Nov 9th, 1985: Carleton 40, Bishop's 20

The gathering of Rough Riders results and the occasional game-summarizing articles continues with the 1984 and 1985 seasons having recently been added.

There isn't much glory to share from either season but in going over those years again, I took the time to copy some summaries from other teams, mostly the Sooners and the Carleton Ravens, both of which were quite successful during that spell. 

I want to focus on Carleton in particular at this time. They won two playoff games in 1985 before bowing to Calgary in a national championship semi-final. It occurred to me that this had to be the first time they recorded two playoff victories in a season in the school's football history (dating back to 1945) because, to be blunt, they'd have very few successful seasons to that point.

Then a paragraph in the article below added a little focus. Read on and we'll resume on the other side.

...First playoff victory since he was the team's head coach starting in 1959.

I initially misunderstood the context there. Harris, at bottom left, is not saying that Carleton last won a playoff game in 1959. That would be inaccurate, the team was winless that year. 

Rather, Harris is stating that he's not aware of a playoff victory from that starting point. Nor should he be, there weren't any.

So I looked at prior years. I still came up empty. It appears, then, that the Ravens literally did not win a playoff game in the first 50 years of their existence. Wikipedia, for what it's worth, appears to support this.

Everyone in Ottawa and the surrounding areas had Ravens fever as the Carleton team headed to Calgary to face the Dinosaurs in the Western Bowl (Vanier Cup semi-final). In -32C weather, the Ravens season came to an end with a 56-14 win for the Calgary Dinosaurs. However, all was not lost - the Ravens enjoyed the best season in the history of the club. They were the first to win a playoff game as well as a league championship, and the first to enter the Final Four.

I guess that never jumped out at me before, even as I (sporadically, in my defense) recorded their results one season at a time. Sure, they weren't always great. They weren't always putrid, either. They had the occasional burst of competence interspersed in there.

Unless I'm mistaken then, Carleton won their first playoff game in 1985 and their last in 1986. But that last one was against uOttawa so if any Ravens fans get chirped about this fact, it'll likely be by a Gee-Gees supporter and you have this to throw back at them.