Nov 13th, 1954: Montreal Alouettes 12 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 14

Got my day started by looking up the last time an Ottawa professional football team went winless at home as the Redblacks did this season.

The 1987 - 1988 Rough Riders teams had a long home losing streak, but it was bookended by victories in each season. The 1987 team won its first two home games, the second of which took place on July 11th. The 1988 team won on October 22nd, its second-to-last home game. So neither provided the answer.

I thought the 1954 edition that went 2-12 was a good candidate, but no. It won its final game of the season, at home, against Montreal. The summary of that game is copied below. Sorry about the page breaks, I can't seem to avoid those.

In fact, the last time an Ottawa team did not win at home throughout an entire season was in...1934. They played only six games in those days and Ottawa won once, in Montreal.

Congratulations to the 2022 Redblacks for matching an "accomplishment" dating back to the year Don Cherry was born. 👏👏

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.

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 1957 United Funds Football Tournament: Fisher Park 22, Toronto Bathurst Heights 15

Well, son of a bitch, Ottawa actually brought in one of these at some point and has Fisher Park to thank for it.

Having taken some time to give a longer look at the first Panda Game in 1955 earlier today, I thought I'd move ahead with this tournament. Since the next one to cover was 1957's and I was in the neighborhood, so to speak, I took a few minutes to glance at its results. I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome.

Ottawa schools have a history of success at this football exhibition; they usually defeat the opponent presented to them in fairly convincing manner.

However, the trophy was normally handed off to another team that also won its game that weekend so seeing it handed over to an Ottawa rep was a bit of a shock. I suspect the dramatic fashion in which the game was won played a significant factor. Good for Fisher. 

Fattening the Panda

The results of the Panda Game, the annual rivalry game between Carleton University and uOttawa, were all tabulated some time ago on a page bearing that very name. Most entries now include at least a partial game summary as well.

So now that the basics are down, the goal moving forward is to provide greater detail surrounding those contests including the antics involving its coveted prize, Pedro the Panda. 

Starting at the beginning seemed to make sense. I tracked down what appears to be the first mention of Pedro in the Ottawa Citizen from October 4th, 1955. 

Sure enough, Pedro was stolen two days later. It took all of two days for a tradition of mascot-based shenanigans to begin.

I knew I'd found a picture of a couple of Carleton players posing with Pedro following this game so he had either been recovered or replaced in short order. In fact, he parachuted in some time during the fourth quarter. 

So a pretty eventful debut for the city's favourite stuffed (at the time) bear.

I'll continue looking for details of his adventures over the decades in which he was particularly active. For now, in addition to the articles above, a more detailed summary for the 1955 contest was added at the bottom of the Panda Game page. 

The 1956 Red Feather Tournament: Ottawa Tech 29, Riverdale 10

We're moving ahead a little bit with the Red Feather tournament tonight, though there's little to say about it. It concluded in its most common manner. The Ottawa team won the game in convincing fashion but the "championship" was awarded to another team.

It bears noting that the series of exhibition games was apparently known as the United Fund(s) Football Tournament that year. "Red Feather Tournament" did reveal some results in searches but United Fund (or Funds, plural) was far more common. The purpose of the event appeared to be unchanged, however.

The 1955 Red Feather Tournament: St. Patrick's 27, East York 01

In 1954, some complained when St. Patrick's did not get an opportunity to play Nepean for the right to represent the region in Toronto in the annual Red Feather Tournament.

In 1955, things fell into place a little more nicely. St. Patrick's opened the season with a couple of wins  and it just so happened that they were going to play another undefeated team a few days prior to the tournament representative being chosen. That team was Fisher Park, and though St. Pat's only won by a score of 01-00, it was enough to perceive them as worthy of being our flag-bearers, so to speak, and to make the trip to Toronto. 

St. Patrick's actually had one more game at home to settle prior to making the trip and it turned out to be against the previous year's "controversial" Red Feather Tournament participant, Nepean.  Referred to as a "tune up" match, St. Patrick's won that game as well, with a more convincing score of 13-00.

Their selection thus further justified, the following St. Pat's team headed for Toronto.

The trip alone was something of an adventure. 

Undaunted by a near-tragedy, the kids dominated their opposition...

...And yet were not recognized as tournament champions. Bloor is mentioned in the article above because they were given that honour, partially based on a 28-00 victory against a school from Timmins.

And so again an Ottawa rep excels at the tourney but the prize is awarded to another club. St. Patrick's didn't appear to be too broken up about it, however; they went on to successfully defend their 1954 senior championship and in doing so, extend their undefeated streak to 17 games.

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.

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.

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.