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 13th, 1954: Montreal Alouettes 12 @ Ottawa Rough Riders 14

Got my day started by looking up the last time an Ottawa professional football team went winless at home as the Redblacks did this season.

The 1987 - 1988 Rough Riders teams had a long home losing streak, but it was bookended by victories in each season. The 1987 team won its first two home games, the second of which took place on July 11th. The 1988 team won on October 22nd, its second-to-last home game. So neither provided the answer.

I thought the 1954 edition that went 2-12 was a good candidate, but no. It won its final game of the season, at home, against Montreal. The summary of that game is copied below. Sorry about the page breaks, I can't seem to avoid those.

In fact, the last time an Ottawa team did not win at home throughout an entire season was in...1934. They played only six games in those days and Ottawa won once, in Montreal.

Congratulations to the 2022 Redblacks for matching an "accomplishment" dating back to the year Don Cherry was born. 👏👏

Kaye Vaughan to be Added to the TD Place Wall of Honour

The abbreviated biography below was written by Jim Cain and copied from the Redblacks website. The photo is from Vaughan's Canadian Football Hall of Fame entry.

Recently the CFL Ottawa Alumni Association Board of Directors created a committee (Jim Foley, Bob McKeown, Jim Cain and Jeff Avery) with the co-operation of the Redblacks to determine criteria for honouring players, past and future, to be added to the Wall of Honour. After much discussion and research the CFL Ottawa’s Board’s top selection was Kaye Vaughan. Other former outstanding players will be honoured in subsequent years. 

Kaye played 12 seasons for the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League and was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1978. He was selected for the Schenley Most Outstanding Lineman Award in both 1956 and 1957 and was also a finalist in 1960. Kaye won the two Schenley awards after missing the entire 1955 season after breaking his leg in the pre-season.  The CFL All-Stars were not created until 1962, which was near the end of Vaughan’s career, but he did win that honour at Middle Guard in 1962. 

Like many linemen in the 1950’s, Vaughan played both sides of the ball, and he was as good on defense as he was on offense.  Vaughan was selected as an Eastern All-Star six times on offense at tackle (1956 and 1957) and also at guard (1953, 1959, 1960 and 1961) and was selected as an Eastern All-Star four times on defense, 3 as a defensive tackle (1956, 1957 and 1959) and one as a middle guard (1962). 

Vaughan was also selected as the 41st best CFL player since 1945 in an extensive TSN Poll in 2006. The only Rough Rider player also selected was Russ Jackson at #8.  

He also recovered a fumble for the clinching touchdown in the 4th quarter of Ottawa’s 1960 Grey Cup victory that made the score 16 to 6 which was the final score. It was Kaye’s only touchdown in his career and came at a great time. 

Kaye along with the late Marv Bevan were the two pulling guards in 1960 when Ron Stewart rushed for an astounding 287 yards, which is still the CFL record 59 years later, in a game against the Montreal Alouettes. Kaye still can remember some of the blocks he threw on one of Stewie’s long runs.

The original article pointed out that while Vaughan's name will go up on the wall, his number will not be retired.

In addition to the honours listed above, Vaughan is also in Tulsa's Hall of Fame, having been inducted in 1990.