Dec. 14th, 1944: Joe Asquini is Awarded the Gerry Boucher Trophy

Many years ago, I was contacted through the previous version of this website by a relative of Joe Asquini. The lady in question was looking for more information about Joe's playing days. I tried to help and was ultimately given a gift that exceeded my contributions to the cause.

Since acquiring much better access to old newspapers articles, I've occasionally attempted to get in touch with this lady again to find out if she'd achieved her goal or if there was anything more she was looking for. So far, no luck. 

I was reminded of all this again last night when an article about Mr. Asquini caught my eye. It's taken some time to find it simply because it is from mid-December of 1944. By then most of the football-related activity is over so searches don't extend that late into the year.  

Mr. Asquini was honoured as a high school player at Ottawa Tech prior to joining the Ottawa Rough Riders. The articles about that award are copied below and if his relative is still looking for material, hopefully she stumbles across this post one day and this is something new to add to the collection. 

The 1956 Red Feather Tournament: Ottawa Tech 29, Riverdale 10

We're moving ahead a little bit with the Red Feather tournament tonight, though there's little to say about it. It concluded in its most common manner. The Ottawa team won the game in convincing fashion but the "championship" was awarded to another team.

It bears noting that the series of exhibition games was apparently known as the United Fund(s) Football Tournament that year. "Red Feather Tournament" did reveal some results in searches but United Fund (or Funds, plural) was far more common. The purpose of the event appeared to be unchanged, however.

1950 Red Feather Tournament: Ottawa Tech 23, Sudbury High 00

This morning, we're moving forward a little bit with the Red Feather Tournament first mentioned in a post from March 18th.

In 1950, Ottawa Tech was once again undefeated and considered to be the top high school team in the city. As a result, they were the logical choice to represent the capital in Toronto for this tournament, as they did in 1949.

Here they are, looking rather dapper and about to board the train to leave for the big smoke. This was on the Thursday before their scheduled Saturday night match-up against Sudbury. 

They won their game but the tournament title was given to St. Catherines Collegiate on the strength of a 52-00 win over a team from Guelph. That, at least, makes more sense than the previous year's result.

The uncredited Ottawa Citizen article below, from October 30th, 1950, details how the game went for Tech.

Good luck overcoming that Gray-Walker-Thompson wingline.

And so at this point, Ottawa teams (the same one, granted) are 2-0 at this tournament. I don't plan to build a page dedicated to it, since it's all exhibition anyway, but I'll continue to add results from the event when I happen to be in that area time-wise.

St. Patrick's High School's Golden Era

The 1953 St. Patrick's senior high school team would lose that year's championship game 17-00 to Fisher Park in a contest that had to be played a second time because the first ended in a scoreless tie.

If that loss was discouraging for supporters of the "Celts", the next couple of years would prove to be quite rewarding. St. Patrick would go undefeated throughout the 1954 and 1955 seasons, playing in 17 contests without a loss (15 wins and two ties, to be exact) and, obviously, securing the championship both years. The 1955 team picture is below and was added to the High School page earlier today.

Different reports suggest different lengths to St. Patrick's undefeated streak. Some say it was 16 undefeated games, some claim it was 17.

The solution is simple; the 17 total includes a victory in the Red Feather tournament described in the March 18th, 2021, post on this blog. Whether that game should be included is certainly debatable since the Red Feather event is essentially an out-of-town exhibition for charity. Nevertheless, St. Pat's did win the game in which they participated for that event so let's work with 17.

I became curious as to when the streak ended. It was 17 going into the 1956 season. Did they extend it at all? Did they reach 20+ games undefeated?

I was expecting some drama around the event but...The streak ended right away. Their next defeat took place in the opening contest of the 1956 season against Ottawa Tech. St. Patrick's streak started with the first game of 1954 and ended in the first game of 1956, exactly two undefeated seasons.   

St. Patrick was unfazed by the loss, however. In fact, they suffered another loss during the season to finish with a 3-2 record but still ultimately won the league's championship for the third year in a row. And they did it against the team that ended their streak, no less.

That would mark then end of St. Patrick's dominant run. They would come close to winning the crown again in 1971, and were named co-champions of their school board in 1972, but they have not earned a senior football title since the 1956 season.

The Red Feather Tournament(s)

I was in the process of gathering results from Ottawa Tech's 1957 championship season (successfully, I might add) when I happened across the image below. 

That's a rather rare look at players from those junior teams of the time, taken from the September 27th, 1957, Ottawa Journal. Though you probably could not tell with great certainty based on the jerseys, Monk was also a St Anthony's player.  

It was the mention of the Red Feather Tournament that I found intriguing so I did a quick search. It first came about in 1949 but as a high school football showcase and charity fundraiser held in Toronto. Ottawa Tech was, coincidentally enough, the city's first representative in the tournament. 

October 21st, 1949, Ottawa Citizen, written by Bob Abra

Ottawa Tech scored a 9-0 victory over their Humberside opponent and yet...The trophy was awarded the East York Goliaths team on the strength of a scoreless tie against Hamilton earlier in the tourney. 😕

October 24th, 1949, Ottawa Citizen

Wow. Even understanding that this was supposed to be a fun event to raise funds for charity, imagine telling the kids with the only convincing win in the tournament that the trophy is being given to a team that didn't even win its contest?

Back to the photograph of the JIFL players at the top of the post, at this point I don't know if the Red Feather Tournament became one involving junior teams or if the junior circuit adopted the same name for an event of their own (I suspect the latter) but it's probably going to be part of the weekend reading/research.

Tech's Big Streak

I've made a few updates to the high school page over the past couple of weekends. Starting from the bottom (so 1927) and working my way up, I've added more information about the city champions each year and some photography when I've been able to land a semi-clear image from a newspaper.

So if you see a heading in a different font size, that was done deliberately. That is a place holder for myself. At the moment, I'm done up to 1951, inclusive.

I've also added some information beyond the city title. From 1927 to 1942, Ottawa teams would meet other schools from the region for the Eastern Ontario (EOSSA) championship, be it Perth, Pembroke, Kingston, etc. I've added the results of those contests, most of which were won by teams from Ottawa.

In doing this, I came away impressed with Ottawa Tech's record of the late 40s and early 50s (well, 1950 specifically).

Ottawa Tech's 1947 Senior Championship Team

Glebe won four titles from 1937 to 1941 until Tech stopped that streak by taking the 1942 crown. Glebe and St. Patrick's then swapped out the next four.

But then Tech put together a four-year streak of it own, starting with the 1947 team above which, going into playoffs, had allowed only one point in six games.

In the playoffs, they beat Lisgar 28-05 then got a scare from Glebe but defeated them 03-02 for that year's title.

The 1948 edition lost a game to Glebe to notch a 4-1 regular season record but had a points differential of 100 to 10 nonetheless.

In the playoffs they soundly beat Nepean 23-00 to earn the right to face Glebe again in a two-game series. They won the first game 18-00, and lost the second 06-05, but obviously won the overall series.

The 1949 team was ridiculously dominant and can make a strong argument for being the all-time best in the city.

Those are similar numbers to what the 1947 squad put together but the 1949 team would continue that dominance in the playoffs. They handled a normally strong Glebe team 19-01 to set up a two-game series again, this time against St. Patrick's. Tech took the first game 23-00 and the second 16-00. So all told, they surrendered two points over the course of eight games while scoring 179.

Ottawa Tech's 1949 Senior Championship Team

On to 1950. They were undefeated but gave up a whole five points (while scoring 99)! They defeated a pesky Nepean team 15-12 in the semi-final, then Glebe 12-2 for their fourth straight championship.

Ottawa Tech's 1950 Senior Championship Team

Glebe put an end to Tech's dominance the following year when they knocked them off in the championship game. Tech would not win another championship until 1957 and that would be their last of seven overall.

They may not be the most decorated high school program (they currently are 5th in that department), but for those four years they were undeniably the class of the circuit.

"Hall of Famer Moe Segal Still a Winner"

I spent a bunch of time adding and updating pages the other night. To be specific, I tracked down some details about the Cumberland Panthers junior club that played in the Quebec Junior Football League from 2004 to 2012 and am recording their accomplishment during that period in the hope that like the Jr. Riders and Carleton Ravens, they return some day.

I also rebuilt the Ottawa Rough Rider player list and while doing so, found an article I'd saved years ago about one Moe Segal. The original, complete version from 2008 by Irv Osterer for the The Canadian Jewish News is still available here, at least for the time being.

Moe Segal...competed in an era that featured leather helmets and cleats, canvas football pants and players that played their hearts out on offence and defence. 

At Ottawa Technical High School, Moe was an offensive and defensive lineman, and co-captain of the 1943 City of Ottawa Junior Championship team. 

Upon graduation, 18 year old Moe joined the navy and was assigned to a wireless communications training course on the HMCS Donnacona in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. When the navy fielded a team in the Quebec Rugby Football Association, he decided to try out for the squad. The five-foot-nine, 190 pound, Segal made the team... 

The Montreal St. Hyacinthe-Donnacona Navy team – ‘the Donnies’ – had a terrific season...During the pre-CFL war years, the Grey Cup was contested between the amateur Ontario and Quebec Rugby Football Associations and the Big Four professional teams in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton.

Moe starred in the playoffs, blocking punts and picking up fumbles on the way to securing the 1944 QRFU title. Montreal St. Hyacinthe-Donnacona Navy then beat York to advance to the Canadian Championship, but in that game, Segal was injured in a freak collision with CFL Hall of Famer Annis Stukus. Moe was convalescing in the hospital, when Navy upset the Hamilton Wildcats 7-6 to win the Grey Cup at Varsity Stadium.

The triumph was short lived. The team was disbanded after the season and by December 1944 Segal was serving in Plymouth, England...Even overseas, football was not far from Moe’s mind as Ottawa scout Tom Daley had contacted Moe about trying out for the Rough Riders, which he did upon discharge from the navy.

Moe made the team as a two-way lineman in 1946, the first year the Big Four allowed American imports. Moe received the princely sum of $50.00 per game to play in the 1946 season..

Moe jumped to the Ottawa Trojans in 1947 for a guaranteed $500 contract. In the league semi-final, he recovered two fumbles to help defeat the Hamilton Wildcats 16-7. Ottawa then beat Toronto Balmy Beach to win the ORFU title. In what was to be Segal’s final professional game, the Trojans were defeated by Joe Krol’s Argonauts in the Grey Cup semi-final. Moe had suffered two concussions during the season and decided that it was time to retire.

The image above is not from that article. Rather, it was included in a separate piece  (by the same writer) from August 2016 shortly following Mr.s Segal's passing. The video referred to in that article is embedded below.