OQIFC Eastern Division Champions
Mike Murphy set the conference record for rushing yards in a season with 1060 over the seven game regular season, and the Gee-Gees posted four straight shutouts to start the season and tie a team record.
In the Oct. 9 game against Bishop's, played in a swirling rain, the stifling defence featuring linebackers Bob Bender and Cam Thompson and safety Connie Mineault, allowed just 97 yards rushing and 11 yards in the air.
Game results:
W 46-0 vs Carleton, Sept. 17 - TDs by Mike Murphy (3), Mike Giftopoulos (2), Fernando Ragonese
W 24-0 at Concordia, Sept. 25 - TDs by Mike Murphy, Mike Giftopoulos (58-yard punt return), Ken Guarisco (37-yard INT return)
W 72-0 vs McGill, Oct. 1 - TDs by Mike Murphy (5), Rocky Dipietro (2, including a 101-yard punt return), Mike Giftopoulos (108-yard punt return), Dave Behm, Hugh Gallagher (60-yard INT return)
W 34-0 vs Bishop's, Oct. 9 - TDs by Mike Murphy (3 - Murphy had 27 points in the game by adding two field goals and kicking three converts), Connie Mineault (INT return)
W 26-7 at Queen's, Oct. 16 - TDs by Mike Murphy (2), Rocky Dipietro
W 19-14 vs Carleton, Oct. 23 (Panda Game) - TD by Mike Murphy (19-yard run)
L 0-19 vs Queen's, Oct. 29
W 22-20 vs Bishops, Nov. 6 (OQIFC East Division Final) - TDs by Grey Seamans, Dan Medwin, Ken Guarisco (fumble recovery)
L 16-18 vs Acadia, Nov. 13 (Atlantic Bowl) - TDs by Mike Murphy (2, including an 89-yard run)
RECAP: Gorrell's charge gets Gee-Gees to Halifax
Defeat hung uneasily over the heads of the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees Saturday, but a young man who stood a mile high shoved it the other way.
Miles Gorrell, appropriately named for a six-foot-seven, 260-pound defensive tackle, extended the Gee-Gees dream of a second straight national title as they outlasted Bishop's Gaiters 22-20 to win the Ontario-Quebec Intercollegiate Football Conference east division crown at Mooneys Bay.
Bishop's steady placement kicker Joe Cammalleri was ready to supply the death blow, a placement from 35 yards out, with five seconds lef in the game when Gorrell provided the push.
Gorrell surged through the Bishop's offensive line and pressured the kicker sufficiently that he missed. And, he had kicked on from the same distance earlier in the game.
The win ushered in preparations for a Maritime weekend. Ottawa's next stop is Halifax for Saturday's Atlantic Bowl against Acadia Axemen. Acadia won the Atlantic Universities Football Conference defeating St. Mary's Huskies 19-14.
The two other semi-finalists eyeing the College Bowl are Western Ontario Mustangs and British Columbia Thunderbirds. They will meet Saturday in the Forst Bowl in London. Western captured the OQIFC west division title beating Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks 28-14 and British Columbia thrashed Saskatchewan Huskies 36-10.
The winners will meet in Toronto's Varsity Stadium for the national championship Nov. 19.
Gorrell's charge was one of the few bright moments for the Gee-Gees defence, which allowed a determied Bishop's team 423 yards total offence.
Defensive halfback Hugh Gallagher saved the game earlier in the drive when he sweater tackled Kevin Bennett and erased a possible touchdown.
Offensively, the Gee-Gees potential didn't surface until late in the second quarter. Although they drove 88 yards and didn't score to close the second, the march rekindled their lost confidence. Bishop's led 10-8 after two quarters.
"A lot of questions were answered about the offence today," said middle linebacker Bob Bender, who refused to expand by pleading the fifth amendment.
The answers were evident enough though - Mike Ruddy's second half leadership and passing, the receiving of Grey Seamans and Dan Medwin and a lof of offence and desire from a patchwork and hurting offensive line.
Ruddy went to the air when the predicatble running game was nullified by Bishop's defence. He threw 13 of 15 passes on target and completed 11 for 206 yards.
Seamans took in five passes for 89 yards including a 20-yard touchdown pass, while Medwin's 15-yard touchdown reception highlighted his four catches for 92 yards.
"Bishop's took away the run and forced us to pass," said offensive coordinator Jim Chiarelli, "and I question if we do that well. We had not hit a long pass all year and here we hit two or three and one for a touchdown. It's good to get a touchdown this way instead of grinding them out all the time."
On the offensive line, split end Rocky DiPietro and all-star centre Dan Sartor did not dress and guard Bill McNeely and tackle Pete Hazzan played despite nagging injuries and few practices last week.
Ken Guarisco scored Ottawa's first major when he picked up a Cliff McLeod fumble on the one-yard line and trotted into the end zone. Mike Murphy, limited to 71 yards on 19 carries, added two converts and a single. Punter Mike Hundt, who averaged over 40 yards on eight punts, also booted a single.
Jim Pooler, an American-trained runner from Northwestern, accounted for both Bishop's majors. He ran one yard for the game's first touchdown and combined with Bennett on a 41-yard pass and run play. Pooler also rambled 134 yards on 21 carries.
Cammaller, who converted nine of 12 field goals on the season, had another three-point effort from 18 yards out, a single and one convert.
Note: This article originally appeared in The Ottawa Citizen on Monday, November 8 1976, along with the photo below. It was written by Martin Cleary.
RECAP: Acadia Axemen had last laugh
Halifax - On the eve of the Atlantic Bowl, Bob Hayes, the jovial St. Mary's University athletic director, made a nationalistic plea to University of Ottawa Gee-Gees football coach Dwight Fowler.
"For the sake of unity I think British Columbia and Acadia should be in the College Bowl. And you, Dwight, being from Ottawa, you wouldn't be a good Canadian if you didn't help," urged Hayes at a news conference.
Fowler shared in the laughter, but quickly added he wasn't that obliging. Or at least he thought so. Twenty-four hours later, the laughter had turned to gloomy silence.
The defending national intercollegiate champions were thrown unceremoniously from their throne by the lighter, but more efficient and mobile Acadia Axemen, 18-16, Saturday before 6,000 at St. Mary's Stadium.
Acadia quarterback Bob Cameron, a poised passer, played only one series, but directed the Axemen to the game winning touchdown at 5:36 of the fourth quarter.
"They wrote us off, but we beat them on technique," said linebacker Don Dougherty. "All-Canadian Charlie MacLeod, who played for us last year and Bishop's this year, told us we could beat them."
"We're skinny, but we're good," said Acadia coach Bob Vespaziani after the confrontation with the bigger Gee-Gees. "But it takes more than big players. It takes heart and execution."
The other half of Hayes' pull-the-nation-together-through-football scheme never materialized. Western Ontario Mustangs built up a 25-0 first quarter advantage and coasted to a 30-8 win over British Columbia Thunderbirds in the first Forest City Bowl in London, Ont.
Acadia, humilated 38-13 by Calgary Dinosaurs in last year's Atlantic Bowl, will meet Western for the national title Friday night in Toronto.
Gee-Gees, who went to the Atlantic Bowl because of a missed field goal by Bishop's Gaiters last week, lost their shot at the College Bowl by a miss of their own.
Offensively, Ottawa mounted 362 total yards, while Acadia had 196. Defensively, they defused the Axemen running game, took away the long pass, but were stung by the middle distance pass between the zones.
The difference between a trip to Toronto and the end of the season was how often a team capitalized on their scoring chances. Acadia was inside the Ottawa 40 three times and scored 17 points. Ottawa was over Acadia's 40 six times, including five inside the 25, and managed nine points.
"My philosophy is that any time you are in that close, you must come away with something," said Fowler. "We did everything well except score. We had so many scoring chances and came away with so few points."
A dejected Mike Murphy, who shed numerous tacklers en route to 239 yards on 28 carries and the most valuable player award, was having doubts about his placement kicking after the game. He had two field goal attempts blocked and missed a game-tying three-pointer by inches with less than three minutes left.
The usually free-scoring Gee-Gees also failed to profit from the Acadia 20 with 2:50 left in the first half. Ottawa took a 10-yard holding penalty and then Larry Priestnall sacked quarterback Mike Ruddy for a 12-yard loss, placing the ball on the 42.
Ruddy tried to throw long on second and 32 to Dave Behm, but Roger Wheeler, an Atlantic Universities Football Conference all-star safety, nullified the possible touchdown pass. In fact, the agile Acadia defensive secondary wasn't beaten during the game.
Cameron, sidelined the last three weeks with a shoulder injury, came off the bench and went directly to an aerial assault. He quickly guided the Axemen 62 yards in seven plays.
Cameron hit four of six passes and found flanker Don Ross with a perfect third down touchdown pass from the five-yard line that just eluded cornerback Robin Harber.
Reserve pivot Dave MacFarlane started the game and wasn't rattled by the heavier Ottawa front four. He called a good, but conservative game for a quarterback who only played hockey his first two years at Acadia and was recruited as a quarterback out of a local touch football league.
Mark Cherneko ran four yards for Acadia's first touchdown, which was aided by Peter Laszuk's 44-yard interception return to the Ottawa 21. Bob Stracina, a gifted wide reciever who had feive receptions for 77 yards, added a 26-yard field goal and two converts. Cameron averaged 41.1 yards as a punter and kicked a single point.
Note: This article originally appeared in The Ottawa Citizen on Monday November 15, 1976. It was written by Martin Cleary.