Dang. I was able to see only a handful of CFL games this year. As soon as the NFL starts up, televising in the US of the CFL seems to stop. The Stamps and Saskatchewan are my favorite teams, followed by the TiCats. Winnipeg and Montreal can die in a fire. Oh, and congrats to Ottawa for having the least imaginative team name ever.
Interesting story about the Ottawa team. The original Ottawa team was named the ‘Rough Riders’ and was founded in 1876. The Saskatchewan Roughriders STOLE THE NAME (with a slightly different spelling; one word instead of two) when they were founded in 1910! (Of course those flatlanders never do anything original!)
Through poor management, the Ottawa team eventually folded after the 1996 season. In 2002, Ottawa got a new CFL franchise. The owners tried to resurrect the old ‘Rough Riders’ name, but the last owner of the team, Horn Chen, of Illinois, wanted too much money for the name. The new team was named the ‘Renegades’. Mismanaged again, by the Glieberman family, the ‘Renegades’ too, folded in 2006.
A new franchise was awarded to a new group of owners in 2008. Because of structural problems in the southside stands at Frank Clair Stadium, the City of Ottawa tore them down, eventually replacing them with a new structure. The new team began in 2014. While Horn Chen no longer held the rights to the ‘Rough Riders’ name, the stubble jumpers from Saskatchewan refused to allow Ottawa to use their original name. The new owners wanted colour and logo to be similar to the original logo, yet ‘politically correct’. The Ottawa CMA population is 1.35 million, of which 350k live in Gatineau, Quebec, so they needed a name and symbol that could attract French as well as English. Taking a page from the Université Laval team (Rouge et Or), they chose RedBlacks (in French, Rouge et Noir).
Personally, I do not like the name, preferring ‘Rough Riders’ however, the stubble jumpers from Regina would not allow it. Though living in Calgary, and generally a Stamps fan, I was born and raised in Ottawa, so I have a soft spot for the old ‘Rough Riders’. I used to like the Western ‘riders but not any longer. In a pinch, even the Winterpeg Blue Bombers are preferable!