St. Patrick's College's 1965 Season

It can be argued that St. Patrick's College could have a more prominent place in Ottawa football history if only they'd had that one defining moment. In 1965, they came very close to making that loud statement.

The Ottawa-St. Lawrence football conference, in which St. Pat's played, was split into two divisions. St. Patrick's College was fairly dominant in theirs, but Carleton and uOttawa were in the other division and were each 5-0 going into that year's Panda Game. As a result, most of the eyeballs were aimed in the direction of those two schools while St. Pat's was quietly putting together a solid season of their own.

Here are St. Patrick's results in their four-team division.

Oct  2nd: @ Macdonald College W 33-14
Oct  9th: College Militaire Royale W 45-07

Oct 16th: Bishop's W 16-00
Oct 23rd: @ Bishop's L 07-25
Oct 30th: @ College Militaire Royale W 39-00
Nov 6th: Macdonald  College W 32-09

The final game above secured the Eastern division for St. Pat's, the reward for which would be to meet the 7-0 uOttawa Gee-Gees for the Conference Crown. 

In the championship game, uOttawa would overcome a  23-14 deficit and score 25 unanswered points to win 39-23. To have held on to their early lead to conquer an undefeated, perennial championship contender, perhaps St. Patrick's presence in local football history would be a little more commonly known.

They placed a few players on the conference all-star team. That list, and the team picture below, are both lifted from the school's1967 yearbook. 

St. Patrick's College merged with Carleton University in 1967, effectively terminating the football program, but they were not shy about taking credit for bolstering the Ravens roster. The following is from St. Patrick's 1968 yearbook.

The summaries for the division-clinching game against Macdonald above make mention of a past St. Patrick's championship. Unfortunately, one newspaper states that it was in 1957 while the other claims it was in 1958. I believe the former to be accurate but we'll do a little research there and shine a spotlight on it soon. 

Carleton Ravens 1953 Season Review

The following images are scans from the 1954 Carleton university yearbook in reference to the 1953 / 1954 school year. The Ravens football program was rebuilding following a year off in 1951 and starting to show the results of the work put in during the previous couple of seasons.

I might have access to old yearbooks from other schools as well which should help flesh out not only Carleton's page but the high school one as well.  

The Largest Gee-Gees Hall of Fame Class Ever!

With a twist...The program issued the following press release last Friday.

The largest class of inductees in Gee-Gees Football Hall of Fame history will be enshrined this year; three teams and two individuals have been selected for the honour. There are five decades of Gee-Gees history being celebrated; the 1960, 1970, and 1980 championship-winning teams will all go in to the Hall of Fame this year along with defensive standouts Steve Glenn and Sébastien Tétreault.

Naming entire teams to the Hall isn't a first for the Gee-Gees. In 2015 they inducted the 1975 team, then in 2018 the 1965 edition entered the hallowed halls. Evidently, it helps to play at Ottawa U. during a year that's a multiple of five.

So let's see what the university has to tell us about the 1960 team in particular. 

The 1960 team was the first of Matt Anthony's undefeated teams, playing to a 7-0 regular season record in the Ontario Intercollegiate Football Conference. The team then defeated Loyola for the Ontario-St. Lawrence Intercollegiate Athletic Association Championship, winning by a score of 49-13 in the title game. Over the course of the season, the Gee-Gees outscored opponents 259-78 before travelling to Halifax for the Atlantic Bowl.

The recap of that 49-13 victory is, unfortunately, not very good. The Rough Riders won the Eastern Conference that same weekend so much of sports coverage was dedicated to them. Here is the Journal's version.

The team lost the game out east to St. Francis Xavier by a score of 21-06. That St. F-X team was coached by Don Loney, a teammate of Gee-Gees head coach Matt Anthony on the 1951 Rough Riders Grey Cup winning team.

Here's a look at the squad as well as as good a roster as I could find. Too bad about the gash on that page of The Citizen. Tough break, 63.

I'll probably have a closer look at the 1970 and 1980 teams as well before too long but wanted to get the ball rolling with these guys.

As for the individuals named, Steve Glenn was a linebacker who led the Ontario Quebec conference  in tackles in 1992. He was the team's MVP that year, a team captain from 1992 to 1994 and named to the conference's all-star team on three occasions. In the pros, he was mostly known as a reliable long-snapper. He played professionally from 1996 to 2005 including three season with the Ottawa Renegades.

Tétreault played from 2006-2010 and was a three-time All-Canadian on the defensive line. He is currently the head coach of the Cegep de l'Outaouais Griffons.