1996, Oct 27th: "Gee-Gees Earn Another Shot at Ravens"

Another uOttawa/Carleton double bill best shared as a post.

July 12th, 1996: "Riders Rally For First Win Under Payne"

Sept 15th, 1996: "Turnovers Ignite Late Riders Rally"

It never really jumped out at me that the Rough Riders' final victory came against a similarly shitty Saskatchewan team, in Regina no less.

The real Rough Riders winning out there would be cause enough to store this game summary forevermore, but that it was the team's last makes it damn near mandatory to do so. And so...here we are!

June 28th, 1995: Winnipeg Blue Bombers 15 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 25

The Rough Riders won the first game of the 1995 season and, as was so often the case back then, things went downhill from there. Results from that season are being added this evening, so I thought that this rare sliver of competence and hope deserved a little attention.

Aug. 8th, 1991: Winnipeg Blue Bombers 31 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 41

As the Redblacks wind down the season with Bob Dyce as interim head coach, let's take a look back at a time when the Rough Riders did something similar to reasonable success.

Head Coach Steve Goldman was sent packing by the team following an 0-4 start to the season in 1991, and an 11-29 record overall. He was replaced by Joe Faragalli who managed a 7-7 record the rest of the way. The recap below is from the team's first victory following that leadership change. 

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!   

1994, Oct 15th: "Gee-Gees survive great scare from Ravens but just barely"

Not every meeting between the University of Ottawa and Carleton is a Panda game, but many of the non-Panda contests are noteworthy regardless. In reviewing results for either team, I often find that the non-Panda contest is the more entertaining of the two match-ups. 

Such was the case in 1994. Have yourself a read. The first image is of Chris Evraire getting past Scott Hogarth and the second is of Harry Von Hofwegen sacking quarterback Steve Clarke.  

If You Watched The 1991 Canadian Cup, Thank Damon Allen!

Damon Allen wasn't always the most popular guy in Ottawa. The 1991 season, in which he was an Eastern all-star, was his third and final one but he would leave a parting gift for amateur football fans shortly following the conclusion of the CFL regular season (the article is from November 8th of that year).

Unfortunately things did not go well for the Sooners in that game but regardless this was was a pretty classy move by a guy who fielded an awful lot of criticism while he was here.

Damon Allen has some favourite charities so I decided to make a token donation to one of them based on his actions from 31 years ago. Let's think of it as a good deed still paying off long-term. ☺

Sept. 10th, 1994: Ottawa Sooners 25, Hamilton Hurricanes 13

Today is the Canadian Junior Football League's National Signing Day. In their own words "the day in which players can finally sign with a CJFL club. When a player signs he is essentially signing for his entire junior football career as the player then becomes the property of that team."

I hope the Sooners take advantage of this event to market themselves a little bit as they continue their rebuild after two seasons away from the field.  As we wait for results, here's a recently-added game summary from 1994 that I came across while looking up information about that year's Rough Riders squad. Enjoy.

"Time Heals Wounds as Clair, Rough Riders Make Up"

There weren't many on-field highlights to the 1993 Ottawa Rough Riders season but the naming of the stadium after Frank Clair was a notable one off the field. 

Perhaps scheduling this event when the Doug Flutie-led Calgary Stampeders were in town wasn't the wisest choice. I doubt anyone was particularly stunned when the Stamps went on to spank the Rough Riders 47-22.

But there are far more heinous Glieberman missteps on what is a very long list. Fans got to see a wrong made right by the unlikeliest of sources. 

Midget Page Updates

The Midget page has gone through something of a clean up for a couple of its seasons. Most of the attention was given to 1996 and 1999.

A number of the game summaries I'd located were printed at the library years ago then scanned from those prints. They were of terrible quality and have been replaced. 

In the case of 1999, at the time I'd only been able to locate a few paragraphs from the Ottawa Sun in regards to the championship game. The Citizen summary was far more detailed. It has replaced the Sun's article on the Midget page and is being shared below.

I'd had a similar issue with 1996. The championship game article scan was poor and badly cropped. That's been fixed and a team celebration picture that I'd been unable to fit now does and is included.

There have been a number of other updates too small to spotlight, such as the addition of game results for the three local junior teams of the late 2000s, the Sooners, Jr. Riders and Cumberland Panthers. There had been gaps in the local coverage but I managed to locate those scores using the Gazette newspaper in Montreal since the rest of the team in the QJFL are located there (or nearby). In some cases, the home team is not identified, unfortunately. 

Finally, in looking for information about 1996 in particular, I came across this graphic of Jesse Palmer regarding his recruitment to the university of Florida. I can't tell you that I'm a huge fan of the guy, for all his successes, but I like that his statistics as a Rider are included. 

Just Added: The 1992 Ottawa Sooners Playoff Run

The Ottawa Sooners page was becoming cumbersome so it was recently split into two. The relaunch (if that's the proper term) might very well lead to a third page to cover its progress, we'll figure that out later.

All playoff game summaries were added to the 1992 team results on the 1980+ version and this post will be linked to that year's National Championship game date. 

For improved site navigation, I've also created a category of tags down the right side of the page for the particularly successful, iconic teams in the city. I'll need to go over 200+ past posts to populate it fully but anyone looking for past articles about, say, the 1975 Gee-Gees, or one of the Grey Cup winning Rough Riders will be able to do so much more easily this way. 

The Pillar of the Rough House

A familiar face appeared when the REDBLACKS' announced their 2022 operations staff on January 3rd.  

(Brendan) Taman is a Grey Cup-winning executive who has worked in the CFL since 1987, including as Manager of Football Operations for the Ottawa Rough Riders in the early 1990s. Most recently, Taman, who won a Grey Cup as GM of the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2013, spent two years as a Senior Player Personnel Executive with the Montreal Alouettes. Taman was also GM of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 2004-2008. 

He joined the Rough Riders in 1989. For glimpse of how he was perceived in the organization and league, we turn to Ottawa Citizen veteran writer Wayne Scanlan and his article from the October 13th, 1991, edition.

Taman's entry in the 1992 media guide confirmed that the dark hair on the upper lip reached at least Movember-week-three levels. 

Note: I believe the picture above was used for at least three years in the team's media guides so it may pre-date that article by quite some time.

I found the mention of Dan Rambo in the 1991 article is interesting. The Ottawa Sun reported that Rambo assisted the team in its search for a general manager so perhaps we're seeing his influence at play in Taman's addition to the staff. He (Rambo) helped improve the 1992 Rough Riders club and may now have a hand in improving the REDBLACKS 30 years later.

July 9th, 1992: Toronto Argonauts 42 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 53 (OT)

Hearing new REDBLACKS GM Shawn Burke make mention of former Rough Riders GM Dan Rambo, along with copying the summary of the highest-scoring game in Riders history a few days ago, brought back fond memories of the contest below. It remains one of the best games I've ever seen, in person or on television.

Rambo had been named general manager at the end of 1991. It resulted in controversy immediately.

The head coach at the time, Joe Faragalli, was convinced that he would be retained for the 1992 season. Faragalli had been hired following an 0-4 start to the 1991 season and turned the team's fortunes around somewhat, winning seven of its remaining 14 games to reach a 7-11 record.

Rambo, instead, publicly stated that he would seek to interview candidates for the position, drawing Faragalli's ire. He would later hire Ron Smeltzer to replace Faragalli. 

Rambo also made it clear that salaries would need to be cut. Several popular veterans were released or asked to take reductions in pay.

It was all quite chaotic, but arguably less so than when the Riders finally took the field against the defending Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts.

The final score might seem unusual by today's set of rules. How does a team win by 11 points in overtime?

At the time, teams played two five-minute mini-halves to settle a tie game. It was a great system, in my opinion, that didn't put so much emphasis on winning a coin toss as the current one does. 

This team would go on to post a 9-9 record. For a while there, it looked like after many years of ineptitude, the Rough Riders might become a solid franchise again, but it was not to be.

The Gliebermans fired Dan Rambo at the end of May of 1993, a few days before the start of training camp, and the club reverted to their laughingstock status in short order. They could only manage a 4-14 record in 1993 and Lonie Glieberman has since admitted that firing Rambo on little more than rumours was the biggest mistake he made while in charge of the Rough Riders. 

1997 Churchill Bowl: uOttawa 44, Waterloo 37

We've just reached 1997 in recording uOttawa's football results and in some ways, it feels like a waste of time to include this season. 

It's not for lack of success. The team was quite good, generating a 6-2 regular season record and reaching (though losing) the Vanier Cup. But at the conclusion of the season, they came under scrutiny for accusations of running a "dirty" program.

A complaint against them had been submitted to rival Carleton, who then passed it on to the CIAU, and it triggered an investigation of the program. They'd recently had players suspended for steroid use so it was believed that the complaint revolved around that sort of activity.

Ultimately, six months later, head coach Larry Ring was cleared but the school was slapped with sanctions for using two academically ineligible players. The players are not identified in the April 26th, 1998, Ottawa Citizen, but it is stated that one participated in three games and the other in less than half the season.  All 1997 victories were forfeited, including the playoff games, and the team became ineligible for top ten rankings for the next two seasons, among other forms of punishment.

Too bad because the 1997 Churchill Bowl was an exciting back and forth affair in the snow that might well have become a classic. 

Head Coach Larry Ring resigned in July 1998 but it was claimed that the sanctions had nothing to do with his decision to leave. He would be replaced by Marcel Bellefeuille who would not only maintain the level of quality of the program but surpass it by leading his team to a national championship in 2000.

A Couple of 1991 Game Recaps

The Ottawa U. Gee-Gees knew how to pick 'em in the 1991 season. They won only two games out of seven, but one was the Panda game against Carleton and in the other, they bounced #2-ranked Queen's four weeks into the season. 

While gathering those 1991 Gee-Gees scores, I happened across a summary of a Sooners playoff victory and so copied that one too and am about to add it to their page. The final score for that one was 18-12.