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.

Backups vs Juniors, 1919 edition!

Today's offering is a glimpse at a couple of games played in the local junior league more than a century ago.

These were the final two contests of the regular season in this league which was on the verge of becoming affiliated with the Quebec Rugby Football Union the following year. Being that the summary is relatively easy to read and includes the line-ups as well as the standings, I thought it would be a good share.

The next scheduled game, largely meaningless between Senecas and New Edinburgh, never happened. In its place, an exhibition was organized between the city's Interprovincial Rugby Football Union team's "seconds" (basically the Rough Riders practice roster, though not making much use of the name at that point) and a team made up of junior league all-stars.

I believe the Seconds had won the QRFU title at their level and were waiting to see if a contest against another union could and would be scheduled. 

In the meantime, final standings within the junior ranks were being settled by...coin flip. 

Congratulations on that third place finish, New Edinburgh! It was well-earned!

The juniors apparently represented themselves quite nicely in their loss to the IRFU club's back-ups. You can read about that below. 

1929 Rideau Team Sketches

I've come cross an article similar to this one for the 1940 Rough Riders but finding one for a junior team is quite an indicator of the popularity of "minor" football back in the day. 

It's too bad that the image quality goes to pot towards the bottom, and unfortunately there was a very inconveniently placed ad right in the middle of the whole thing. I did my best to crop and clean it up but the starting material was just not easy to work with.

The End Of The Rideaus

The 1928 Junior City League championship (see earlier post) would not be the last for the Rideaus but 1929's would be.

The 1929 Rideaus were a scrappy bunch, to a fault. They started the season with a victory, predictably, against the South Ottawa Roamers and two weeks later found themselves challenged by a revived St. Brigid's club. They didn't take well to it.

They would continue their winning ways throughout the season, gathering a 5-0 record and securing first place. For the fifth time in a row, they would meet Montreal AAA for the QRFU championship but at long last, they won that two-game series by a total score of 17-14.

Way to go, Basil! 

The Rideaus continued their march towards the junior national championship when they defeated the University of Toronto 10-01 at Lansdowne Park. Two weeks later, they met a team from St-Thomas in the national semi-final and that's when things went south for the "Paddlers".

The St-Thomas Tigers won 10-05 and the Rideaus' "fighting" label from the article above would become prophetic. As the game was getting away from the Rideaus, one of the players got heated against a ref and things quickly got out of hand. 

The above description is from the December 2nd, 1929, Ottawa Citizen. The Ottawa Journal adds what might be an important detail.

It appears that while Johnson was being told to leave the field, "suddenly Umpire Bailey staggered under the impact of a blow to the face". In other words, the mob wasn't triggered by Johnson's behaviour towards Foster but by whoever corked Bailey. 

Whatever the case may be, the Rideau Aquatic Club was deeply embarrassed by the whole event and the following day apologized to all involved and withdrew from all sports not aquatic in nature. Just as well, the Canadian Rugby Union suspended them indefinitely later that month. 

Just like that, the top junior team in the city was done.

The following year, a team called the Ottawa Rangers, (not) coincidentally wearing the same colours, would emerge  but that's a story for another day.

As for Arnie Morrison's "lifetime" ban, it didn't hold up particularly well. He was reinstated in 1931, played for the Ottawa Rough Riders from 1933 to 1938 and would later coach Carleton's football team during its formative years. That's how you overcome a ban!

1928: "The Most Sensational Upset Of All Time in Junior Rugby In The City"

If you are particularly observant, you will have noticed a page in the banner above that appeared a few weeks ago and has changed names numerous times since. At this time, it bears the name "Junior QRFU (1918 - 1928)" and it will continue to change as I add seasons at the back end. 

The "Defunct Teams" page includes (at least for now) some details about a team from the Rideau Aquatic Club then often referred to as simply the Rideaus. While that team was undeniably the most successful of its little league, it didn't seem quite fair to ignore all the others. So instead of focusing on the Rideaus only, I started a page specific to the league in which they all participated.

The Rideaus were not a charter member of the league, entering it only in its second season in 1919. The league became affiliated with the Quebec Rugby Football Union the following year.

In short order, Rideaus became dominant to the point that some found it detrimental. While they constantly won the local title with ease, they fared very poorly against outside competition. Some speculated that this was due to a lack of a proper challenge in its own league.

Then in 1927, a team from Ottawa College joined the circuit and in 1928, they shocked the junior rugby football world (well, at least the local one) by defeating the Rideaus, breaking the "Paddlers'" 29-game local winning streak in the process!

The game is recapped below, as is the other game played in the four-team league that day, a matchup of the Ottawa South Roamers and Gladstone. 

As exciting as the win may have been as it happened, it would turn out to have little impact. Rideaus won the rematch 18-00 a few weeks later, and every other match on their schedule for that matter, to collect a 5-1 record. Ottawa College would stumble in overtime to the Ottawa South team in the last week of the season to be knocked off the top spot in the league at 4-2. 

And so this was the sixth straight city championship for the Rideaus and they would get skunked against the Montreal AAA team in the QRFU playoffs for the fourth year in a row, too. The City Junior League was pretty much business as usual in 1928, except for that one game which rattled the cage for a while.