) and, obviously, securing the championship both years. The 1955 team picture is below and was added to the High School page earlier today.

Different reports suggest different lengths to St. Patrick's undefeated streak. Some say it was 16 undefeated games, some claim it was 17.

The solution is simple; the 17 total includes a victory in the Red Feather tournament described in the March 18th, 2021, post on this blog. Whether that game should be included is certainly debatable since the Red Feather event is essentially an out-of-town exhibition for charity. Nevertheless, St. Pat's did win the game in which they participated for that event so let's work with 17.

I became curious as to when the streak ended. It was 17 going into the 1956 season. Did they extend it at all? Did they reach 20+ games undefeated?

I was expecting some drama around the event but...The streak ended right away. Their next defeat took place in the opening contest of the 1956 season against Ottawa Tech. St. Patrick's streak started with the first game of 1954 and ended in the first game of 1956, exactly two undefeated seasons.   

St. Patrick was unfazed by the loss, however. In fact, they suffered another loss during the season to finish with a 3-2 record but still ultimately won the league's championship for the third year in a row. And they did it against the team that ended their streak, no less.

That would mark then end of St. Patrick's dominant run. They would come close to winning the crown again in 1971, and were named co-champions of their school board in 1972, but they have not earned a senior football title since the 1956 season.

The Strange, Strange 1983 Ottawa U. Gee-Gees Season

Continuing to add game results, I decided today to spend a bit of time on the Gee-Gees.

Unfortunately, I'd reached a difficult point in the team's history. I knew that their 1983 and 1984 seasons were rather...underwhelming, but didn't fully grasp the speed at which they collapsed. 

They were coming off a 7-0 regular season (but first-round playoff exit) in 1982. That team's coach, Joe Moss, was hired by the Argos in February of 1983 and replaced by Jim Clark early the following month.

Let's cut to a quote from the new head coach from just prior to the start of the season. 

That pass-heavy system was the run and shoot, the so-called "offense of the future" that you no longer read about now that we're in the future. My recollection of it at the time, in the NFL at least, is that teams always struggled with it early. Let's bear that in mind as we embark this downward spiral.

The Gee-Gees travelled to Concordia in week one and were upended by the Stingers. They threw at least three interceptions in a 33-10 loss. 

That would be the rule, not the exception. They lost their home opener to Bishop's the following week by a score of 43-21, a game after which Clark called out his defensive veterans publicly, then threw a staggering seven interceptions at McGill a week after that.

But Carleton would be next, so no doubt the guys would get up for that one. And perhaps a QB change will help. Let's hear from coach Clark again.

Sure, it can't be the system, it must be everyone playing it incorrectly. Another thing about the run and shoot is that those who believed in it rode it to death. Well, maybe Sommerville will have better success with it. 

The Gee-Gees lost to their crosstown rivals 28-23.

The team then set a dubious mark by finding a way to have negative points in the standings. 

Imagine if they didn't win a game the rest of the year and ended with -2 points in the standings? It would be pretty damn hard to ever lose THAT spot in history. Who the hell would ever have -3? How would you even go about achieving that penalty? Would you have to murder someone at midfield?

But the Gee-Gees found an innovative way to avoid having that black spot on their record forevermore. 

First, they hosted Queen's and after four straight losses, managed a tie in that match-up. Things were looking up!

Then the following week, they travelled to play Queen's again and...tied that game too!

And just like that, they were back to zero points in the standings. And it was actually an improvement! 

Naturally, such a miserable season could only end with a loss in the Panda Game. But to make it a touch more painful, let's blow a three-TD lead in doing so. 

Well, at least things could only get better after such a miserable season, right?

No. The Gee-Gees would go 0-7 in 1984 so those two ties in 1983 would seem like high points by comparison.

But 1983 wasn't all bad. Some guys earned individual recognition. 

U. of O. wouldn't crack a .500 record again until 1988 with Jim Daley at the helm. I might just rush my way through this soft spot in their history.

The Red Feather Tournament(s)

I was in the process of gathering results from Ottawa Tech's 1957 championship season (successfully, I might add) when I happened across the image below. 

That's a rather rare look at players from those junior teams of the time, taken from the September 27th, 1957, Ottawa Journal. Though you probably could not tell with great certainty based on the jerseys, Monk was also a St Anthony's player.  

It was the mention of the Red Feather Tournament that I found intriguing so I did a quick search. It first came about in 1949 but as a high school football showcase and charity fundraiser held in Toronto. Ottawa Tech was, coincidentally enough, the city's first representative in the tournament. 

October 21st, 1949, Ottawa Citizen, written by Bob Abra

Ottawa Tech scored a 9-0 victory over their Humberside opponent and yet...The trophy was awarded the East York Goliaths team on the strength of a scoreless tie against Hamilton earlier in the tourney. 😕

October 24th, 1949, Ottawa Citizen

Wow. Even understanding that this was supposed to be a fun event to raise funds for charity, imagine telling the kids with the only convincing win in the tournament that the trophy is being given to a team that didn't even win its contest?

Back to the photograph of the JIFL players at the top of the post, at this point I don't know if the Red Feather Tournament became one involving junior teams or if the junior circuit adopted the same name for an event of their own (I suspect the latter) but it's probably going to be part of the weekend reading/research.

Just Added: 1938 Glebe Team Picture and Roster

Fresh off attempting a series of tweets of high school football photography from every decade since the 1920s, it came to light that I did not have a lot of images from the 30s. It also came to light that there are very few to be found, obviously.

But I did land on the image below which I did not have copied until this morning. It has now been added to the High School page.

1993: Ottawa Rough Riders 32, Sacramento Rough Riders 23

The sudden news that the CFL and XFL are talking about partnership had some CFL fans concerned that the league might merge with the XFL and lose the features which make it entertaining, such as the rouge, three downs instead of four, etc.

I was reminded, of course, of the CFL's expansion into the US in the mid 90s. I was trying to locate a game to post in which Ottawa didn't stink out the joint for a change when I was reminded that they hosted the first regular season game played by an American team in the league. The contest took place on July 7th, 1993.

Smeltzer was proven correct in his prediction that Sacramento would be good in short order. When the two teams met again in Sacramento on September 11th, the Gold Miners would skunk the Rough Riders by a score of 47-15

But at least we won the historic one. 

Just Added: 1997 Panda Game

1981: Ottawa Trojans 22, Dukes of Gloucester 00 (Midget)

It was the Midget page's turn to get some attention this morning.

Records on this page of the early years of the Midget level in Ottawa tended to be little more than championship scores and partial recaps of those games. I've now been able to find most scores for the 1980 and 1981 seasons. 

As stated at the top of that page, the Midget level came into being with the birth of the Ottawa Trojans in 1980. They were joined by Dukes of Gloucester the following year. Their meeting in early September of that year, then, was the first between Midget teams in Ottawa. 

I already had a recap of the Trojans' championship victory later that year but it was of poor quality. I have found a cleaner version of it and replaced the original with it. 

Finally, I've come across a brief article listing the year's award winners. Unfortunately it, too, is a little rough looking. Sorry 'bout that. 

The Nepean Norsemen would join the league in 1982. I'll seek to locate some background on that team as well shortly.