The 1974 Sooners' Two-Game Playoff Series Against Hamilton

As mentioned in yesterday's post, here are the summaries of the 1974 Ottawa Sooners' two-game series against Hamilton.

November 2nd

November 2nd

The 1974 Sooners' Two-Game Playoff Series Against Niagara

This post comes on the heels of the announcement that the 1974 Ottawa Sooners are being inducted into the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame.  

In looking at this site's content about that specific edition of the team, I was surprised at how thin it was. They're mentioned very little here.

Seeking to remedy that, I began to look for content from newspapers archives. I was quickly reminded why I've recorded so little. While there is plenty of information available, its quality is quite poor, as you'll see below.

Nevertheless...I added the team's first playoff game summary to the Sooners (Junior 1960-1980) page. That game was followed by a two-game series against Niagara. The first game's recap is directly below, from the Citizen. 

Chiarelli wasn't dicking around. The Sooners were far more dominant in the second game. Here's the summary of that one from the Ottawa Journal. 

This led to another two-game series, this time against Hamilton. I'll see what I can dig up about those two games. 

Nov 11th, 1972: Montreal Alouettes 11 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 14

Not all playoff games are created equal. The summary below makes the contest seem so dismal that I considered avoiding it altogether and finding something else to post.  It's not exactly the stuff of great glory but hey, it still counted! 

Nov 18th, 1973: Montreal Alouettes 14 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 23

What follows is Ottawa Citizen coverage of the 1973 Eastern final game which put the Riders in that year's Grey Cup. Take it away, Bob!

Oct 20th, 1973: "'Bombs' Save Sooners from Grid Defeat"

The game below was the first playoff contest for the 1973 Sooners. While the team was said to be undefeated, accurately, they did have a tie in their regular season record that had come against this same Verdun team. 

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.

Scott Alexander Named to Carleton Ravens Hall of Fame

Carleton University named its 2022 Athletics Hall of Fame class on May 12th and it included record-setting Ravens receiver Scott Alexander.

The following information was compiled by Ravens Sports Information.

In an era when football was primarily a running game, wide receiver Scott Alexander began his career with the Ravens in 1969 and set the bar for all other Carleton receivers to be compared. Over four seasons, Alexander rewrote the Carleton record book establishing records that still stand nearly 50 years later.

Alexander graduated as the school’s all-time scoring leader with 134 points, a record that still holds today. He also established Carleton records with ten touchdown catches and 62 points in a single season, as well as touchdowns in a career with 22. His single-season record of 10 touchdown catches and 62 points scored still stands today. Alexander’s 22 touchdowns in a career has been tied twice but remains unbroken. Alexander’s 89-yard touchdown in the 1972 Panda Game remains the longest passing play and touchdown in Panda Game history for either school.

That 89-yard touchdown pass in the 1972 Panda Game actually set the career touchdown record. The clip below is from the October 23rd Ottawa Journal.

So relatively speaking, he ended up shattering the old mark when he reached 22. That the record has not been broken since speaks for itself.  

Oct. 16th, 1976, Ottawa Citizen: "New Sooner Learns Strange Game Fast"

I spotted the article below about former Sooner Louis Dickenson while tracking down the results of the 1976 senior high school season. 

The body building program appears to have paid off as Dickenson made the 1977 all-conference team. After his playing days, his accomplishments were listed in an advertisement for a local event called  "Building The Body Beautiful" in 1984.

I believe he continued to compete through at least 1985. 

The Centerfielder

I was in the process of tidying up the spot in which I keep my football reference material and decided to take a flip through a couple of the old programs.

This one, from 1972, featured a handful of biographical profiles. I selected Rod Woodward's to scan and share. His couch and drapes combo on the fourth page damn near drove my scanner to suicide so please do not let its effort be in vain. 😁 

November 8th, 1975: Toronto 07 @ uOttawa 14

Last month, the summary of the first playoff game the Gee-Gees won on the way to the 1975 National Championship was added as a post. We do the same now for the OQIFC East Championship game against Toronto.

Aug 16th, 1977: Toronto Argonauts 17 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 31

Happy new year to my thousands hundreds dozens whatever-number of visitors! I have no idea how many of you there are out there but I appreciate anyone and everyone who shares this interest and drops by, regardless of reason or cause.

I hope to have a productive update day today. I'll be bouncing around a bit and have already done some work on the EOSSA championship page (adding part of the 1934 summary) and am now collecting the Rough Riders 1977 results.

In doing so, I've just found Richard Holmes' impressive debut game and thought that was worth a share, so...Here you go!

Nov 1st, 1975: Queen's 27 @ uOttawa 56

While tracking down details of the 1975 Ottawa Rough Riders season, it struck that I'd done very little of the same for that year's University of Ottawa team, considered among the best in the history of the sport at that level.

For now, we'll start with their first playoff victory on the way to the national championship following an undefeated regular season. The other games leading up to that historical victory will get their own posts over time.

Gee-Gees' Jeff Avery receives a Jim Colton pass as Bill McIver moves in. - Mike Pearce, Citizen

Sept 7th, 1975: Hamilton Tiger-Cats 31 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 56

I'm currently adding results from the 1975 Rough Riders season and happened upon the highest points total put together by the club in a single game. This was a nice find made all the sweeter by the fact that a) I wasn't actually looking for it and hadn't planned to and b) it was dropped on Hamilton.

I don't believe that the team has broken that scoring record. I've found games in which they scored in the low 50s but not over 56, even with overtime.

It seems rather modest as a record for a team with a 120-year history. You'd think that at some point they'd have gone against a completely overmatched opponent and notched more than 56 points. Montreal's record, for example, is 82 points (also against Hamilton, hilariously, in 1955). Toronto's is 70 and they also scored 68 in another game.

Hamilton's record is 67 but it came against Saskatchewan. Any Tiger-Cat success is loathsome in and of itself but if it's at least directed against Saskatchewan, there's that silver lining.

It's shocking that Ottawa never crossed that 60-mark against one of the shitty pre-Alouettes Montreal teams, for example, but evidently that simply hasn't taken place. Ah well. But at least the record was set against Hamilton and for that we should be appreciative.  

Oct 5th, 1974: uOttawa 23, Carleton 22

This was not a Panda Game contest between these two universities but it had some significance nonetheless. While the article below does not make mention of it, it was billed as a hundred-year anniversary tribute to the first football game played, between McGill and Harvard, in late October 1874.

Appropriately enough, its conclusion provided a spotlight on a uniquely Canadian rule. 

Ah, the single point, you long-misunderstood, delightful bastard! May you live forever!

Are you among those who think that awarding a single point for a missed field goal is rewarding failure? If so, you are incorrect. 

The single point rewards field position and getting the ball across the goal line at the conclusion of the play. You don't get a point for doinking the ball off the goal post or for a kick that falls short of it, yet those are still missed field goals. 

This is also why the defending team can avoid giving up the point by running the ball out of the endzone. If successful, at the conclusion of the play, the ball had not crossed the line. Therefore, no point.

The closer the offense is to the goal line, the more difficult the run back. You either drove the ball in position or recovered a turnover to make this possible so it is field position that is rewarded, not missing the field goal attempt.

When you've kicked it through the back of the endzone, obviously you had to cross the goal line to do so, so again, you've earned a point. You wouldn't be able to do this from your own 20-yard line. 

With that in mind, think of a successful field goal as awarding an additional two point for the added precision of getting it between the goal posts.

A lot of people don't care for this rule. That's certainly an opinion that anyone can be entitled to, but I've noticed that many of those who don't care for it also don't actually understand it (and become defensive when you point that out to them). 😋 

You can argue that skill and talent has improved to the point that the accomplishment is no longer reward-worthy, that's one thing. But stating that teams get rewarded for "missing a field goal" is ridiculous.

I wish the CFL (in particular) would direct the time spent considering doing away with the single point towards educating fans as to its actual purpose instead.

Aug 25th, 1973: Rough Riders 30 @ Montreal Alouettes 03

I'm continuing to add game results from past Rough Riders seasons and have just hit 1973. This season will culminate with the team's second-last Grey Cup victory. 

The beginning of the season did not give cause to believe that it would conclude with celebration. The team lost its first four games and looked inept offensively much of the time. Things would turn around, starting with the victory in Montreal below.

In advancing through the 60s, I've added a few more game summaries of the two university teams, the Sooners and the league in which those very same Sooners had their start, the IJFL. You can access all of that in the respective pages above. 

July 30th, 1975: Ottawa Rough Riders 31 @ Hamilton Tiger-Cats 09

John Perlberg provided us with this statistical gem Tuesday night on Twitter following the REDBLACKS win over Edmonton.

Why, thank you for the post inspiration! I tracked down the Ottawa Journal summary of that game for your reading pleasure.

I find it interesting that so many of us are irritated by mid-week games yet I've come across a few from the past recently. You'll note that this one was played on a Wednesday. While gathering results from the late 40s, I noticed there were some mid-week games back then as well when games were only played within the Big Four teams, so not as a results of an odd number of teams in the league. Evidently, for a spell, playing on a Tuesday or Wednesday wasn't that unusual.