Nepean At The 1954 Red Feather Tournament

As explained previously, the Red Feather Tournament featured a series of exhibition games between high school football teams from various parts of Ontario with the purpose to raise funds for charity and to promote sportsmanship. For results involving teams from the Ottawa region, click on the "Red Feather Tournament" tag on the right side of the page under "Activity". 

While it was an exhibition, the events of 1954 demonstrated that the tournament was taken quite seriously, at least locally. 

When the time came to choose a participant, the Nepean and St. Patrick's teams each had equal 3-0 records. Nepean was chosen by vote of the league's directors, upsetting some St. Patrick's supporters. There were some that felt that the two eligible clubs should have a playoff match to determine that year's participant. On the other hand, one Bob Landau explained the reasoning behind Nepean's selection in a letter to the Ottawa Citizen.

And so off went Nepean.

They would lose 9-0 to the Tournament champion University of Toronto Schools team. No doubt those who felt strongly that St. Patrick's should have been the Ottawa rep (or at least given the opportunity to compete for the selection) were left to wonder what might have been.

The dispute generated a little buzz when the two teams prepared to meet for the final game of the regular season.

St. Patrick's furthered their argument when they shut out Nepean (though I doubt any bones were actually shattered) 14-00 to capture first place in the six-team league.

The playoffs beckoned. Nepean was upset by Fisher Park in the semi-finals so they would not get another shot at St. Patrick's. The "Celts" ended up winning the senior championship.

Did St. Pat's success throughout the rest of the season, and against Nepean specifically, invalidate the selection of Nepean for the Red Feather tournament though? Not in the mind of Citizen letter writer CG MacNay. 

Indeed. We're certainly not in a position to know who was throwing punches and knees, perhaps Nepean was equally responsible for that type of behaviour when the two teams met. But it does seem like those who were vocally opposed to Nepean being sent to the tournament were missing its point by a fair margin.

Sept 2nd, 2002: uOttawa 43 @ Toronto 00

Results of the 2002 university of Ottawa Gee-Gees season have been added to that team's page, including a couple of game recaps that were "crop, copy and paste" friendly from the Ottawa Citizen.

I want to emphasize the first game of that season because it was Denis Piché's head coaching debut. Piché would lead the team to a 44-20 regular season record and make them perennial playoff participants so that game seemed noteworthy.

Import #1 (and #2)

Recording results from the 1957 Rough Riders season earlier today produced two points of interest. Unexpectedly, one of them was from 25 years prior.

The first (and current to that article) notable event came in a convincing road victory against Toronto. Ottawa won 55-14 and in doing so, it appeared as though Bobby Judd had a record-setting play. Judd ran back a missed field goal 112 yards for the game's first score, a rather rare occurrence. 

It was said to be a record-setting play but...not so fast! The record book just didn't quite go far enough, it would seem. And in investigating that play, the Ottawa Citizen brought up the other detail that got my eye. 

I wish the above article's writer was properly credited but I'm sorry to say that's not the case.

It is the reference to "first two imports" in the second paragraph that I found interesting. It never occurred to me to try to find out who the first American Rough Rider was, let alone the second. Yet that information just fell right into my lap. Sweet!

Wally Masters is an Ottawa Hall of Fame inductee so tracking down his career is relatively easy. I posted his obituary about 13 months ago here.

Swede Carlsen is a whole other deal. As you may have guessed, "Swede" is more of a nickname. I believe his first name is actually Rolf but I've seen it spelled in the more traditional English manner of "Ralph" as well.

That's going to be a bit more problematic for research purposes but nevertheless, knowing he and Masters are the team's first official import (i.e. American) players is a neat new piece of trivia.

Oct 28th, 2021: uOttawa 24, Carleton 19

Oct 29th, 2021 - A fourth quarter touchdown scamper from Ben Maracle proved to be the difference for the Gee-Gees football team, who defeated the Carleton Ravens 24-19 Thursday evening in front of a frenetic TD Place crowd (RBR edit: the OUA website shows attendance at 1248). 

Maracle accounted for three touchdowns on the day – two on the ground and one through the air – as the Gee-Gees wrapped their regular season with a 3-3 record. 

...

Ottawa started the scoring early, moving their way down the field with ease on their first drive of the game, capped off by Maracle's first touchdown run.

Following a Campbell Fair field goal, Daniel Oladejo flew through the air to haul in an arching Maracle touchdown pass – the most acrobatic touchdown of the Gee-Gees season.

The Ravens got 10 points back to close out the second quarter, making the score 17-10 at the interval. 

The offences sputtered to start the second half, with Carleton only managing a third quarter field goal. 

Early in the fourth quarter, the Garnet and Grey took over the ball around midfield and some tough running from Dawson Odei moved the ball into the red zone. Maracle tucked and ran for his second rushing TD of the game.

The Ravens made it interesting late by finding the end zone, but standout rookie Eric Cumberbatch made a key pass breakup to prevent a two-point convert. Odei then took over with several punishing runs to finish the game and secure Ottawa's second victory of the year over their crosstown rivals.

The summary above does not name JP Cimankinda but attention really should be drawn to his performance, as the rushing statistics below will underscore. He was adding up yardage in large chunks, particularly in the first half.  

A more complete recap with quotes is available on geegees.ca.

Photo by Spencer Colby/The Charlatan

Dec. 11th, 1955: The Ottawa Rough Riders Hire Frank Clair

After a spell of spotty internet service, I was finally able to resume activity on this blog last night.

I spent a few minutes last night adding the results of the 1955 Ottawa Rough Riders season, one of the less inspiring showings for that club in that era. They won three games that year after winning only two in 1954.

A change was needed and it came in the form of Frank Clair.  Prior to moving on to adding the 1956 results, I wanted to share the article relative to his hiring at the end of 1955, being that it was a key turnaround point in the franchise's existence.

Happy 20th Birthday to the Ottawa Renegades

I guess.

I ran into this completely by chance. I was actually looking to confirm uOttawa scores from the 2001 season. An article about the Gee-Gees' home game  against Laurier on October 13th made reference to Renegades co-owner Brad Watters being invited for a ceremonial kickoff. Clearly the franchise had only recently been awarded then, so I went back a few days and easily located the article from October 11th about the team's birth the previous day.

There was much more material but much of it was spent recapping the Rough Riders' history and reliving the team's painful final season in 1996. The former is mostly broad strokes and includes nothing that has not been covered here already and the latter is best moved on from so I have no particular interest in copying any of it. It does, however, speak to the level of interest at the time that the announcement ate up the first three pages of the sports section.

Oct 9th, 2021: York 17 @ uOttawa 20

Data gathering in progress for last night's Gee-Gees victory after Bell crapped out on me just as I started watching it on oua.tv. 😠 Good to see both university teams win this weekend. 👍

A clutch Nicholas Gendron touchdown snag with just over a minute to go in the fourth quarter gave the Gee-Gees the late lead, and an Alex Douglas interception moments later secured a 20-17 win for uOttawa over the York Lions at TD Place Saturday evening.

...

Ottawa found themselves trailing 17-12 after the Lions returned a tipped ball to the house in the fourth quarter, but the Gee-Gees caught a break of their own. A ball was tipped to Maxim Malenfant to get uOttawa into the red zone, and Gendron's sure hands off a bullet pass from Ben Maracle sent the Gee-Gees faithful into a frenzy.

...

The game was a tight one, with neither team leading by more than a single score at any point. The score was 9-6 for the visitors at the half, with two Campbell Fair field goals providing the scoring for the Garnet and Grey.

uOttawa photography by Greg Kolz

Two more Fair three-pointers made the score 12-9, when disaster struck for Ottawa in the fourth quarter. A tipped ball fell into the hands of Mack Bannatyne, who returned it for the touchdown. A rouge gave York their 17-12 lead, despite their kicker, Dante Mastrogiuseppe being banged up and unable to kick consistently.

Looking to engineer a late drive, Maracle spread the ball around and was assisted by tough running from Amlicar Polk. Finding themselves on the Lions five-yard line and facing third-and-goal, Maracle hit Gendron for the pivotal score.

York got the ball back, but Douglas became the third different Gee-Gee to pick off Lions quarterback Noah Craney on the day.  Full recap w/quotes. 

Oct 8th, 2021: Toronto 24 @ Carleton 27

Gathering info on last night's game. The image below is from the Carleton Sports Twitter account (I believe it's by Valerie Wutti) while the stats are from the OUA website, as usual. 

More to come. 

2021 Panda Game: uOttawa 19, Carleton 17

Gathering some Panda Game goodies from here, there and everywhere. The image below is from the Gee-Gees Instagram account, if i recall correctly. 

Photo Copied From the Gee-Gees Football Instagram Account

Ottawa Sun, Oct 3rd, 2021, by Ken Warren: In yet another Panda Game that twisted and turned with wild momentum shifts and a healthy dose of Mother Nature for good measure, it was a perfectly fair finish for the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees at TD Place stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Campbell Fair, that is.

Fair, the Gee-Gees kicker, blocked out the noise of the rain-drenched, sold-out crowd of 15,000 before booting a game-winning 45-yard field goal with exactly one minute remaining to cap a 19-17 win over the Carleton Ravens.

The kick tied the Panda Game record for longest field goal, set by current Ottawa Redblacks and former Gee-Gees kicker Lewis Ward in 2017.

They don’t come any more clutch that this one, flipping the score in the Gee-Gees’ favour after Ravens kicker Brandon Forcier put the Ravens ahead 17-16 with a 32-yard field goal with 3:53 to go.

“It’s definitely the biggest moment of my career, for sure,” Fair said, speaking a good 30 minutes after a crowd of spirited students emptied onto the field post-game, as per Panda Game tradition. “I’m just trying to think of the the mechanics in the most basic form, getting the right part of my foot through the right part of the ball.”

For the raucous and rowdy crowd of Gee-Gees fans in the north-side stands, the kick was a reward for sticking around through the downpour and a game in which both injury-depleted offences struggled to sustain drives.

....

The victory was the first of the season for the Gee-Gees after a pair of losses. It also came following a pre-game tribute to Francis Perron, the Gee-Gees defensive lineman who died following the first game of the season in Toronto on Sept. 18. Gee-Gees head coach Marcel Bellefeuille credited his entire team for being able to focus in the crucial moments on Saturday.

Of course, the win wouldn’t have happened unless Fair hit it between the uprights from 45 yards out.

“I give him all the credit,” Bellefeuille said. “Thursday (in practice), we put him in that situation, just like (Saturday), from 35 yards out, for a 42-yarder, and he didn’t make it. He walked off the field and I said, ‘You’ll make it in the game.’ I’m really happy for the young man. He nailed it.”

Bellefeuille also praised his team for not losing their cool after losing a fourth-quarter lead.

The Gee-Gees led 16-7, but a pair of fumbles from Nathan Walker — one after a reception and one on a punt return — allowed the Ravens to rally. Before Fortier’s field goal, Ravens quarterback Reid Vankoughnett connected with Khalik Johnson for a 13-yard touchdown pass, narrowing the Gee-Gees’ lead to 16-14.

...

After losing No. 1 and 2 quarterbacks Tanner DeJong and Tristan Lefebvre to injuries in a win over Queen’s on Sept. 25, the Ravens were forced to dig deep into the depth chart, with rookies Vankoughnett and Tristan Rinaldis seeing their first university action in the Panda Game spotlight.

Vankoughnett got the start and had some initial success by handing off over and over again. Nathan Carter capped off an impressive opening drive by scoring on a six-yard touchdown run. Carter finished the afternoon with 108 yards rushing on his way to breaking the Raven’s career rushing record that had been held by Mark Brown since 1988.

From there, though, the Ravens offence stalled and the Gee-Gees worked their way back into the game. The Gee-Gees first hit the scoreboard courtesy of a 12-yard field goal from Fair after an extended drive that featured a superb catch by Daniel Oladejo on a pass from quarterback Ben Maracle and a questionable pass-interference call.

The big play of the first half was a 64-yard touchdown pass from Maracle to Tristan Park. Park was wide open before making the catch and scampering into the end-zone.

As rain picked up, neither team had much success moving the ball, the contest becoming a game of punting and field position. The Ravens also conceded a safety in the first half.

Vankoughnett, who went 3-for-19 passing for 13 yards in the first half, was replaced by Rinaldis to start the second half. Rinaldis struggled to move the ball and Ravens coach Steve Sumarah gave the ball back to Vankoughnett in the fourth quarter.

The Gee-Gees, meanwhile, lost Maracle to a third-quarter injury, bringing back-up Matt Mahler into the game.

“Another typical Panda Game,” Ravens head coach Steve Sumarah said. “It’s never over until it’s over. You know … At the end of the game, they made some plays.”

....

With the victory, the Gee-Gees hold a 34-18 Panda Game edge overall.

...

Bellefeuille said the atmosphere of the Panda Game never gets old.

“That’s why it has been around so long,” he said. “Nothing against the Carleton guys, but that Ottawa crowd was rocking over there. I was so happy they were on the north side because some of them were dry and covered (in the seats). I was impressed with the crowd.”