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Michel Prévost, Chief Archivist
Did you know that one of the oldest football teams in Canada had its beginnings at the University of Ottawa?
In conjunction with the Grey Cup game, which takes place in Ottawa on November 21, the University of Ottawa archives is collaborating on an exhibition on the history of football. Other partners in the project are the City of Ottawa, Carleton University, the Canadian Football League (CFL), the Ottawa Renegades football club and researcher Jim McAuley.
With the help of photographs, archival documents and artefacts, and particularly trophies, this large exhibition recounts more than 125 years of football history in the nation's capital.
It was in 1876 that the Ottawa Rough Riders comes into being under the name the "Ottawa Football Club". Five years later, the University of Ottawa formed its first team, the Garnet and Greys (Gee-Gees), which rapidly became one of the best in Ontario and Quebec. In fact, the Gee-Gees win 19 championships between 1884 and 1912 - the last year in which the University competed in major football.
Subsequently, the Gee-Gees were involved only in intercollegiate and interuniversity leagues, where they continued to put on a good show. Since 1967, the University of Ottawa team has taken part five times in the Vanier Cup national final, twice winning the Canadian championship in 1975 and in 2000. The 1975 Gee-Gees, who are considered one of the greatest teams in the history of Canadian interuniversity football, had 13 players, including Neil Lumsden, Jeff Avery, Tim Berryman and Rocky DiPietro, who later played in the CFL.
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