2014, Oct 4th: Toronto 32 @ Carleton 53

Capturing the summary of one of Carleton's first wins following the return of the school's football program. They were winless in 2013 but recorded four wins in 2014, including the one below.

The cropped text is from the football team's website, which was uncredited. Oddly, it focused on Toronto quarterback Simon Nassar's accomplishments rather than that of the Ravens.

The statistical data is from the USports website from when it was referred to as CIS (Canadian Interuniversity Sports). 

...Carleton pivot Nick Gorgichuk was 21-of-28 for 302 yards, two touchdown and no interceptions, while Jesse Mills was 3-of-4 for 91 yards and Kyle Van Wynsberghe was 1-of-1 for 76 yards and one touchdown.

The Blues, playing their 1,000th game, had little reason to celebrate with the exception of quarterback Simon Nassar who set a single-game Canadian Interuniversity Sport record with 49 completions.

The fourth-year pivot from Toronto was 49-of-62 for 547 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. He easily shattered the CIS mark of 41 completions set in 1981 by Varsity Blues pivot Dan Feraday and tied in 2012 by current Sherbrooke quarterback Jeremi Roch.

....

The Ravens jumped out to a 16-0 first quarter lead and made it 23-0 early in the second quarter.

The Blues finally managed to get on the board late in the second, but the Ravens responded with Van Wynsberghe connecting with Nathaniel Behar for a 76-yard touchdown pass. Carleton extended its lead as Emilio Galotta had a 13-yard fumble return to make it 37-7.

Michael Domagala added 24 and 26 yard field goals in the third quarter, while Nassar had a 24-yard touchdown pass making it 43-17 at the end of three quarters.

Nassar added two more touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, but the Ravens responded with a touchdown and field goal of their own to keep the game out of reach.

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. 

1943, Nov 6th: "Early Lead Wins For Celts"

St. Patrick's College won the Senior Interscholastic championship in 1943 behind the guidance of former Ottawa Rough Rider Bunny Wadsworth. The article below, from the Ottawa Citizen, summarized the victory against Ottawa Tech that put the team in the finals against Glebe.   

1931, Oct 5th: "Gladstones Surprise Rough Riders To Win, 13-6"

Not THOSE Rough Riders. 

This partial article from the Ottawa Citizen summarizes one of three junior games played that day. It was the first weekend of action for the league as a whole, as it launched that year. 

I'll have summaries of the other two games played that day in separate posts. 

A portion of this article was used in a post on this blog a couple of years back in which I attempted to nail down the guy who threw the first-ever forward pass for an Ottawa team. Since this was the league's first year of operation, this Art Crain dude is likely the first to do it at the junior level.

There were two other games played that day, including St. Patrick's College vs Rangers, which started at the same time as the Gladstone / Ottawas match. Crain still seems likely to be the man, as his passing prowess appears to have taken place during the first quarter. We'll likely never know for sure, but a strong argument can be made for him.

1926, Oct 11th: "Senators Set Sail For Big Four Title Win By 8-6"

Aside from the championship game summary on the Grey Cup page, there is very little content about the 1926 Ottawa Rough Riders / Senators team. We're going to remedy that a little bit today.

The following cut outs are from the Ottawa Journal and recap the team's first game that season. Ottawa were launching the defense of their 1925 championship and doing so in style, winning on a field that had been nothing but trouble for them going back to 1912. 

As a sidenote, the article also mentions that Eddie Emerson was the only player on the field to be present when Ottawa last won in Hamilton. 

He wasn't anywhere near done. According to his Canada Sports Hall of Fame biography, he would play until 1937 and in 22 seasons overall. Upon retiring from the playing field, he held the record the longest playing career, which held until 2000. 

1925, Oct. 5th: "Senators Smother Montreal In Opening Game; Score 17-1"

The game summary below is a joint effort between the Ottawa Citizen and the Ottawa Journal. The lineup and scoring recap came from the former, while the unfortunately blurry game details are from the Journal.  

Let's take a moment to properly highlight the top performers.

Connell's first name was Charlie. He is a member of the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame for his success in lacrosse, but also recognized for his ability in football and boxing.

Mulroney is Edgar Mulroney, who also played lacrosse. He played hockey as well, and became a referee following his playing days.

Tubman is Joe, a Canadian Football Hall of Fame member, class of 1968. He played from 1919 to 1931 and was the team's captain for this championship season as well as the next.   

Nov 8th, 1947, Ottawa Citizen: "Carleton College Crew Stops Queen's Team, 11-6"

1980, Aug. 18th: "Airborne Sooners Blank Burlington"

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

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

1961, Oct 2nd: "U of O, Carleton Win College Grid Openers"

After a lengthy quiet spell, there may be a flurry of random-seeming activity on here over the next couple of days.

I'm doing a clean up of old scans from my days of visiting the library for newspaper archives. Anything not already copied here will be so I can finally declutter my little football closet.

The game summary includes both university teams so rather than choose one over the other, I thought it best to make a post of it to link on either page. 

1964, Nov 14th: "Riders Run TiCats Ragged - Pick Up 17-Point Bulge"

Continuing to focus on the three players about to enter the TD Place Wall of Honour, today we have a look at Gene Gaines, who played for the Rough Riders from 1962 to 1969.

As mentioned in the press release announcing his addition to the Wall, he returned a kickoff 128 yards for a score against Hamilton in the first of two game for the 1964 Eastern Final. The summary of that game is clipped below, along with an additional snippet in which the accomplishment is put into perspective.

Gaines was a league all-star in 1965, 1966 and 1967 and a Grey Cup champion in 1968 and 1969.

1960, Sept. 15th: "Riders Grind Argos to First Defeat, Thelen Nears Big 4 Rushing Mark"

This post is inspired by the Redblacks' announcement earlier this week that three former Rough Rider players would be added to the stadium's wall of honour, including Dave Thelen.

The announcement lists Thelen's accomplishments quite thoroughly so there's no point in rehashing them here. Rather, the Ottawa Journal story below summarizes a game in which Thelen ran for 209 yards on his way to leading the league in rushing yards that year (1960) and being named an Eastern all-star. The Rough Riders would win the Grey Cup that year, 16-06, against Edmonton.  

Nov. 8th, 1924: Westmount (Montreal) 02 @ Rideaus 15

The summary below is for the first of a two-game series between the junior QRFU's Rideaus and Westmount for that union's championship. The winner would earn the right to play for the Dominion title.

McInenly below, first name Bert, was singled out for quality play by the article's writer prior to the quarter-by-quarter breakdown copied here. 

St. Germain, meanwhile, was named Ralph, and was in the early days of what would be a distinguished athletic career, as evidenced by his write-up in the McGill Hall of Fame. 

There's an obvious error in the article below as the first paragraph suggests that Westmount lost the point they earned in the first quarter.

Laishley below was named Lyle, while Bruce's first name was Stewart.

That would be Clyde Moran getting into the action in the fourth quarter.

Rideau would travel to Montreal the following weekend and lose 12-06 but still win the series on total point and therefore secure the QRFU junior title. A battle against Hamilton loomed on the march towards the Dominion championship.

Nov. 1st, 1969: Ottawa Sooners 33, Windsor AKO Fratmen 00

The game summary below appeared in the November 3rd, 1969, Ottawa Citizen. Its wonky layout made it awkward to fit on the Sooners' own page.   

Turns out they had plenty of trouble with the west, they lost 28-07 to Saskatoon two weeks later in the national championship game.