Just Added: 1956 Ashbury Team Photo

About a month ago, I posted a summary of Carleton's 1953 season pulled from the following year's school yearbook. The 1957 Ashbury College yearbook is the source of the images below, now appearing on the BCS Old Boys Cup page.

I believe there is an error in the first name of the third row. "Tiny" Hermann's full name is Charles Bismark Hermann so the "P" was probably intended to be a "B". He is referred to as C.B. Hermann on an earlier page. 

I like the mention of the Old Boys Cup in the photo. Coverage of this trophy, awarded annually for many years to the winner of competition between Ashbury and Bishop's College, is sometimes spotty so it's easy to wonder how big a deal it really was.

Back to Hermann, the image below was also from that same yearbook. It is nor clear if it was taken during a match-up against Bishop's so I didn't include it on Old Boys Cup the page but still thought it needed to be shared. If you're not familiar with Hermann, he played many years with the Rough Riders, was Carleton's first coach when the program began and, apparently, well-liked by his Ashbury players. He's a member of the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame.

Just Added: 1945 Old Boys Cup, Game 1, Ashbury 05, Bishop's 02

The summary of the second game in the home-and-away, total points series between Ashbury College and Bishop's (then) College had been located some time ago, but that of the first game revealed itself today. I also landed a picture of that 1945 team with line-up included.

At the other end of the page, any record of the Old Boy's Cup contest between these two teams I had found only reached 1969 but I managed to find mentions of it again in 1972 and 1976. Evidently it ran a little longer than originally thought so I'll be adding details as I come across them.

The OHSF All-Decade Team

The outstanding Ottawa High School Football social media accounts have spent the month listing off an all decade team. They have done a hell of a job in describing each player's accomplishments, giving us a glimpse as to what each guy is currently up to and providing video highlights, photography, etc.

Since the position tends to get so little recognition, I've copied the offensive linemen below. I won't encroach onto OHSF's event any further beyond strongly recommending that you check it out. I believe OHSF has a Facebook group but I've followed the proceedings on Instagram specifically (which is why that link is provided earlier) and enjoyed it tremendously on that platform. 

Post high school: Retired

Post high school: TBD

Post high school: William & Mary

Post high school: Windsor

Post high school: Clearwater Academy International

Post high school: Waterloo

Post high school: Carleton

Post high school: Acadia

Post high school: Lehigh

Post high school: Carleton

Elaborating on the Old Boys Cup

I wrote a post last October about the Old Boys Cup series between Ashbury and Bishop's that ran for a couple of decades. I've decided to create a page dedicated to it after all and it is now available above under the banner image but still under heavy construction.

Pictured below is the 1954 edition of the team which went 8-0 and, of course, won that trophy. 

2019 NCSSAA Senior Championship: Ashbury 42, Colonel By 12

This game took place this past Tuesday. It was originally scheduled for the middle of the previous week but delayed due to weather.

I have yet to come across a good recap of the game but, as is often the case, I will update this post with details if I come across them. In the meantime, congratulations Colts on your fourth city championship!

Ashbury Colts receiver Ben Huckabone. Photography by Drew Monrad as shared by the Ottawa High School Football Instagram and Facebook accounts.

2002: Ashbury's Most Recent Senior Crown

Yesterday, I copied from articles detailing Colonel By's first (and only) senior football championship.

As lead up to their attempt at securing a second one Wednesday night, we'll look at their opponent's last such victory back in 2002. It was Ashbury's third and, oddly enough, St. Mark was the victim each time.

So St. Mark saw their crown taken away by the team they took it away from in the first place. Ashbury were 1999 and 2000 champs, St. Mark earned the title in 2001 be defeating Gloucester. See the "high school" page above for a full list of champions by year.

St. Mark would regain the championship in 2006, defeating Ashbury for it 45-00.

Note: The article above is incomplete. I chose against copying a couple of paragraphs that seemed irrelevant.

The Old Boys Cup

I find Ashbury's football program simultaneously fascinating and intimidating. It seems that no matter what era I happen to be researching for info about the many teams from Ottawa, I come across a mention of Ashbury playing football on some level, whether it's referred to as senior, intermediate, whatever.

Such an occurrence took place again today when, while filling some gaps (and making corrections) to my Carleton history section, I found an article pertaining to the Old Boys Cup.

I would love to record Ashbury's history but it's a daunting task and one for which I don't know where to begin. The school opened in 1891 and it sure seems as though they started playing football the next day.

So for now, we'll settle with Old Boys Cup series, the first installment of which was played in 1945 and is described below, courtesy of The Ottawa Journal.

You can probably mathematically work out the score of the first game of the series. Ashbury defeated Bishop's 5-2 in Lennoxville on October 9th, 1945.

Not that it's particularly relevant, but the other team in the "Little Big Three" was Lower Canada College.

I don't yet know with full certainty how long the two schools played this two-game-total-points series and/or whether it was always for the Cup. The following year, in 1946, Bishop's won 10-5 and while it was referred to as a game for the Old Boys Cup, no mention of another game to generate a two-game total is found (at least at this point).

Then some later recaps of the series will treat it as a total points series but not mention the cup. The trophy is said to be returning to Ashbury in 1953 "after a long absence" so I suspect that a lack of success caused the coverage of the series to be little sparse after that initial 1945 victory.

Ashbury would continue to win it right through to 1960, and again in 1962 and 1963. Bishop's narrowly reclaimed it in 1964 and started a winning streak of their own. Ashbury was only again able to win it in 1969 and at the point the game had become an exhibition contest.

Back to 1945:

Referee Des Bloom ended up coaching Carleton in 1946.

Nowadays, Ashbury is playing in the NCSSAA and sporting a 4-1 record. They will face winless St. Patrick later this week to close out the regular season.

"St. Peter Knights down Ashbury Colts for Tier 1 football championship"

The high school football season is about to start and I celebrate this by...copying an article about last year's championship game. I didn't come across it at the time but having stumbled into it now, I want to have easy access to it because they can be hard to track down.

This article was written by Mark Beasley for the Orleans Star.

There was no stopping the St. Peter Knights in their attempt to capture another senior football city championship at Minto Field on Nov. 10. 

The Knights fought through gusting winds, a crusty, snow-covered turf and the relentless efforts of the Ashbury Colts to win 31-21 as they brought home their 14th city title in the football program’s 24 year history. 

Knights head coach Jim Mick has been at St. Peter ever since it opened in 1992 and has been at the helm for every one of those championship wins. 

En route to the 2018 championship, Mick and his coaching staff did a masterful job handling adversity, injuries and the loss of a number of potential players to prep schools south of the border. 

... 

Despite all the changes in personnel St. Peter didn’t falter and continued to be a force again this regular season and throughout the post season culminating in another city championship. 

The championship game was a total team effort by the Knights who managed to generate offence in the difficult playing conditions but at the same time defended well and kept the Colts attack under control. 

St. Pete’s defensive lineman Tucker Burke made life miserable for any Colts player whenever they had possession of the ball, or rock as it may have felt like during the cold and blustery day. 

Burke led his team with three sacks and a timely fumble recovery which led to the Knights putting points on the score board. 

... 

Wide receiver and defensive back Justice Koradi also had a big game with a perfectly timed interception. 

The offence was led by fourth year senior quarterback Ryan Licandro who had a number of weapons at his disposal including running back Josh Smith who scored a pair of touchdowns in the big win. 

Conor MacDonald and Jonathan Agette also scored for the Knights, with MacDonald adding a field goal to round out the scoring in the difficult conditions. 

With the victory over the Colts, the Knights are now riding an impressive winning streak that includes an undefeated regular season and a 29-1 victory over the St. Mark Lions in the semi-finals.

So what will 2019 look like? The rather outstanding Ottawa High School Football Instagram account prepared the following graphic as something of a preview.

L-R: St. Patrick, Immaculata, St. Peter, Asbhury, St. Matthew, Colonel By

L-R: Sacred Heart, St. Joseph, St. Mark, Franco-Cité, Glebe, Mother Teresa 

Scores and standings will also be available on fatdog.ca.