Ottawa has a long and proud sport tradition, and in this ongoing series, we present highlight moments and figures from our local sport history. The Ottawa Sport History Highlight series is produced collaboratively by the Ottawa Sports Pages and the Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame, which has welcomed almost 300 inductees dating back to its establishment in 1968.

Within two weeks of one another, the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees are hitting the 25th and 50th anniversaries of the two biggest triumphs in their football program’s history. Although a quarter-century separates the Gee-Gees’ 1975 and 2000 Vanier Cup victories, there’s one thing inking the two squads together – a horse’s ass.

We’ll get to that rather crude connection later, but these championships had nothing to do with a horseshoe up the backside. In fact, each team endured pretty much the opposite stroke of luck, as both lost their starting quarterbacks to injury at critical junctures. In this edition of the Ottawa Sport History Highlight Series, we look back on how the 1975 and 2000 squads persevered to etch their place in history.

1975 UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA GEE-GEES FOOTBALL TEAM

The expectations were certainly high for the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees in the 1975 season. They had a strong lineup stock full of future CFLers, but they didn’t become favourites until they took down the #1-ranked team in Canada convincingly.

The Gee-Gees handled Toronto 38-16 on the road and then beat Carleton 55-22 the next week to win the Panda Game and finish a perfect 7-0 regular season.

On the first three Saturdays in November, uOttawa won playoff matches at Lansdowne Park over Queen’s 57-26, Toronto 14-7 and Windsor 45-6 to advance to the Nov. 21 national final against the University of Calgary Dinosaurs.

Playing in front of a crowd of 17,841 at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium, Bill Harrison opened the scoring with a 13-yard first quarter touchdown dash, but Calgary regained the lead 8-7 come halftime with a single and a converted touchdown.

Towards the end of the third quarter, the Gee-Gees felt delight and devastation on the same play.

The Dinos jarred the ball loose from star fullback Neil Lumsden as he attempted to dive into the end zone. Ottawa managed to recover the fumble for a touchdown, but quarterback Jimmy Colton got twisted in the pileup. Although he got some sympathy from the scorers for a TD that he felt should have been credited to Mike Murphy, Colton had to leave the game with a badly injured ankle.

Backup QB Yves Leclerc was suddenly thrust into the big game for all the marbles, but the 16-year-old managed to hold the fort, helped by some muscle from Lumsden, who was repeatedly handed the ball to preserve the lead.

Somehow overlooked for the Hec Crighton Trophy, Lumsden was chosen as the championship game’s Outstanding Player. He carried the ball 27 times for 169 yards – three yards short of the 1966 Canadian College Bowl record set by Ottawan Paul Brule with St. Francis Xavier.

“This is what we came for,” Lumsden highlighted as he spoke to the Ottawa Citizen‘s Bob Ferguson after playing his final game in garnet and grey. “It’s what that last four years have been all about.”

The fullback/place-kicker/punter had both of Ottawa’s converts in the game, while Connie Mineault, Brian Keeting and Ken Gaurisco all had interceptions.

Gaurisco’s pick with two minutes left in Calgary territory effectively sealed the 14-9 win as Ottawa’s offence ate up time before the Dinos got the ball back at their five-yard line with under 10 seconds to play.

“It was just a great team effort,” signalled Gee-Gees head coach Don Gilbert. “Like they’ve done so many times over the past four years and particularly this year, everybody gave 100 and more per cent. I’m so proud of everybody.”

Gilbert won the Frank Tindall Award as CIAU Coach of the Year in 1975.

“This may well be the greatest college football team ever assembled,” he added. “This season has been the experience of a lifetime.”

Twenty-one of the 46 players on the Gee-Gees’ championship roster were drafted by CFL teams – a Canadian university record. Twelve went on to play in the CFL – Myles Gorrell (18 seasons), Rocky DiPietro (14), Lumsden and Eric Upton (10), Tim Berryman (seven), Murphy, Jeff Avery and Al Moffat (six), Doug Falconer (four), Bill Harrison and Ian MacPherson (three), and Terry West (one) – while D.T. White played two NFL seasons and Brian Keating one for Baltimore.

They combined for 12 Grey Cup wins, 23 Grey Cup appearances and 20 all-star selections.

Five Gee-Gees were All-Canadians in 1975 – Lumsden, Avery, Harrison and centre Dan Sartor, while tackle Paul Kilger was the team’s lone defensive selection despite his crew never allowing more than a touchdown except in games that they won by at least 21 points.

Avery and DiPietro scored six touchdowns apiece that season to tie for third-best in the league, while Lumsden sat alone with 15 touchdowns, 41 converts, five field goals and two singles for 148 points.

In his four seasons at uOttawa, Lumsden rewrote the Ontario and Canadian record books, graduating as the all-time leading scorer with 410 regular season points, as well as the most touchdowns, field goals and converts.

“He’s the most complete player I’ve ever coached,” Gilbert indicated.

The alumni association presented Lumsden with the all-time greatest Gee-Gee award and his #33 was immediately retired after the 1975 final.

“I’ve really enjoyed college life,” the soft-spoken, 6’1″, 230-lb. giant told Ferguson earlier that season. “But I feel I’ve no worlds left to conquer here. I’m looking forward to taking the next step. Hopefully it’ll be a blend of football and business. Whatever course my life takes, I want to be a success.”

“Lumpy” went on to win three Grey Cups as a player with Edmonton and another as general manager in Hamilton. Lumsden is now the Ontario Minister of Sport, but in 1975 he had worries as he entered the workforce.

“Right now my biggest concern is earning enough to make sure my dog grows up big and strong,” he noted. “And that might take some doing. She’s an Alaskan Malemute named Sundance. Right now she’s just a pup, but it’ll take a small fortune just to feed her.”

Lumsden is one of four ’75 Gee-Gees inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

Slotback/wide receiver DiPietro became the CFL’s all-time pass reception leader in 1989, finishing with a career total of 706 catches for 9,762 yards and 45 touchdowns.

Avery was a wide receiver with the Ottawa Rough Riders from 1976-82 and was inducted as a member member after covering each of the Riders, Renegades and Redblacks.

A D-liner for the Gee-Gees, Gorrell transformed into an offensive lineman in the CFL and retired as its fourth-longest serving player ever with 321 games and a 1986 Grey Cup ring.

“The Vanier Cup was the big thing behind all my athletic accomplishments that came after,” Gorrell said around the 40th anniversary of the Gee-Gees’ triumph as his team was inducted into both the uOttawa and Ottawa Sport Hall of Fame in 2015.

1975 team roster:

Duncan Armstrong, Jeff Avery, Sandy Bartle, Tim Berryman, Steve Carlo, Bill Cherniuk, Jim Colton, Mike Dalton, Rocky DiPietro, Doug Falconer, Miles Gorrell, Ken Guarisco, Sandy Gray, Bill Harrison, Julian Hanlon, Pete Hazzan, Brian Keating, Paul Kilger, Pat Leach, Tim Leach, Yves Leclerc, Neil Lumsden, Ian MacPherson, Bill McNeely, Dan Medwin, Sam Miller, Connie Mineault, Al Moffat, Mike Murphy, Greg Nazzar, Mike O’Connor, Eric Upton, Mark Ribbins, Dan Sartor, Cam Thompson, Terry West, Dave White & Jeff Wood, head coach Don Gilbert, assistant coaches Dwight Fowler, Ace Powell, Bob Swan, Dan Slee, Gerry Kwapisz, trainer Gerry Bourgon, assistant Chuck Weeks & manager Paul Flynn.

2000 UNIVERSITY OF OTTAWA GEE-GEES FOOTBALL TEAM

Twenty-five years later on Dec. 2, 2000, the Gee-Gees hoisted the Vanier Cup a second time (and so far the only other occasion).

With the CFL missing and the Carleton University Ravens absent too, the Gee-Gees were the big football show in town at the time.

Cast in the hero’s role was Phill Côté, the hometown boy from Lowertown whose childhood dream was to play for the Gee-Gees.

But this title was about much more than the star leader, especially given that the 1999 Hec Crighton Trophy winner missed some of his team’s biggest moments on the road to the Vanier.

Playing out of a crumbling Lansdowne stadium, uOttawa outscored opponents by a total of 292-52 in the regular season to earn a 7-1 record, with the nation’s best defence.

While seeking to honour Adam Maheu after he suffered a career-ending neck injury, the Gee-Gees started their playoff run with a stifling 50-3 win over McGill.

That setup a showdown with the upstart Laval Rouge et Or in the O-QIFC conference final. The reigning Vanier Cup champions had already beaten the Gee-Gees 14-9 in Ottawa earlier in the season, and this time uOttawa had to travel to Quebec City where the biggest and loudest crowd in Canadian university football awaited them.

Already facing a fortress of “20,000 screaming maniacs” as head coach Marcel Bellefeuille described them, the Gee-Gees’ fortunes were dealt another blow when Côté had to leave the game with a busted ankle before the first quarter was done.

“There was a sense of wow when Phill got hurt,” Gee-Gees free safety Lukas Shaver recalled in an interview with Ottawa Sport Hall of Famer Tom Casey of the Ottawa Citizen. “We asked ourselves: ‘What are we going to do?’ We met at the bench as a team, and we all said we had to take our game up a notch.”

“Phill-in” QB James Baker came into the game and ultimately guided Ottawa to a 26-9 win over the Rouge et Or (who later built a streak of 70 consecutive home-field victories).

East Gloucester Bengals product Baker then scored the clinching touchdown in a 20-15 victory over McMaster in the Churchill Bowl, while the uOttawa defence forced five fumbles and intercepted three passes.

With a two-week break before the Vanier Cup against the Regina Rams, Côté had more time to heal. Once kickoff came at Toronto’s SkyDome, the quarterback who was most dangerous on broken plays was just as elusive as ever.

Côté scampered for 91 yards and two touchdowns while starting the game 11-for-11 in passing as Ottawa built a 35-10 halftime lead.

“I didn’t know if it would be on one leg or two, but I was playing no matter what,” Côté told the Ottawa Sun/Citizen‘s Tim Baines in a 2020 retrospective. “It was intense in terms of the physiotherapy involved, but it was well worth it.

“Thank God we had James Baker to get us there. I haven’t been able to thank him enough. He’s really the reason we got a second opportunity to win a Vanier Cup.”

In the championship game, Brad German set the tone with an early interception before the Gee-Gees scored touchdowns on five straight possessions, aided by standout special teams and punt returns by Scott Gordon.

Michael Shaver and Ali Ajram each scored touchdowns, while Mike DiBattista had two. Regina scored eight points on the last play to make it 42-39 in a game that never felt nearly that close.

Côté finished 16-of-18 on pass attempts for 275 yards, three touchdowns and MVP honours in his final university game.

“This is how I wanted to end my career,” Côté told Casey. “Playing for the Gee-Gees has been so special. I only wish I could have a couple more years of eligibility.”

Côté graduated from uOttawa in an era where Canadian QBs just weren’t trusted in their own national pro football league.

Frank Cosentino wrote in the Citizen that he “will never play quarterback in the Canadian Football League. Why? He is Canadian. Beer commercials extol that quality, but in the CFL, it’s a liability.”

The Citizen‘s Gare Joyce echoed the sentiment.

“If only the pro scouts had his imagination, his nerve,” he wrote.

Twelve Gee-Gees were invited to CFL camps the next season, and seven ultimately made CFL rosters. Côté was not among them, but Gordon and Jocelyn Frenette celebrated a Grey Cup together in 2007 with Saskatchewan.

Bellefeuille went on to coach extensively in the CFL with Saskatchewan, Montreal, Hamilton, Winnipeg and B.C., and in the U.S., before returning to uOttawa in 2020.

“It wasn’t the most talented team we’d had, but it was the best team,” Bellefeuille underlined.

1975 team roster:

1 Lukas Shaver, 2 Michael Shaver, 3 Mark Pretzlaff, 4 Mike Di Battista, 6 Christopher Schuld, 7 Maxime Dufault, 8 Phillippe Côté, 9 Mark Thompson, 10 Todd Seely, 11 Patrick Paradis, 12 James Baker, 13 Ted Stote, 14 Jeffery Lee-Yaw, 15 Pierre Ianniciello, 16 Nathan Malley, 17 Nathan Thompson, 18 Jeremy White, 19 Daniel Peterson, 20 McArthur Anglade, 21 Frantz Jacques, 22 Mathias Moïse Denadou, 23 Matthew Rogers, 24 Ali Ajram, 25 Alexandre Normandin, 26 Brad German, 28 Michaël N’goran, 30 Gary Jean-Louis, 31 Brandon Van Hooydonk, 32 Coridon Kesner, 33 Jean-Phillippe Goulet, 34 Richard Belleau, 35 Mike Kwiatkowski, 39 Teddy Neptune, 40 Marc Larouche, 41 Justin Bell, 42 Scott Gordon, 43 Kris Lajeunesse, 44 Alexandre Mathieu, 45 Byron Allan, 48 Scott Gagnon, 50 Frédéric Dancose, 51 Randy Peters, 52 Mike Voordenhout, 53 Luc Gilbert, 54 Phillippe Bergeron, 55 Steve Alexandre, 56 Guillaume Cloutier, 57 Kevin Gagnon, 58 Michel Dupuis, 59 Jocelyn Frenette, 60 Courtney Simpson, 61 James Adams, 62 Clint Currie, 63 Benoit Boulais, 64 Darryl Hazenberg, 65 Matthew Berry, 66 Christopher Mercer, 67 Greg Stevenson, 68 Allen Daggett, 72 Greg Decloux, 74 Emmanuel Gauthier, 75 Walter Fox, 77 Andrew Chouinard, 78 Chadwick Gelin, 80 Adam Maheu, 81 Daniel Mann, 85 Darryl Ray, 87 Chad Watson, 88 Patrice Aubriot, 90 Mike Drysdale, 92 Matthew Goreski, 95 Phillip Homewood, 99 Nick Johansson, Marcel Bellefeuille (head coach), Andy McEvoy (offensive coordinator), Mike White (defensive coordinator), Denis Piche (running backs), Danny Laramee (linebackers), Gord Hudson (receivers), Paul Connery (defensive assistant), Randy Fournier (defensive line), Mike Doucette (special teams), Steve Campagna (offensive line), Ian Hoyte (special teams), Ray Perras (mental training), George Chiappa (strength and conditioning).

AN INDELIBLE MARK

Bellefeuille was young in his coaching career when he guided the Gee-Gees to the 2000 Vanier Cup, but the Ottawa native already owned a great appreciation for Ottawa’s storied football traditions, so he invited Lumsden and Gilbert to share some of their memories to inspire the younger group.

“It was a team that was so close. I remember living in a house with nine guys on King Edward Street. Even 25 years later, many of the guys are still close and it is a group that has been extremely successful outside football,” reflected Lumsden. “It was a special group of guys coached by a special guy.”

Coach Gilbert also addressed the cavalry the night before the big game and revealed the special spot the Gee-Gees horse will always have for him (and not only in his heart).

“After (Gilbert)’s speech, we felt we could go through a wall to win the Cup,” receiver Patrice Aubriot recalled for a Vanier Cup feature. “But the best part was at the end of his speech. He pulled down his pants and showed us the Gee-Gee tattoo on his rear end that he had done after they won in ’75.

“It was the last thing we expected from this honourable man who stood in front of us wearing a suit. It was hilarious.”