The
Ottawa Rough Riders were a Canadian Football League team based
in Ottawa
, Ontario
, founded in
1876. One of the oldest and longest lived professional
sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the
Grey Cup championship nine times. Their most
dominant era was the 1960s and 1970s, a period in which they won
five Grey Cups. The team's fortunes waned in the 1980s and 1990s
and they ultimately ceased operations following the
1996 season. Five years later, a new CFL
team known as the
Ottawa Renegades
was founded.
Team facts
- Founded: 1876
- Folded: 1996
- Formerly known as: Ottawa Football Club 1876
to 1897, Ottawa Senators 1925 to 1926.
- Home stadium: Frank Clair
Stadium
, formerly called Lansdowne Park
- Uniform colours: Black, red, and white
- Helmet design: Black background with a face of
a Rough Rider with a log driver's (rough rider's) pike in the
background.
- Eastern regular season championships: 15—1938,
1939, 1940, 1941, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1966, 1968, 1969, 1973,
1975, 1976, 1978
- Grey Cup finals
appearances: 15—1925 (won), 1926 (won), 1936 (lost), 1939
(lost), 1940 (won), 1941 (lost), 1948 (lost), 1951 (won), 1960 (won), 1966
(lost), 1968 (won), 1969 (won), 1973
(won), 1976 (won), 1981 (lost)
History
The Ottawa Rough Riders playing the
Toronto Argonauts in 1924
The team was organized in 1876 as the Ottawa Football Club. The
club absorbed the
Ottawa St. Pats
when the
Interprovincial Rugby
Football Union formed in 1907. It adopted the name Rough Riders
in 1898. Although in later years the name was said to derive from
logging, the team played from 1925 on in the colours of
Teddy Roosevelt's
regiment in the
Spanish-American War, which, with the
date of the renaming, suggests that the name comes from the war.
The team did change its nickname to Senators in 1925 and
1926.
For much of the team's history it played in the same league as the
Saskatchewan Roughriders,
confusing many, and also attracting general ridicule to the CFL for
being a league with only eight or nine teams but two of them being
named "rough riders" (although spelled differently). The teams
historically belonged to separate leagues ('unions'), which were
not truly merged until the late 1950s; they were allowed to keep
their long-standing nicknames. On four occasions, the two teams met
in the
Grey Cup, prompting joking
predictions that "the 'riders" would win.
The Rough Riders were pioneers in international play in the 1950s.
In
1950 and
1951, Ottawa hosted the
New York Giants in exhibition games; the
Giants won both times, and NFL-CFL matches would not be attempted
again until 1959.
In the first
season of the CFL, the Ottawa Rough Riders and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats made history when
they played the first regular season CFL game at Philadelphia
's Franklin
Field
on August 23, 1958. This was the only time that two Canadian
football
teams would play a regular-season game on American
soil.
Hamilton
defeated
Ottawa, 13-7. (The Toronto
Argonauts and the Calgary
Stampeders played an exhibition game in Portland,
Oregon
in 1992, and several CFL games with at least one
Canadian team occurred in the United States during the CFL USA era.)
The 1960s and 1970s were the Rough Riders' glory years. With coach
and general manager
Frank Clair at the
helm along with players
Russ Jackson,
Whit Tucker,
Ron Stewart,
Tom Clements, and
Tony
Gabriel, the Riders were one of the
CFL's best teams, winning the Grey
Cup five times in that span and including their last victory in
1976, where Tony Gabriel made the game-winning touchdown catch in
the end zone in a 23–20 win over the
Saskatchewan Roughriders. The Rough
Riders' last and final appearance in the Grey Cup game was 1981
against the heavily favoured
Edmonton
Eskimos. The game started out as a shocker when the Riders
jumped out to a 20–1 halftime lead over the Eskimos. But a
controversial double interference call against Riders receiver Tony
Gabriel in the second half proved to be costly, as the Eskimos, led
by backup quarterback
Tom Wilkinson, came from
behind to beat the Riders 26–23 on a game-winning field goal by
kicker
Dave
Cutler.
Throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s, despite having two even
(0.500) records (8–8 in 1983 and 9–9 in 1992) along with hosting
the
1988 Grey Cup, the Riders
struggled with losing seasons, poor ownership, mismanagement, and
decreased fan support. In 1988, Jo-Anne Polak was named the
co-General Manager of the Rough Riders. She became the first woman
in CFL history to be appointed to an executive post.
The bottom fell out in
1992, when then-owner Bernard
Glieberman actually began making noise about actually moving
the Rough Riders out of Canada, and to the United States. The CFL, obviously, did not take kindly to
Glieberman's suggestion, but allowed him to split the Rough Riders
apart into a Canadian franchise (which he would sell off, and which
would retain the
Rough Riders name and history) and an
American franchise that Glieberman would
own, known as the
Shreveport
Pirates (this arrangement is similar to the arrangement made by
Art Modell and the
Cleveland Browns). Neither team played
well. In 1995, Ottawa management showed its quality by drafting
Derrell Robertson, who had died
the previous December. Falling attendance ultimately led to the
team folding in 1996.
Football fans in Ottawa lived without CFL football for the next
five years until 2002, when the city regained a CFL team, this one
called the
Renegades. Although
there was sentiment toward resurrecting the Rough Riders name, the
final owner of the previous franchise expected payment for the
rights to it; the new franchise declined the request, and went with
a 'fresh' name for the new team. Since the suspension of the
Renegades for the 2006 season, and the tentative awarding of
a new franchise for 2012, owner
Jeff Hunt has shown some interest in purchasing
the rights to the Rough Riders name.
Seasons
| Season |
W |
L |
T |
PF |
PA |
Pts |
Finish |
Playoffs |
| 1935 |
5 |
4 |
0 |
104 |
98 |
10 |
3rd, IRFU |
Lost in playoffs |
| 1936 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
49 |
63 |
6 |
2nd, IRFU |
Lost Grey Cup game |
| 1937 |
3 |
3 |
0 |
52 |
46 |
6 |
2nd, IRFU |
Lost IRFU Finals |
| 1938 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
141 |
41 |
10 |
1st, IRFU |
Lost IRFU Finals |
| 1939 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
145 |
44 |
10 |
1st, IRFU |
Lost Grey Cup game |
| 1940 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
116 |
40 |
10 |
1st, IRFU |
Won Grey Cup |
| 1941 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
72 |
21 |
10 |
1st, IRFU |
Lost Grey Cup game |
| 1945 |
5 |
1 |
0 |
105 |
40 |
10 |
1st, IRFU |
Lost IRFU Finals |
| 1946 |
6 |
4 |
2 |
175 |
128 |
14 |
3rd, IRFU |
Missed playoffs |
| 1947 |
8 |
4 |
0 |
170 |
103 |
16 |
1st, IRFU |
Lost IRFU Finals |
| 1948 |
10 |
2 |
0 |
264 |
130 |
20 |
1st, IRFU |
Lost Grey Cup game |
| 1949 |
11 |
1 |
0 |
261 |
170 |
22 |
1st, IRFU |
Lost IRFU Finals |
| 1950 |
4 |
7 |
1 |
182 |
231 |
9 |
4th, IRFU |
Missed playoffs |
| 1951 |
7 |
5 |
0 |
218 |
197 |
14 |
1st, IRFU |
Won Grey Cup |
| 1952 |
5 |
7 |
0 |
200 |
238 |
10 |
3rd, IRFU |
Missed playoffs |
| 1953 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
266 |
238 |
14 |
3rd, IRFU |
Missed playoffs |
| 1954 |
2 |
12 |
0 |
129 |
337 |
4 |
4th, IRFU |
Missed playoffs |
| 1955 |
3 |
9 |
0 |
174 |
337 |
6 |
4th, IRFU |
Missed playoffs |
| 1956 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
326 |
359 |
14 |
3rd, IRFU |
Lost IRFU Semi-final |
| 1957 |
8 |
6 |
0 |
326 |
237 |
16 |
2nd, IRFU |
Lost IRFU Semi-final |
| 1958 |
6 |
8 |
0 |
233 |
243 |
12 |
3rd, IRFU |
Lost Eastern Finals |
| 1959 |
8 |
6 |
0 |
275 |
217 |
16 |
2nd, IRFU |
Lost Eastern Finals |
| 1960 |
9 |
5 |
0 |
400 |
283 |
18 |
2nd, EFC |
Won Grey Cup |
| 1961 |
8 |
6 |
0 |
359 |
285 |
16 |
2nd, EFC |
Lost Eastern Semi-final |
| 1962 |
6 |
7 |
1 |
339 |
302 |
13 |
2nd, EFC |
Lost Eastern Semi-final |
| 1963 |
9 |
5 |
0 |
326 |
284 |
18 |
2nd, EFC |
Lost Eastern Finals |
| 1964 |
8 |
5 |
1 |
313 |
228 |
17 |
2nd, EFC |
Lost Eastern Finals |
| 1965 |
7 |
7 |
0 |
300 |
234 |
14 |
2nd, EFC |
Lost Eastern Finals |
| 1966 |
11 |
3 |
0 |
278 |
177 |
22 |
1st, EFC |
Lost Grey Cup game |
| 1967 |
9 |
4 |
1 |
337 |
209 |
19 |
2nd, EFC |
Lost Eastern Finals |
| 1968 |
9 |
3 |
2 |
416 |
271 |
20 |
1st, EFC |
Won Grey Cup |
| 1969 |
11 |
3 |
0 |
399 |
298 |
22 |
1st, EFC |
Won Grey Cup |
| 1970 |
4 |
10 |
0 |
255 |
279 |
8 |
4th, EFC |
Missed playoffs |
| 1971 |
6 |
8 |
0 |
291 |
277 |
12 |
3rd, EFC |
Lost Eastern Semi-final |
| 1972 |
11 |
3 |
0 |
298 |
228 |
22 |
2nd, EFC |
Lost Eastern Finals |
| 1973 |
9 |
5 |
0 |
275 |
234 |
18 |
1st, EFC |
Won Grey Cup |
| 1974 |
7 |
9 |
0 |
261 |
271 |
14 |
2nd, EFC |
Lost Eastern Final |
| 1975 |
10 |
5 |
1 |
394 |
280 |
21 |
1st, EFC |
Lost Eastern Final |
| 1976 |
9 |
6 |
1 |
411 |
346 |
19 |
1st, EFC |
Won Grey Cup |
| 1977 |
8 |
8 |
0 |
368 |
344 |
16 |
2nd, EFC |
Lost Eastern Final |
| 1978 |
11 |
5 |
0 |
395 |
261 |
22 |
1st, EFC |
Lost Eastern Final |
| 1979 |
8 |
6 |
2 |
349 |
315 |
18 |
2nd, EFC |
Lost Eastern Final |
| 1980 |
7 |
9 |
0 |
353 |
393 |
14 |
3rd, EFC |
Lost Eastern Semi-final |
| 1981 |
5 |
11 |
0 |
306 |
446 |
10 |
2nd, East |
Lost Grey Cup game |
| 1982 |
5 |
11 |
0 |
376 |
462 |
10 |
3rd, East |
Lost East Final |
| 1983 |
8 |
8 |
0 |
384 |
424 |
16 |
2nd, East |
Lost East Semi-final |
| 1984 |
4 |
12 |
0 |
354 |
507 |
8 |
4th, East |
Missed playoffs |
| 1985 |
7 |
9 |
0 |
272 |
404 |
14 |
3rd, East |
Lost East Semi-final |
| 1986 |
3 |
14 |
1 |
346 |
415 |
7 |
4th, East |
Missed playoffs |
| 1987 |
3 |
15 |
0 |
377 |
598 |
6 |
4th, East |
Missed playoffs |
| 1988 |
2 |
16 |
0 |
278 |
618 |
4 |
4th, East |
Missed playoffs |
| 1989 |
4 |
14 |
0 |
426 |
630 |
8 |
4th, East |
Missed playoffs |
| 1990 |
7 |
11 |
0 |
540 |
602 |
14 |
3rd, East |
Lost East Semi-final |
| 1991 |
7 |
11 |
0 |
522 |
577 |
14 |
3rd, East |
Lost East Semi-final |
| 1992 |
9 |
9 |
0 |
484 |
439 |
18 |
3rd, East |
Lost East Semi-final |
| 1993 |
4 |
14 |
0 |
387 |
517 |
8 |
3rd, East |
Lost East Semi-final |
| 1994 |
4 |
14 |
0 |
480 |
647 |
8 |
4th, East |
Lost East Semi-final |
| 1995 |
3 |
15 |
0 |
348 |
685 |
6 |
8th, North |
Missed playoffs |
| 1996 |
3 |
15 |
0 |
352 |
524 |
6 |
4th, East |
Missed playoffs |
Helmets
Image:CFL Rough Riders 66-72.png|Helmet from 1965-1972Image:CFL
Rough Riders 73-83.png|Helmet from 1973-1983Image:CFL Rough Riders
84-87.png|Helmet from 1984-1987Image:CFL Rough Riders
88-89.png|Helmet from 1988-1989Image:CFL Rough Riders
90-91.png|Helmet from 1990-1991Image:CFL Rough Riders
92-93.png|Helmet from 1992-1993Image:CFL Rough Riders 94.gif|Helmet
from 1994-1995Image:CFL Rough Riders 95-96.gif|Helmet for
1996
Players of note
Canadian Football
Hall of Famers:
Other stars
References
- NFL 2001 Record and Fact Book, Workman Publishing Co, New
York,NY, ISBN 0-7611-2480-2, p.369
- Weird Facts about Canadian Football, p.134, Overtime Books,
First Printing 2009, ISBN 978-1-897277-26-3
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Search