Just Added: 1983 High School Results

Now that I have at least brief recaps of most of the high school championship games between 1927 and 2010 or so, I'm going to start filling out individual seasons with scores, standings, etc.  A football fan can find information about what the university teams did in any given year relatively easily but it is much harder to do so for the high school level so I want that recorded better.

It should help clear up some confusing result that have taken place along the way. We had two champions in 1983, for example. By then, the champions of the Carleton and Ottawa school boards had met numerous times to determine a city champ, but in 1983 field conditions were such that the final had to be cancelled. As a result, it seems that many records do not recognize an overall winner for that season but in reality, each school board had named a champion that year. Those two teams just never got to play one another.

Let's start with Carleton champion St. Pius. I have located all but one regular season score for them but we do know that they went 6-0 that year. They got away with one in the semi-final against Garneau though. Weather was involved in that result as well.

The result of their Carleton Board final game against J.S. Woodsworth was more decisive, however.

Meanwhile, Ridgemont put together a rather modest 3-3 regular season but rattled off three straight playoff wins to take the Ottawa board banner. Their championship game was played the day after Pius' but obviously weather and field conditions hadn't improved a great deal in just 24 hours.

I've added a championship to each team's total on the High School page with an asterisk. It's not like the teams chose not to participate, they simply weren't able to. I see no reason why they shouldn't be recognized then. My acknowledgement means absolutely nothing, I'm fully aware of that, but I at least want the information out there a little more.

The Lost High School Championship

I came across something of an oddity while filling gaps in my high school football page earlier today.

In 1971, the Rideau Rams defeated St. Patrick 10-07 for the senior high school football crown. The recap of that game makes reference to the Ottawa High Schools Athletic Association (or OHSAA). So far so good.

Then in 1972, the Carleton school board fielded a competitive football league at the senior level.  A recap of St. Pius' win over Merivale in the final claimed that it was the first such game.

By all accounts at least some of the team (St. Pius for certain, as they were said to be winless the season before) had been playing for some time but I believe that was at the intermediate level (17 and under). They were now working under a junior/senior system so on that basis, this was indeed the first senior championship for the school board. Okay, fair enough, we've got that ironed out.

St. Pius would continue to roll in 1973. They knocked off Merivale again in the Carleton board finals then met the OHSAA champ Hillcrest and defeated them 33-07. This was the first time that champions from both school boards would meet head-to-head to determine a city champion.

St. Pius' Dave Behm, uncredited photo from the Nov. 10th, 1973, Ottawa Journal

All right, so that all makes sense, except...What happened to the OHSAA in 1972? Any record I find of past high school champions names only St. Pius. Why is the first-ever Carleton board champion St. Pius team generally regarded as the city champion if the two boards didn't play head-to-head until 1973? Why is there no OHSAA title recognized?

There was indeed an OHSAA champion. In fact, there were two.

The second was in 1954. Milton is making it sound like it happens every other day but at this point it hadn't happened in nearly 20 years. They first met in 1952 and their last meeting prior to this one was in 1959.

So while St. Pius is generally recognized as the 1972 high school champions, they are actually one of three champions that year. Rather than recognize St. Pat's and Fisher Park as co-champions, it appears as though history has deemed that a true OHSAA champion was never named. That's actually not the case so I'll add that championship for both teams on the High School page above.

Fisher Park would secure another title in 1977. That shared championship in 1972 would be St. Patrick's last so it really should be recognized.