The First African American/Canadian Rough Rider

A mention of Black History Month by the CFL reminded me of something I'd meant to clear up for myself some time ago.

I once believed, on the strength of seeing a lone Black dude in a 1951 Grey Cup celebration photo, that he had to have been the first African American to play for the team.

I'd seen team pictures from prior to that year and there were no Black players on them. I later identified #81 above as Steve Hatfield and left it at that.

Someone wrote to me years ago to point out that he thought there had been a Black player prior to Hatfield. I wish I could remember who that gentleman was. If you're that guy and you happen to read this some day, thank you for drawing my attention to the possibility. I wish I'd have taken more time to look into it when you first contacted me.

We'll start with Hatfield regardless. In August of 1950, Ottawa hosted the NFL's New York Giants in an exhibition game at Lansdowne Park. In that game, Steve Hatfield scored two touchdowns for the Giants as the American club won 27-06.

Evidently that left on impression on Ottawa coaches as Hatfield joined the club the next year.

I don't believe that Hatfield played beyond the 1951 Grey Cup season and reliable statistics even for that season appear to be difficult to come by. From what I can gather, Hatfield returned to the States to finish his studies in 1952 and intended to play for the Chicago Cardinal in 1953 but injury scuttled those plans.

But before Steve Hatfield became a Rough Riders, there was Ray Skerrett.

Skerrett was from Montreal where he excelled in track and field. He had tried out for the Alouettes and they could not deny his speed but they feared that he was not stout enough to take the pounding of a regular football schedule.

Skerrett joined the Ottawa Rough Riders and immediately impressed the home crowd with his speed and quickness during a 1949 exhibition game against Hamilton. Rough Riders won 25-01, a score which included a touchdown by Skerrett.

The image below is the only one of him I've been able to find, at least in action for Ottawa. Unfortunately, it looks like it was taken by candle light in a coal mine at 3AM. I know it was 1949, but still...

Skerrett did not play much beyond that one game. There were some rumours that other players didn't want him on the field (can you guess why?) but those were denied by team brass, naturally. Officially, Skerrett was nursing an ankle injury and in fairness, many mid-week practice reports stated that he walked with a limp.

He did see action again in a home victory against Hamilton on September 18th though apparently was not particularly effective against them on that occasion. He participated again in a game on October 9th, scoring one of the team's several touchdowns in a 42-33 victory against Montreal.

Skerrett is conspicuously absent from the team picture taken during the playoffs, though by then his season had been shut down due to injury. This was announced in the Ottawa Journal in early November. He was, however, present for the team's first (ever?) quarterback club in late August.

Skerrett would ultimately join his hometown team early in the 1950 season and played for the Windsor Royals in 1951 but in 1949, it appears he made history as Ottawa's first Black player.

Marking Our Territory

The current version of the territorial selection in the draft only came into play last year but being that Ottawa has such a pick this year, this is a good time to go back and look at the original version of that draft feature.

As of April 2019...:

The two teams with the highest waiver priority will each get to make one Territorial Draft Pick – to be used to select a player born within their territorial limits at the end of the second round.

Since Ottawa found all kinds of innovative ways to suck last year, they get an additional pick at the bottom of the second round.

Last year's press release included some historical info.

From 1972 to 1982, each club had the right to pre-select two players from its region who would be exempted from the draft. That limit was reduced to one Draft exemption selection in 1983 and 1984, and then the practice was terminated altogether prior to the 1985 Canadian Draft.

How big a deal was this? Well, the Ottawa Rough Riders did quite nicely with it, thank you. Here's a look at some past territorial picks.

1973 - Donn Smith - OL - Played from 1973 to 1980 and was a three-time East all-star. 

1975 - Peter Stenerson - QB - Played multiple positions for Ottawa between 1975 and 1982, including receiver at which he caught 99 passes for 1460 yards and 11 tds. As a defensive back, he recorded five interceptions in 1976. 

 

1975 - Jeff Turcotte - OL - Played in 65 games between 1975 and 1980.  

1976 - Jeff Avery - Receiver - Played from 1976 to 1982, gathering in 169 passes for 2619 yards and 15 scores.  

1977 - Mike Murphy - RB - Ran for 1983 yards and contributed 163 receptions for another 1634 between 1977 and 1980. Murphy scored 10 touchdowns during that time.  

1978 - Bruce Walker - Receiver - Had 120 receptions for 1511 yards and five touchdowns over five seasons but also contributed as a punt returner over that time. 

1979 - Pat Stoqua - Receiver - From 1980 to 1984, caught 92 passes for 1546 yards and scored six times.    

1982 - Mark Seale - DL/OL - Played in Ottawa for three seasons before moving on to Toronto. Had 8.5 sacks in 1983.  

1983 - Roger Cattelan - OL - Played offensive line from 1983 to 1987. 

1983 - Mike Hudson - Receiver - Credited with 102 receptions, 1247 yards and two touchdowns between 1983 and 1988.   

1984 - Michel Bourgeau - DL - Prior to going to Edmonton in 1989, Bourgeau played on the defensive line for five seasons for Ottawa from 1984 to 1988, and recorded 15 sacks in that time.  

That is not a full list by any means and the list above doesn't include all of each individual's accomplishments. But it highlights the main contributors from the territorial pick and hopefully provides some insight as to its potential value.

Feeling the 2020 Draft

Now that the outcome of the Nick Arbuckle acquisition has been determined, let's take a deeper look at the impact that it will have going forward.

As a reminder, the team gave up a third-round draft choice for his rights, then swapped places with Calgary in the first round of the coming college draft (from first to sixth) when they were able to sign him prior to free agency starting on February 11th.

Here are a couple of quotes from general manager Marcel Desjardins, as found in the Ottawa Sun and provided by Tim Baines, at the time that the trade with Calgary was first announced.

“We were willing to give up a third-round pick to see how it plays out… Look, we’ve got guys from last year’s draft, guys who didn’t play, coming back. We’ve got Samson Abbott, Chris Larsen, Gabriel Polan, Clement Lebreux. Those guys might make our team. Plus we get a territorial draft pick (at the end of the first round).” 

“When we’ve drafted toward the back end of the first round, we’ve always ended up with a pretty good football player. We certainly feel like we’ll get a good player at six. It’s something I proposed, that we flip those picks.”

The territorial pick is actually at the end of the second round. Tim Baines' addition to Desjardins' first comment above, in parentheses, is incorrect.

So we lose a third and drop in the first. To evaluate the impact of those moves, let's review how we are doing for Canadian talent.

By my unofficial count, and including draft choices from previous drafts that are expected to show up, but not guys that are becoming free agents in 10 days, we have...

FB - 3 (Beaulieu, Gosselin, Polan...all from Sherbrooke!) 

WR - 4 (Dubois, Lewis, Sinopoli, Tyrell)  

OL - 10 (Fontana, Gagnon, Johnson, Korte, Lauzon-Seguin, MacMillan, Mateas, Omara, Pickett, Secord) 

DL - 7 (Abbott, Grant, Larsen, Laurent,  Lebreux, Onyeka, Romick)  

LB - 1 (Côté) 

DB - 4 (Bolduc, Hamlin, Howell, Pruneau)

The fullback count does not include Brendan Gillanders since he is listed simply as a running back.

You're always looking to improve and add depth, of course, but many of those positions are pretty full. You can only keep so many guys around.

But even if that were not the case, the team added some Canadian players late last year that could turn into good "substitutes" for draft choices.

DB Nate Hamlin was picked up last October following his release by BC. The Lions had drafted him in the fourth round in 2017. He did not play in 2019 but the Carleton product could continue to contribute on special teams, as he did with the Lions, and hopefully grow from there. He turns 25 in June.

I already wrote a post about WR James Tyrrell upon his signing last November. I found him to be an interesting pickup.

In 2018, Tyrrell recorded 17 receptions for 292 yards and a score. He went undrafted in the spring of 2019.

In his 2019 season with Concordia, his numbers blew up to 52 catches for 779 yards and two touchdowns. Those numbers are at the top of the USports receiving stats and in line with what the top receiving non-NCAA prospect, Waterloo's Tyler Ternowski (16th on the CFL's latest Scouting Bureau release) put together.  Tyrell is now a Redblack, acquired for "free". This could turn into a quality move quickly.

There may be a better one. DT Julien Laurent was brought in last October, much like Hamlin, and also like Hamlin, he had been released by BC.

Laurent, however, came much more highly-touted. Prior to the 2018 draft, Laurent was considered a top-10 prospect. BC ultimately chose him in the first round, 7th overall. Ottawa got him as a free agent.

This isn't to say that the third-round choice given up and picking lower in the round don't represent a certain value. Of course they do. It's entirely possible that we could have all the players above and that Arbuckle could have been acquired as a free agent without paying that cost.

But based on what could be some shrewd late-season acquisitions in 2019 and being awarded a territorial pick, if you're going to pay that cost, this appears to be a good year to take the chance.

Done Deal: Arbuckle is a Redblack

So this was a bit of a relief. The REDBLACKS announced yesterday that quarterback Nick Arbuckle, whose rights were obtained earlier this month from Calgary for a third round draft choice, had signed a two-year contract with the team. As a result of the signing, Calgary and Ottawa now also swap first-round picks in 2020, giving Calgary the first-overall selection while Ottawa drops to 6th.

Here are his CFL careers numbers.

Some quote which are either lifted from Tim Baines' Sun/Citizen article about the signing or from the team's press release.

GM Marcel Desjardins: “We’ve been going back and forth for a while, being patient with the process. It came to fruition early (Friday). We just had to wait for the paperwork to come back. This is the first step of many as it relates to getting what we expect out of this team on the field.”

“You never know how it’ll work out. Sometimes you have to roll the dice a bit and that’s what we did. We didn’t have any inside knowledge as to how this would play out. But we had confidence in what we, as an organization, could provide from ownership on down — also what our facilities are like and what living in Ottawa is all about for a young man and his wife who are going to have a baby.”

“It starts with what he’s done on the field, when he got a chance to play, going back to two years ago when he came in and beat us here in Ottawa. He did a lot of good things in the games he played for Calgary last year. When we got him here to Ottawa, when he accepted the opportunity to visit with us and visit the city, he showed he was a first-class individual."

HC Paul Lapolice: “We were really impressed with Nick when we met with him and felt that, with what we’ve seen on tape, he’s someone who could put us in a position to be successful. Nick brings the ability to lead a team to wins, with his intelligence, with his leadership, his ability to throw the ball and how he can process information on the football field. We’re excited to have him.”

1984: "Trojans Ontario (Midget) Football Champs"

The partial article below was added to the Midget page earlier tonight. It was written by Bob Ferguson and featured in the local sports section of the Monday, November 12th, Ottawa Citizen. The game took place the Sunday before.

Mr. Ferguson points out that nine former Trojans had taken part in the Ottawa Sooners national championship victory in Kelowna on the Saturday. That's a good way to underscore the benefits of these programs.

2002: "Sooners Reclaim That Title Feeling"

The Ottawa Citizen article about the 2002 Manson Cup was just added to the "Ottawa Sooners (Junior)" page above.

The Shortest Championship Season Ever

The Ottawa Rangers played at the intermediate level in the early 1930s. I'm going to look into their origins more closely at a later time but for now I want to review the back end of their existence.

In 1934, the Quebec Rugby Football Union was struggling. There was some question as to whether it would even attempt to play a season, at least at the intermediate level. They decided to proceed after all, with the plan being that two sections (divisions, basically) of four teams would compete to determine a champion.

Things clearly deteriorated from there because Ottawa was given a bye...for the entire regular season. Only two exhibition games were scheduled and of those, only one came to pass. The article below is from October 12th of that year.

Canadian National would win their section and take a trip into town for the "play downs". So not only did Ottawa make the playoffs without playing a single regular season game, they hosted it!

Emerson Ogilvie. Remember him? He was the guy who entered "The Gallery of the Gods" with his performance for Glebe in the 1927 high school championship game.

The intent was for this to be a semi-final game, but things didn't quite work out that way.

So by virtue of winning the single contest in which they participated, Ottawa Rangers won the championship.

But that would not be enough for our plucky Rangers! They challenged St. Thomas for the Dominion championship!

That game was played on December 9th on a frozen field. Go figure. Ottawa lost 5-2, the two points being scored off the foot of football god Emerson Ogilvie.

Recently, I was impressed that the Ottawa Sooners played 16 games in order to secure a national championship in 1974. At the other end of the spectrum, no one will ever win a championship in fewer games that our 1934 Ottawa Rangers.

I have not located any results for the Rangers in 1935 so evidently, they went out (Québec) champions.

Let's Show Some Love to St. Brigid's

The Ottawa Football Club executives began the formation a four-team football league in 1918 with the goal to develop local talent. Among the teams to come to life was St. Brigid's.

The league had issues around field availability in its early days. They managed a brief season and its initial championship was eventually won by Ottawa Collegiate.

The league grew to six teams in 1919. The purple, green and white clad St. Brigid's club would win all five of its games and take the championship that season. They were coached by Ottawa Sports Hall of Fame and Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductee Sylvester "Silver" Quilty.

In 1920 the city league, now back down to four teams again including St. Brigid's, became a "section" of the Quebec Rugby Football Union.

Brigid's went undefeated (6-0), secured the city championship, then played Westmount in a 2-game series to determine the QRFU champ. They won both games in the series as well by a combined score of 31-15. Their only defeat would come to the Hamilton Tigers Seconds in the Canadian Rugby Union intermediate finals.

St Brigid's would apply to add a senior team in the Ontario Rugby Union in 1921. Over the next couple of seasons, they would struggle against teams from Toronto.

The junior version would continue for a while but the senior club would serve its purpose of improving the Ottawa Rough Riders in an entirely different way. In 1923, it merged with the Big Four entry.

At this point, Ottawa had not won a championship since 1909 and was coming off a season in which they'd posted an 0-5-1 record. Quilty's team would only improve that mark to 1-5 in 1923 but Dave McCann assisted with the coaching and during practices.

McCann became a coach in 1924 (along with Walter Gilhooley who seems to get very little credit). They again showed slight improvement, putting together a 2-4 record, but optimism was still high, as seen in the November 18th Ottawa Citizen..

Indeed, they would win championships in consecutive seasons in 1925 and 1926 under McCann's leadership. Quilty and McCann both entered the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1966.

This is an era that I find somewhat misrepresented in "official" historical reports. It is often said that the Rough Riders changed their name to Senators in 1925 as a result of the merger with St. Brigid's. Clearly that is not the case since the merger actually took place in 1923. The Senators name was in use that year as well, on occasion, but Rough Riders also was used to refer to the club.

In any event, similarly to the Ottawa Trojans merging with the Rough Riders in the mid-40s in order to (among other things) improve the latter club, St. Brigid's did the same two decades earlier.

Happy Anniversary X2!

The official account for the city of Toronto (of all people) tweeted earlier today that the CFL was celebrating its 62 birthday today.

I looked it up and that is technically correct. Intentions for the two leagues to split from the CRU were announced two days earlier, mind you, apparently out of the blue.

Presumably the agreement was considered finalized on January 19th, 1958, even though there were still wrinkles to iron out.

The above graphic is from the Ottawa Citizen from January 20th 1958. A scroll down the same page reveals that league heads handled other affairs when they got together that weekend as college draft results were also announced. A very familiar name made the list with little fanfare, at the time.

So on its literal day of birth (officially), the CFL also took in the greatest Canadian player it would see for the next decade and well beyond. How fitting.

1951 Grey Cup: Ottawa 21, Saskatchewan 14

A number of newspaper clippings specific to this game were added to the Grey Cup page above. Have a look!