The 1966 Golden Eagles / Sooners Playoff Series

The Ottawa Sooners owned the Interprovincial Junior Football League in the early 1960s but in 1966 the Eastview Golden Eagles were the dominant force on the Ontario side.

An article summarizing their final game of the 1965 season indicated that the Eagles would lose only four players to eligibility rules going into the next season and clearly that experience was a huge factor in their 1966 success. The won their first five games of that season by shut out before losing the sixth to the Sooners by a score of 12-00. They turned that result around for the seventh and final game, defeating those same Sooners 18-16. 

The two teams would then meet for a two game playoff series, both won by Eastview. 

October 16th

October 23rd

I was specific to being dominant in Ontario because following their series victory of the Sooners, the Golden Eagles lost 15-00 to Quebec powerhouse Notre Dame de Grace in Montreal the next weekend.

Among the players on the Eastview team was Paul Paddon who would go on to win the Hec Creighton award at the university of Ottawa in 1970. He only participated in a portion of the season because he went to play in the States for a spell.

Barry Ardern's name should be familiar as a defensive back with the Ottawa Rough Riders from 1968 to 1972. He played on both offense and defense for Eastview.

Jim Foley, another eventual Rough Rider, was also a contributor to that Eastview team. He was with the Riders from 1973 to 1976, earning two Grey Cup victories and the league's 1975 Most Outstanding Canadian award. 

The 1964 Laurentian High School Senior Team

Over the past few days, I've worked on adding far more detail to the high school page. Most seasons included little more than the championship game's score and a brief summary, but I'm now working from 1927 up to the present to add regular season results for the eventual champion, as well as playoff scores for the league. 

1964 got the bulk of the attention this morning. Photography in the local newspapers began to improve around this time so the images displayed with the articles tend to be easier to copy. We have a couple of examples below involving the eventual champion Laurentian. 

Joe Upton is back coaching the Laurentian senior football team. Upton, a former Rough Rider star lineman, took ill a few years back and had to take things easy. But he feels fine now and is anxiously awaiting the start of the senior league schedule. In the picture with Upton are, back row, left to right, Jim Foley and Doug Smith. Kneeling in front is Mark Ciavaglia. 

The above is from the September 22nd Ottawa Journal. The picture below is from two days later, but appeared in the Ottawa Citizen.

Upton was a former Rough Rider but Foley was a future one. The team drafted him in the first round, ninth overall, in 1969. He played for Montreal for a couple of years but finally joined the Rough Riders in 1973 and played through to the 1977 season inclusively, winning two Grey Cups along the way. He is a member of the Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame.

In the image below, sporting a different number, Foley is getting some instruction from Upton during the Western semi-final game in November against Rideau.

The mention of Upton's illness in the first picture casts a bit of a shadow on that otherwise happy occasion. Upton had suffered a heart attack during a game in 1961 and while the caption states that he was feeling great, he would succumb to a heart seizure at only 42 years of age in 1967. His obituary appeared in the March 2nd Citizen that year.

One of several articles about his passing included the November 1964 image above as an illustration of Upton "in happier times". No doubt that's true, as they won the championship that year. They would win it under Upton's guidance as well in 1965 and, as if to honour his impact on the program, in 1967 following his passing.