Nov 21st, 1951: "Rough Riders Get Seven Majors To Wallop Sarnia Imperials, 43-17"

This third consecutive Rough Riders game summary concludes that team's run through the 1951 playoffs. It's nice to get an unusual opponent in the form of the Sarnia Imperials.

The championship game coverage, against Saskatchewan, has been included on the Grey Cup page for some time. You can click on the page link under the top banner.

Nov 17th, 1951: "One More Hurdle For Riders to Grey Cup Final"

We flip to the Ottawa Journal for the summary of the second game in the two-game series against Hamilton for the IRFU (Big Four) championship. The image at the bottom is from the Citizen of the same date, however.  

Nov. 14th, 1951: "Riders' Last Quarter Rally Results in 10-Point Lead"

The summary below is for the first of two games in a series to win the IRFU title. Game two will hopefully be added later on today.

August 27th, 2022: uOttawa 19 @ Windsor 16

The game summary below is from geegees.ca. A fuller version of it can be found here.

The scoring summary is copied from the OUA's website while the image of J.P. Cimankinda is from the U. of O.'s Instagram account. They credit Windsor's Kevin Jerrold for it. 

On Saturday, the Gee-Gees football opened their season with a 19-16 win over the Windsor Lancers in Windsor. After making the longest football road trip in the OUA, the Gee-Gees will return to Ottawa with a 1-0 record.

Ottawa opened the scoring with quarterback Ben Maracle scampering into the end zone on a two-yard touchdown run to take a 7-0 lead mid-way through the first quarter.

The Gee-Gees extended their lead with seven minutes remaining in the second quarter on a 42-yard field goal from Campbell Fair. 

The script flipped shortly afterwards for the Gee-Gees when Maracle exited the game with an injury and Matt Mahler took over.

An attempted dump-off pass by Mahler fell right into the hands of Windsor defender Liam Hoskins, who returned it 71 yards for a touchdown. Fair responded with his second field goal of the night, this time from 46 yards to give the Gee-Gees a 13-7 lead.

After the half, the Lancers added a touchdown of their own, along with a conceded safety by Ottawa, Windsor claimed a 16-13 lead. Fair would again be called on to tie the game and converted a third attempt from 30 yards out. 

In the end, Fair drilled a 38-yarder through the middle of the uprights with seven seconds left on the clock to break the stalemate and hand Ottawa the win.

"Anytime you win the game on a kick, you go wild," said Fair. "After a long drive, you're tired, it's hard to keep your mind on the game, but we managed to do it and it worked out well for us." 

 

Key contributions on the Ottawa offence came from J-P Cimankinda, who rushed for 125 yards on 18 carries, as well as Daniel Oladejo, who had eight receptions for 79 yards. Mahler finished 13-23 for 118 yards, while Maracle was 5-7 for 69 yards.

Defensively, James Peter led the way with eight tackles and a forced fumble, while Marc Rondeau and Riley Hildebrandt had interceptions. Rondeau originally returned his interception for a touchdown until it was erased due to a penalty.

"It was one of those character-building wins," said Gee-Gees head coach Marcel Bellefeuille. "We learned the value of staying positive, we had a lot of adversity, but we responded. On the flipside there are a lot of things to still work on, so we'll break down the film and make some corrections." 

August 27th, 2022: McMaster 18 @ Carleton 24

The scoring summary below is copied from the OUA website whereas the game recap was obtained from goravens.ca. Click on this link for quotes and additional stats.

I believe the photograph is by Marc Lafleur but credit was not given on the Instagram account from which I found it.

The Carleton Ravens kicked off the 2022 season with a win, some firsts, and a record as they battled from behind in the second half to beat the McMaster Marauders 24-18 at TAAG Park.

Coach Corey Grant became the first Ravens head coach to win in his debut since Kim McCuaig in 1969. On defence, Shaheem Charles-Brown broke the Ravens single games record for sacks with four.

On offence, Ravens quarterback Tanner DeJong passed 3,000 yards and Mark Lee (3,001) for sixth all-time in Ravens passing yards.

The matchup was tight from the start with the Ravens kicking off the afternoon with a massive return by Denny Ferdinand, which generated a great starting field position. After Josh Ferguson was able to help the Ravens make gains, a deep punt from Vincent Plouffe would force the Marauders deep. The great defensive field position would help set up a sack of Andraes Dueck forcing Mac to concede a safety.

The two teams would trade short drives the rest of the first quarter before McMaster’s Jacob Patten would return a wobbly punt 53-yards for the first major of the afternoon. Despite a strong defensive quarter, the Ravens found themselves down after 15 minutes 7-2.

After exchanging possessions early in the second quarter the Marauders would capitalize on a Ravens fumble and begin a possession in the red zone. The Ravens’ defence would continue their strong play standing up the Marauders and forcing them to settle for a 21-yard field goal from Benjamin MacDonald for a 10-2 lead.

The Ravens would continue to build momentum holding the Marauders to a two-and-out allowing themselves to start a drive on the offensive half of the field. Working with no huddle the Ravens quickly worked their way into the red zone and veteran quarterback Tanner DeJong found his rhythm putting the Marauders under pressure. After finding Kaseem Ferdinand on the out, DeJong would go back to Ferdinand for the Ravens’ first major of the season.

The Ravens would look to tie on the conversion but come up a finger-tip short as DeJong’s pass sailed threw his receiver’s hands. The Ravens would trail 10-8. Dueck would work one more key drive for the Ravens driving into the Ravens’ red zone and setting up a 38-yard field goal to extend the lead to 5.

The Ravens’ offence started the third quarter by putting a jolt of electricity into TAAG Park as DeJong would drive into the Marauders’ red zone setting up a nice play-action pass to Josh Ferguson who scrambled his way to the 1-yard line setting up a Tristan Rinaldis keeper for the touchdown and 15-13 lead.

After a Ravens safety, MacDonald would hit his third field goal of the game to make it a one-point game. As the fourth quarter drove on, Kaseem Ferdinand would get the Ravens into McMaster territory with a great run after the catch. The Ravens would cap off a 9-play 75-yard drive with a Joshua Ferguson 7-yard run to put the Ravens up 24-16.

McMaster would force the Ravens to concede a safety with 1:04 to play, only to have Denny Ferdinand pick off Dueck with ten seconds left on the clock.

Nov. 20th, 1948: Hamilton Tigers 00 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 19

This is the game which put the Rough Riders in the Grey Cup for the first time since 1940. They would lose the championship to Calgary, however, in a game now known in part for a horse being ridden into a Toronto hotel lobby by Calgary fans.

"REDBLACKS sign national LB Shaydon Philip"

The Ottawa REDBLACKS added linebacker Shaydon Philip to the roster yesterday but rather than copy the press release here, I prefer to post a portion of a Toronto Sun article from January of 2021. Philip had just signed with Calgary and the article, written by Gerry Moddejonge, provides more information about his background than the release does.

...Calgary picking a young Edmonton prospect provides yet another spark to the smoldering rivalry between the province’s two Canadian Football League teams. But that all took a backseat when the opportunity of a lifetime that arose for Philip.

Especially after having the whole process of making the transfer to the pros interrupted by COVID-19 the way it was last year.

“I got invited to the national combine, so I went through the process of interviewing with teams. It was weird doing it over Zoom,” recalled Philip, who played a total of three seasons with the University of Alberta Golden Bears. “It all happened really quickly because I was practising with the Bears still and then, all of a sudden, we were told we couldn’t go to the facilities anymore. The national combine got cancelled and I was getting Zoom calls from teams.”

No combine meant no chance to show teams exactly what he was capable of, live and in person, which contributed to Philip getting passed over in May’s CFL draft.

“The day after the draft is when my agent said Calgary was interested and we were going to get a contract signed up. And then the league just shut down,” said Philip, who kept at his craft not knowing if sheer circumstances had led to him getting passed by. “My agent contacted me last week and said, ‘Hey, you still want to play football?”

While the answer is obvious, there was a time when Philip had to ask if football still wanted him.

After two seasons following an upward trajectory in the Bears secondary, Philip found himself backpedalling through life, suddenly on the outside looking in at the Canada West Conference.

“I had gotten into some trouble just being a stupid, young kid,” he said. “And when that happened — sports was my world; I did my school, I had my friends, but sports was my No. 1, my safe zone — I honestly didn’t know, I thought I was going to quit football. I was just going to get my degree and move on.

“But the (Edmonton) Huskies convinced me to come play (junior), and that was a huge turning point in my life. I was so grateful for everyone at the Huskies and what they did for me, because I was ready to quit and I had so much fun that year.”

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS - Bison #22 Jamel Lyles stretches to increase the yardage as he goes down to Alberta Golden Bear #15 Shaydon Philip Friday afternoon at the Investors Group Stadium. - Sept 29, 2017

Back on track, Philip returned to the Bears in 2019 to try and turn football into a career, global pandemic or not.

“This has been my dream since I was a kid, since minor football in St. Albert,” Philip said. “So, I kept my head up, did my best to stay in shape and just keep positive about it. And just keep waiting and waiting."

“I’m so thankful and blessed that it actually came about. Now, I’ve got to take the next step, go into camp and try and make the roster.”

Aug 17th, 2022: "Taylor, Miller named coordinators as Gee-Gees football set staff for 2022"

With a mix of updates and new additions, the Ottawa staff continues to take shape under head coach Marcel Bellefeuille in his fifth overall season at the helm of the Garnet and Grey.

Headlining updates to the staff are Nathan Taylor and Brad Miller, who will be taking on new coordinator roles for the upcoming season.

Taylor, who joined Ottawa in 2016 has served in a variety of roles with the Gee-Gees, most recently holding the post of Special Teams Coordinator and Receivers Coach. This season, he will move to Offensive Coordinator while continuing to serve as positional coach with the receivers.

Miller joined the Ottawa staff as Linebackers Coach in 2021 with a long coaching resume at various levels including the NFL and CFL. For the upcoming season, Miller will take over as Special Teams Coordinator while still working positionally with the linebackers.

The pair join defensive coordinator Jean-Vincent Posy-Audette to round out the staff's trio of coordinators. 

Four familiar faces to the program will highlight the changes on the positional coaching front for the season.

Brock Flemming rejoins his alma mater to serve as Offensive Line Coach. A native of Gatineau, Flemming played college football at Colgate, before returning home to play two seasons with the Gee-Gees in the early 2000s. In 2002, he was named a First Team All-Canadian at tackle, before playing parts of two seasons with the Montreal Alouettes. Since, he founded the Canadian Football Institute in Ottawa.

Marco Dubé will take the post of Running Backs Coach for the 2022 season after serving for two seasons on the defensive side of the ball with the Gee-Gees. Along with his experience in Ottawa, Dubé has coached in CEGEP with Cégep de l'Outaouais and Cégep Beauce-Appalaches following his time playing at York and with Outaouais.

Vincent Campbell also returns to his alma mater to serve as the Quarterbacks Coach. Campbell played receiver and returned kicks for the Gee-Gees from 2012-14. Following his time at Ottawa, Campbell turned to coaching where he worked in the CFL with Saskatchewan (2022), Edmonton (2021), and Ottawa (2019), as well as in France and collegiately at Simon Fraser.

Alex Labonté will rejoin the Gee-Gees coaching staff for the season, after previously coaching with the team in 2019. Labonté played linebacker at Ottawa from 2011-14 and has served as Head Coach of the Cornwall Wildcats U18 team since 2020.

Aug. 20th, 2022: "DeVonte Dedmon returns to REDBLACKS"

OTTAWA - One of the most electrifying players in Ottawa REDBLACKS history has returned to the team.

Following a stint with the NFL's Miami Dolphins, the REDBLACKS announced, today, that star returner DeVonte Dedmon will join the team for the remainder of the 2022 season. 

“You know how you go to summer camp, and you meet new people," said Dedmon. "Then the school year starts, and you are back with your Day 1 crew?” 

"I'm back with my family." 

Dedmon, 26, broke out with Ottawa during the 2021 season, following a standout rookie campaign in 2019. He totalled 2,841 return yards, and with three touchdowns, became the fastest player in CFL history to record five return touchdowns in his career. For his efforts, Dedmon was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player, along with earning CFL All-Star honours.

The Williamsburg, Virginia native also chipped in on offence, with Dedmon hauling in 103 receiving yards, 68 rushing yards, and a touchdown.

"Devonte has proven himself to be a top player in our league who is always a threat with the ball in his hands,” said REDBLACKS Head Coach Paul LaPolice. “It’s exciting for the team to be able to add a player of his calibre to the roster and we’re happy to have him back in the mix.”

1990, Oct 13th: uOttawa 21 @ Carleton 34

What follows is another example of a game between Carleton and uOttawa which might have generated much more notoriety and recognition had it been played under the Panda game label.

Carleton broke a 19-game losing streak dating back to October 24th of 1987 with this victory against their chief rival.

That brought Carleton's record to 1-4. They would not win either of their remaining two games and would complete the season with a 1-6 record.

For that matter, they would not win a game again until the third game of the 1991 season when they beat...uOttawa by a score of 9-0.  They would lose their next 12 in a row until knocking off uOttawa once again in the second game of the 1993 season. 

In summary, after defeating Queen's 16-14 on October 10th, 1987, the Ravens would win only three game between that date and September 18th, 1993, and all three were against the University of Ottawa. Got to love rivalries!   

1934 Senior High School Playoffs: Glebe 8, St. Patrick's 00

I intend to add many more game summaries to this blog and where senior high school football is concerned, this particular match-up is the best place to start.

This game has the distinction of being the first playoff meeting in the history of the sport at that level. Prior to that, meaning from 1927 to 1933, the team at the top of the standings by season's end was deemed the circuit's champion.

In 1934, Glebe and St. Patrick's had identical records and split their two meetings during the season.  

The system didn't catch on immediately. I'll need to do some double-checking but I believe teams first played semi-finals in 1937 on their way to naming a champion and the method held up from that point on.

We'll figure it out for sure later but for now we know that Glebe and St. Pat's staged the first ever playoff game in Ottawa senior high school history. 

Backups vs Juniors, 1919 edition!

Today's offering is a glimpse at a couple of games played in the local junior league more than a century ago.

These were the final two contests of the regular season in this league which was on the verge of becoming affiliated with the Quebec Rugby Football Union the following year. Being that the summary is relatively easy to read and includes the line-ups as well as the standings, I thought it would be a good share.

The next scheduled game, largely meaningless between Senecas and New Edinburgh, never happened. In its place, an exhibition was organized between the city's Interprovincial Rugby Football Union team's "seconds" (basically the Rough Riders practice roster, though not making much use of the name at that point) and a team made up of junior league all-stars.

I believe the Seconds had won the QRFU title at their level and were waiting to see if a contest against another union could and would be scheduled. 

In the meantime, final standings within the junior ranks were being settled by...coin flip. 

Congratulations on that third place finish, New Edinburgh! It was well-earned!

The juniors apparently represented themselves quite nicely in their loss to the IRFU club's back-ups. You can read about that below. 

1958 United Funds Tournament: Glebe 19, Sarnia Central Collegiate 13

I haven't given this contest any attention since early March, then discovering that an Ottawa team (Fisher Park) was finally awarded the trophy in the city's ninth year of participation in the tournament. If my memory is sound, Ottawa teams had won all but one of its games against various other Ontario schools since 1949. Yet someone else was always named the "Golden Rule" champion, recognizing character and sportsmanship, until Fisher was recognized in 1957. 

So could the Ottawa area defend its title in 1958? Well...No.

No knock on the local team, it just wasn't a possibility. For some reason, the newly-named United Funds Football Tournament officials chose to not name a winner starting from this point. Presumably every team that won its game felt they had an argument for taking home the trophy so perhaps the organizers were tired of justifying their decisions every year, or they were uncomfortable with making the call in the first place.

Whatever the case may be, if you're ever bitched about handing out trophies to kids for just showing up, it may come as some consolation to know that it was happening in 1958 as well. Hell, even the losing teams got one in this tourney.

Certain selection rules were put in place as well. In past years, the choice of representative from Ottawa schools had come under a little fire which went counter to the purpose behind the entire tournament. Presumably the Ottawa area wasn't unique in that regard. There was also an attempt to avoid having the same powerhouse school(s) go every year by setting limits on consecutive participation.



Perhaps eager to prove the worthiness or their selection, Glebe skunked Lisgar to the tune of 32-07 on the Wednesday night before setting off to Toronto to play a team from Sarnia. And once there, they were featured in the opening contest. 



And here's the trophy presentation from the October 22nd Citizen. Presumably it's the same one that Sarnia received despite their loss. 



I don't know how many more years this tournament was held but I suspect we'll come to find that this particular one was the turning point that led to its demise. Media coverage lamented the lack of a champion, even if said champion was chosen rather than based on a head-to-head contest. The format changed to an East vs West total points type and fewer teams participated as I believe they normally had eight rather than six.

Attendance was quite good though so perhaps I'm wrong. We'll check back again periodically and see it to its end!

The Ottawa Sooners 1972 Playoff Series vs Verdun

The Sooners joined the Quebec junior league in 1972 and made their presence felt in short order. They lost their first two games but ultimately racked up a 6-3 regular season record then marched their way through the playoffs to secure the league's championship. 

Their first playoff contest was a  single elimination match against the Laval Cobras, won 36-00. That lead to the two-game series against Verdun copied below and now linked to on the Sooners 1960-1980 page. 

October 15th

October 22nd

This would be followed by a loss to Ontario champion Hamilton the following weekend.

Nov. 23rd, 1968: Toronto Argonauts 14 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 36

This was the second of a two-game series for the right to be Eastern reps in the Grey Cup that year. Argos had won 13-11 in Toronto the previous weekend.

The summary is from the Ottawa Journal but the photography is from the Ottawa Citizen, both from November 25th of that year.