Monday, May 31, 2021

What's Constitutes "Rough Play" Anyway?

After taking a long look at the origins of the Rough Riders name yesterday, I now feel like going back a little further to determine how they earned the rough rider reputation before earning the nickname.

The Ottawa City Football Club was kicked out of the Quebec Rugby Football Union in 1897 for rough play. If that didn't set the perception of the team being particularly...feisty...it must have at least cemented it.

What were they accused of, exactly?  Let's have a look.

Ottawa's City team and Ottawa College, now the University of Ottawa, had a natural rivalry but things boiled up one November evening during one of their contests.

Before we go any further, let's have a basic line-up handy for quick reference when the injuries start piling up.


Officially, the game resulted in an 8-8 tie, though that score was disputed. The team that would become the Rough Riders felt that College was awarded a two-point safety when they actually had only earned a single point on the play, which would make the score 8-7 in favour of the city team. 

But that wasn't even the controversial part! 




It's not clear why Smellie was targeted. His name doesn't even come up in the Journal's summary of the first game between these two teams held on October 16th. I don't believe he played. 

The Montreal Gazette also reported on the game, including an incident in which Walters of Ottawa struck an official. 


It's easy to make a case for Walters to be suspended and even expelled from the league altogether, but the club as a whole? Consensus seemed to be, at least locally, that both clubs were equally responsible, especially since Ottawa's Smellie was assaulted within seconds of taking the field. 

Accusations of rough play came from McGill as well, which is odd since there is actually no mention of any such incident in summaries of that game, played two weeks earlier, even in Montreal newspapers.

In that contest, McGill was ahead 18-01 in the second quarter. Ottawa came back and took a 20-19 lead. And yet, when the game had to be called due to darkness...It was declared to be a 19-19 draw. Go figure. 


Back to the Ottawa City/College game, the QRFU heads agreed to meet the following Wednesday to discuss the events of that day. McGill, according to one report, wanted the Ottawa Club gone and failing that, they certainly didn't want to meet them again.


And yet, that's precisely what happened. Walters was expelled from the Union and the City Club was suspended. No action was taken against College. 

As one Ottawa newsman pointed out, Ottawa City's fate was in the hands of its accusers and all three voting clubs stood to benefit from voting a certain way. 


Yeah, that worked out nicely for everyone...else. Ottawa City had already had the results of two its apparent victories turned into ties and yet was still comfortably at the top of the standings. Getting rid of them reset the race between the remaining three teams, so to speak.

The Montreal papers, for the most part, treated the result of the vote like unfortunate business that had to be done to send a valuable message that rough play would not be tolerated.

The Ottawa media was unsurprisingly upset at the suspension. The Ottawa Club was initially shocked but rather than fight the decision or attempt to retaliate, they appear to have just accepted the matter and looked towards the future. They would join the Ontario Union in 1898 rather than return to the QRFU.

Outside media were of the opinion that the ruling made the QRFU appear "ridiculous" (Toronto Star) and one-sided in avoiding punishment for Ottawa College when they were said by the game's referees to be equally guilty (Hamilton Spectator and Hamilton Times).

A year later, the Hamilton Herald would refer to them as thugs and murderers. 😁  Life came at you fast in 1898 too! 

Sunday, May 30, 2021

That Whole Name Thing

One of the more interesting aspects of researching football history directly from media reports from the time is the frequency with which you find that things thought to be common knowledge are completely inaccurate or at least open to debate.

There are already several examples on this blog, none of which I deliberately sought to find. Rather, while trying to support or add to a certain claim, I instead found myself questioning it. These include...  

  • The CFL lists four draft choices for Ottawa in 1952 when there were at least twice that
  • Tom Clancy is often named as the Ottawa Rough Riders coach for 1904 but looking more closely into it, that seems doubtful
  • The Rough Riders are often said to have "changed names" to Senators for the 1925 and 1926 seasons but the headline announcing the team's Grey Cup victory that first year makes that claim easily questionable.

So let's stay with the name thing...
The club adopted the name Ottawa Rough Riders on Friday, September 9, 1898, and changed its team colours to red and black. Since then, red and black have been Ottawa's traditional sporting colours. Although in later years the name was said to derive from logging, the team based its colours on Teddy Roosevelt's regiment in the Spanish–American War, which, with the date of the renaming, suggests that the name also comes from the war. The team changed its nickname to Ottawa Senators from 1925 to 1930.
That's from Wikipedia and its source is the 2009 Canadian Football League Facts, Figures & Records book. One could reasonably expect it to be reliable but I think a lot of it is based on assumption.

Let's start at the beginning; The club indeed held its annual meeting on September 9th, 1898, but neither newspaper of the time, the Journal and the Citizen, makes any mention of a new name being adopted. In fact, the Journal's report's headline is "Ottawas Are Ready For Rugby". The first practice was held the following Monday and articles about that also made no mention of a new name. The Citizen referred to the team as the "Ottawa Football Club" specifically in its recap of that first practice. 

Let's also bear in mind that on November 10th, 1897, the Ottawa Football Club was suspended from the Quebec Rugby Football Union for "having played roughly against (Ottawa) College last Saturday and for having been rough in the match here against McGill".

The above is from the November 11th Citizen. The match against McGill was in Montreal. McGill was believed to be pushing hard for Ottawa's expulsion (more so than "College", which was a reference to Ottawa U. ) from the QRFU and threatening to refuse to play their scheduled game in Ottawa. The Journal added that an Ottawa City player named Walters also attempted to assault officials during the game against College.

So Ottawa joins the Ontario Union instead. Problem solved. Until...


This may be the first instance of the Rough Riders name being put in use...sort of.  It's not capitalized so it obviously was not an official name, it was meant more as an insult. 

What prompted said insult? You'll note that this partial article is copied to Ottawa papers from the Hamilton Herald. Evidently, Hamilton media types were upset at Ottawa handing Hamilton a loss and accused them of rough play again, the very thing that got Ottawa bounced from the Quebec union less than a year earlier. 

Issues of the Herald from that era are not available (at least to me, at the moment). Here's how one Ottawa paper described the game between Hamilton and Ottawa from the previous Saturday that had that Hamilton writer all riled up.  


Nicely said! 😄

Before we go on, we would benefit from seeing the lineup. 


The above will be beneficial when reading the summary of violence that took place on that fateful Saturday.  


Hey, there's Walters again! I'm going to start thinking of him as the OG Rough Rider.

All that took place during the first match-up between these two teams, in Ottawa. It seemed as though Ottawa was mostly on the receiving end, though that may have been the local bias at work in reporting it.

Ottawa had to travel to Hamilton about two weeks later. They did so and won that contest as well.


Murderers might have been a little strong...

From that point on, the name Rough Riders comes into play frequently in the Ottawa papers. It's hard to believe that the name was decided upon at the annual meeting in September but didn't appear in a local newspaper until one of them decided to copy a Hamilton writer's article six weeks later. It seems more likely that after someone in Hamilton got his nose out of joint over the result of a game and used that term derogatively, Ottawa media (and the team) embraced the club's renegade image and ran with it. I'm reminded of the Millwall soccer club's "No one likes us, we don't care" chant, as an example. 

Why did that Hamilton writer get so bent out of shape, anyway? Surely it wasn't the first time he was exposed to rough tactics while covering a game.


Oh.

As far as the mention of Roosevelt's Rough Riders goes in that Wikipedia article, I've never seen a quote or report to the effect that our Rough Riders had anything to do with his (but if do, I'll add it here). There were a great many articles about Roosevelt's RR at that time so it would have been an easy assumption to make but the names appear to be independent and with completely different meanings.

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Carleton Ravens 1953 Season Review

The following images are scans from the 1954 Carleton university yearbook in reference to the 1953 / 1954 school year. The Ravens football program was rebuilding following a year off in 1951 and starting to show the results of the work put in during the previous couple of seasons.



I might have access to old yearbooks from other schools as well which should help flesh out not only Carleton's page but the high school one as well.  

Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Just Added: 1945 Old Boys Cup, Game 1, Ashbury 05, Bishop's 02

The summary of the second game in the home-and-away, total points series between Ashbury College and Bishop's (then) College had been located some time ago, but that of the first game revealed itself today. I also landed a picture of that 1945 team with line-up included.



At the other end of the page, any record of the Old Boy's Cup contest between these two teams I had found only reached 1969 but I managed to find mentions of it again in 1972 and 1976. Evidently it ran a little longer than originally thought so I'll be adding details as I come across them.

Saturday, May 22, 2021

Just Added: 1988 Ottawa Bootleggers Playoff Game Summaries

This was the result of finding out that the Northern Football Conference had cancelled their 2021 season already. From memory, I thought they started later in the year so I hadn't really taken the time to check until yesterday but sure enough, they made the announcement in late March, on Facebook.

Too bad, but understandable at this point. Hopefully they manage to return next year.

In the meantime, I copied the semi-pro Sooners results from 2018 but with that level of football on the brain, I tracked down the two Bootleggers playoff victories from 1988, their inaugural season.  


Strangely, the first game received better coverage than the second. Never mind that their contest  against Syracuse could put them in the league's championship game in their first season, it was a much more closely fought battle than the previous one and a come-from-behind victory with a last-second finish. 


The Bootleggers lost to Scranton the following weekend.

Since we were talking about the NFC's season cancellation earlier, the league has yet to make anything public as far as I can see, but the Jr. Riders have stated that the Quebec Major Junior Football League have also pulled the plug on the 2021 season. 

That one worries me. It had only five clubs, three of which were well established (Ottawa, Chateauguay, South Shore) and two that had only entered the league in 2019.

I can't help but question the league's viability at this point. They've played with four clubs several times before, and as recently as 2018, so I wonder if perhaps they had already determined that they weren't going to be able to reach that number for 2021.

The season normally only starts in mid-August.  Its cancellation more four months before its usual scheduled start, with no apparent attempt to delay or shorten it, is a little worrisome to me. I've seen it the timing questioned on social media without response.

I very much hope to see them back in 2022 or failing that, that the Jr Riders are able to join the Ontario Football Conference and resume their in-town rivalry with the Sooners.

Friday, May 21, 2021

October 20th, 1989: "Baird Caps Record Year"

In the process of adding the Gee-Gees' 1989 results to their page, I came across the following milestone for one hall-of-famer-to-be.

Gee-Gees QB Cam Baird receives plaque for setting OQIFC season scoring mark from Rider Chris Skinner who had the old standard while at Bishop's.
And Baird did it rather convincingly.


As stated above, the team was 5-2 that year. They would go on to defeat Concordia in the playoffs, their first post-season victory since 1980, I believe. They would lose the following weekend to Queen's, the  team that handed them their two regular season defeats that season and their playoff exit in 1988. 

As for Baird specifically, he was named the conference's most valuable player that year and inducted into the Gee-Gees hall of fame in 2009. 

Friday, May 14, 2021

Oct 25th, 1952: "Irish Edge Hamilton, 7-6, In Red Feather Tournament"

The 1949 Red Feather Tournament was summarized on March 18th and the 1950 edition on April 3rd so today, we move on to 1952.

What happened in 1951? Well, Glebe lost 16-01 to the Windsor Patterson Panthers in that one so we won't dwell on it. 😉

In 1952, St. Patrick's took their turn at the tournament and squeaked out a win with a strong second half.


Despite the win, the trophy was awarded to North Toronto Collegiate by the judges, apparently to some controversy as some thought a team from Etobicoke was more deserving.

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

2021 College Draft Results

May I admit that I'm not really into this one?

Between the likelihood that there will be a ridiculously short season and the fact that many of the players to be chosen tonight will have a year of eligibility left and therefore return to their respective schools, I find it hard to get excited for this player selection process. It's no one's fault, but tonight's event takes "drafting for the future" to an extreme. 

Be that as it may, I'll record the selections and whatever scouting and/or background info I happen to come across for each guy "live", as usual. There are a couple of local guys, most notably Liam Dobson (Maine) and Patrice Rene (North Carolina / Rutgers) so hopefully we get a pleasant surprise on that level. 


1. (06) - Deshawn Stevens, Linebacker, Maine, 6'2" / 255
Scouting Bureau Ranking: January - 14th, April - 20th

Deshawn Stevens of the University of Maine is pictured warming up for a game earlier this spring at Alfond Stadium in Orono. Credit: Ronnie Gillis



Career defensive stats at Maine



Ottawa Sun: “He’s a physical player who moves very well for his size; he may have to slim down a bit for purposes of the CFL,” said Redblacks general manager Marcel Desjardins. “He’s got a great personality. We really like everything he brings to the table. He’ll become a defensive stalwart for us at some point in the future.

At 6-foot-2, 255 pounds, Stevens is capable of playing middle linebacker, maybe weakside linebacker, in the CFL. He could come off the edge in certain defensive schemes.

“We really felt he was one of the top defensive players in the draft and somebody who could play a number of spots for us,” said Redblacks head coach Paul LaPolice. “We’re ecstatic to get him.”


2. (13) - DB Alonzo Addae, West Virginia, 5'10" / 190
 Scouting Bureau Rankings: January - 12th, April - 14th

(Photo by Frank Jansky/Icon Sportswire)

“He’s a very versatile DB; he offers so much versatility and flexibility and he’s such an intelligent football player,” said Desjardins.


3. (24) - OL Connor Berglof, Saskatchewan. 6'03" / 305

Was named a USports All-Canadian in 2019.

Desjardins: “He’s big and physical, one of those typical Saskatchewan guys. We actually had him as an earlier pick. The back issue may have scared off some people. But we felt it was worth the risk. He played with a back issue in 2019. It’s flared up again a bit. If we had to go to camp tomorrow, he wouldn’t be ready to go. But, at the same time, we felt he was worth drafting in the third round. With all the homework we did, with his doctor, with getting access to his medical information and having our medical staff look at it, it certainly looks like he’s trending in the right direction.”

4. (31) - PK / P Jake Julien, Eastern Michigan 

Eastern Michigan Press Release: A four-year starter for the Green and White, Julien has built his special teams resume into one of the best in school history. He is tied with Rich Hanschu (1979-80) for first in the EMU record books with a 43.4 career punting average, and ranks eighth in EMU history with 7,383 yards punting. Julien is the only punter in Eastern Michigan history to record two 70+ yard punts in his career. Through four seasons, he has 51 balls downed inside the opponent's 20-yard line to go along with 37 that traveled longer than 50 yards.

Desjardins: “He’s got a big leg, his hang time is very good. He’s a guy we feel can punt in this league. Could he do more than that? That’s to be determined, but that’s not why we drafted him – we took him as a punter. He’s going back to school, maybe he gets into an NFL situation. I don’t know when we’ll see him, but for us, it’s a good get in the fourth round.”


5. (42) - LS Keegan Markgraf, Utah, 6'03" / 222

Team Press Release: In 2020, Markgraf was a semifinalist for the Patrick Mannelly Award, awarded to the best college football long snapper in the nation. He was also on the Pac-12 All-Conference honorable mention for the 2020 season. In 33 career games played with Utah, Markgraf recorded 160 career snaps (65 punt, 23 FG, 72 PAT).

Desjardins: “As much as everybody has a long snapper, it’s not easy to find a good one. They can’t all be precise, consistent and have some ability to block and cover. Right now, we have a very good long snapper (Louis-Philippe Bourassa), but if something ever happened to him, we don’t have a lot of depth.”

6. (49) - OL Matthew Derks, Delaware State, 6'03" / 315


Desjardins: “He’s a big, wide-bodied, physical interior offensive lineman. I think he needs to get a little smaller for purposes of the CFL and his movement skills will need to improve. But he’s strong, he’s physical, he’s smart. He’s a guy we liked. He’s going to go back and play another year so we felt he was worth taking there and see how he continues to develop.”