Ottawa Redblacks

Team facts

Inaugural Season: 2014Helmet design: Black background with a saw blade featuring an italicized Rough Riders-style "R" in the forefront.Uniform colours: Red, black and white.Stadiums: TD Place StadiumEastern regular season championships: 2 – 2015, 2016Grey Cup final appearances: 2 – 2015, 2016Grey Cup Wins: 1 – 2016Main Rivals: Montreal Alouettes, Toronto Argonauts (see Labour Day Classic)2016 Regular Season Record: 8 wins, 9 losses, 1 tie.

History

The Ottawa Renegades abruptly ceased operations prior to the 2006 CFL season. The league liquidated the Renegades roster in a dispersal draft and placed the Ottawa CFL franchise up for sale, with the intent of eventually returning to the city.

Legislative and construction hurdles

On March 25, 2008, Jeff Hunt, the owner of the Ontario Hockey League's Ottawa 67's spearheaded a group that was awarded a franchise. The team planned to begin play in 2010, but cracks in the concrete structure in the south stands of Frank Clair Stadium led to the demolition of those stands and delayed the start of team operations. The league then set a new date of 2013 for the team's debut, but lawsuits forced the delay of reconstruction of the stadium to be pushed back even further. The team and league then announced plans to play at a remodelled Frank Clair Stadium—now called TD Place Stadium—by 2014 if construction remained on schedule. In 2008, the franchise was conditionally awarded the right to host the 2014 Grey Cup game, but the owners preferred to postpone the game for a few years to give the franchise a better chance to play in the championship game. In any event, after lawsuits and delays, the stadium renovations were not completed until 2014. Hosting the Grey Cup is a condition included in the agreement of franchise ownership. A C$7-million franchise fee was reported to have been paid to the CFL.

Concurrently, Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk had announced plans to bid for a Major League Soccer franchise to play in Ottawa, it being his intention to build a new soccer-specific stadium near the Senators' Scotiabank Place (now Canadian Tire Centre) in support of that plan. Questions arose about the stadium's design in terms of whether or not it could be used by a CFL team in place of the aging Frank Clair Stadium. However, the CFL and MLS groups could not come to any agreement on coordinating their plans. Furthermore, municipal officials questioned whether the city could support both CFL and MLS franchises.

In April 2009, the staff of the City of Ottawa presented a report to city council on the merits of the soccer stadium and Lansdowne Park proposals. The city held public hearings based on the report, which questioned the necessity of the spending but gave a slight edge to the Lansdowne proposal. Councillors attempted to find out whether the SSE group would support sharing their stadium with a planned CFL franchise, but the SSE group rejected such a possibility. Consequently, on April 22, 2009, city council chose the Lansdowne proposal over the SSE proposal as its choice for an outdoor stadium. negotiations were conducted over the next several months, leading to an August 26 presentation to council so that it could decide the fate of football in Ottawa in the foreseeable future.

On November 12 and 13, council held a public debate to discuss what should be done with the area at Lansdowne Park. Guest speakers included CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon and former Rough Riders Jock Climie and Mark Kosmos, who presented their case as to why the Lansdowne Live group was an important contributor to the city of Ottawa. The following Monday, on November 16, it was reported that council had voted 15–9 in favour of plans to redevelop Lansdowne Park to house a CFL team. The ownership group was given until June 2010 to sort out the details of the redevelopment, with construction set to begin in the spring of 2011.

On June 28, 2010, after a twelve-hour meeting, city council approved the plan to redevelop Lansdowne Park by the same 15–9 vote, all but securing a franchise in the nation's capital. With construction on the stadium scheduled to begin in 2011, the earliest the team would have been able to play was the 2013 under the original time line. However, a failed legal challenge and an Ontario Municipal Board hearing on the Lansdowne Park redevelopment project delayed the start of construction until 2013, with completion targeted for the summer of 2015, although there were indications that the stadium could be opened for football as early as 2014. Without a viable stadium, the debut of the team was necessarily pushed back accordingly.

On October 10, 2012, the new franchise cleared its final political hurdle, when a 21–3 vote by Ottawa City Council went in favour of Lansdowne redevelopment. Construction on the north and south side stands was set to begin in October 2012.

On January 30, 2013, Marcel Desjardins was named the first general manager in Redblacks history. Desjardins named former Montreal Alouettes scouting director and New York Jets pro scout Brock Sunderland as his assistant GM shortly thereafter.

On December 6, 2013, Desjardins hired Rick Campbell as the team's first head coach. Campbell is the son of former Edmonton Eskimos coaching legend Hugh Campbell, who coached the team to five consecutive Grey Cups from 1978 to 1982.

First seasons (2014 to present)

On July 3, 2014, the Ottawa Redblacks played their first regular season game in Winnipeg, against the Blue Bombers, scoring touchdowns on their first three possessions in the opening quarter, but ultimately losing the game 36–28. On July 18, 2014, the Redblacks earned their first regular-season win at their first home opener with a score of 18–17 over the visiting Toronto Argonauts. The Redblacks, like most expansion teams, struggled during the whole season, and finished last in the league with a 2–16 record.

In their second season in the league, the Redblacks brought in significant talent to improve the offence. The result was a greatly improved team that won 8 of its last 10 regular season games, finishing with a record of 12–6 to finish atop the East Division and clinch a first round bye. It was the first regular-season division title for an Ottawa-based team since 1978. On November 22, 2015 the Redblacks defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 35–28 in the East Final to advance to the 103rd Grey Cup. In doing so, they became the first Ottawa CFL team to reach the Grey Cup since the 1981 Rough Riders. They also became the second-youngest team to reach a Grey Cup final, bettered only by the 1995 Baltimore Stallions. In their first ever Grey Cup appearance, the Redblacks lost 26–20 to the Edmonton Eskimos.

The Redblacks returned to the Grey Cup the following year, winning the franchise's first championship by defeating the heavily favored Calgary Stampeders 39–33 in overtime. Although they had struggled during the regular season, finishing with an 8–9–1 record, the Redblacks claimed the top spot in a weak Eastern Division. This earned them a bye into the Eastern Final where, because of the CFL's crossover playoff format, they faced the Western Division's Edmonton Eskimos, winning 35–23.

Team name

The team almost immediately made contact with previous Rough Riders owner Horn Chen regarding the Rough Riders name. The ownership group were well aware of the price they would have had to pay Chen for the Rough Riders' logo and wordmarks. The Rough Riders name still retains popular currency among football fans in Ottawa. The Rough Riders played for 120 years, during which time they won the Grey Cup nine times. However, in July 2010, the ownership group announced that while Chen had sold the Rough Riders intellectual properties—including their trademarks—to his group, the Rough Riders name would likely not be returning due to the objections of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

On December 6, 2012, the CFL opened voting for the name of the team, up until December 16, 2012, on www.nameourteams.com. It was speculated that the team would be called the Rush, but this was later debunked. The Rush name was nonetheless included in a list of five potential names (Nationals, Voyageurs, Redblacks, and Raftsmen being the others) for the team in a focus group led by the team's owners in January 2013.

On May 30, 2013, the website Sportslogos.net reported that the ownership group had filed copyright protection for the nickname "Redblacks" (and its French equivalent, Rouge et Noir) with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. On June 8, 2013, the team confirmed it would be known as the Ottawa Redblacks. On the same day, the Redblacks also revealed their logo, an italicized version of the block "R" that appeared on the Rough Riders' helmets from 1975 to 1991 (with artistic ink traps) surrounded by a red outline inside a black saw blade.

Presently, the CFL does not consider the Redblacks (or for that matter, the Renegades) as the successors of the Rough Riders in the same way that it considers the three incarnations of the Alouettes to be one franchise.

2013 CFL Draft

One year before the Ottawa franchise hit the field for the 2014 CFL season they were allowed to draft four NCAA junior redshirts (players who would participate in the 2013 NCAA football season). The draft took place May 6, 2013. Ottawa had the last pick in the first 4 rounds of the draft (9, 18, 27, 36 overall selections). They selected Nolan MacMillan from Iowa, Connor Williams from Utah State, Kalonji Kashama from Eastern Michigan and Tyler Digby from Robert Morris.

Expansion Draft

The 2013 CFL Expansion Draft was a three-round CFL draft held on December 16, 2013 which assigned players from existing CFL teams to the new Ottawa team. The structure of the draft was announced on January 19, 2011, which described one round for selecting import players and two rounds for selecting non-import players. Ottawa selected three players from each of the eight existing teams for a total of 24 players. Ottawa was allowed to select eight import players and 16 non-import players with quarterbacks, kickers and punters eligible within their respective import/non-import categories. Ottawa was permitted to select a maximum of two quarterbacks and one kicker/punter, but not select any two of these three players from the same team. The CFL Commissioner was authorized to resolve any dispute related to player eligibility for the Expansion Draft process.

The selections were announced live at cfl.ca on December 16, 2013.

Retired numbers

On July 18, 2014, at halftime of the first home game in franchise history, the Redblacks announced that they would be retiring all ten jersey numbers that were previously retired by the Ottawa Rough Riders. The Redblacks have the most retired jersey numbers in the Canadian Football League.

Mascot

The Redblacks mascot is a lumberjack whose original name, "Big Joe Mufferaw", was revealed by the team on March 28, 2014. The name, which came from online suggestions, was an acknowledgement to the Big Joe Mufferaw folk legend popularized in several works of fiction (most notably by Ottawa native Bernie Bedore) and in songs by Stompin' Tom Connors. After the Redblacks received some criticism for the "Mufferaw" name, the team announced on March 31 that the mascot would go by the name "Big Joe" (or "Grand Jos" in French).

Cheerleaders

The Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team is the cheerleading and dance team representing the Redblacks. The team made its debut at the Redblacks' first home game at TD Place Stadium on July 17, 2014.

The team is composed of men and women between the ages of 18 and 35. The Cheer and Dance program has two spirit teams of 25 cheerleaders and 25 dancers. The Cheerleading team is a coed team of athletes from various all-star, varsity, performance and competitive cheerleading backgrounds. During games, the cheerleading team executes stunt routines and acrobatics on the field and on the sidelines. The Dance team is an all-female team of athletes from a variety of dance disciplines. The team also performs on field during game stoppages and participates in pregame activities. The Program Directors are Lisa Aucoin and Kenny Feeley, and the Dance Team's Head Coach is Melany Morrison.

On game days, members of the Cheer and Dance teams participate in “game day cheering/dancing, half time performances, pre game shows, game day promotions”. Members of the Cheerleading and Dance team are involved in various community events, charity functions and corporate appearances in the Ottawa region.

The Ottawa Redblacks Cheer and Dance team offers a Junior Cheerleading program for cheerleaders and dancers between the ages of 6–16. The 4-week cheerleading program includes instruction and coaching by members of the Cheerleading and Dance team.