1976 Ottawa Rough Riders season

1976 Ottawa Rough Riders season
Head coach	George Brancato
Home field	Lansdowne Park
Results
Record	9–6–1
Division place	1st, East
Playoff finish	Won Grey Cup
Uniform

The 1976 Ottawa Rough Riders finished in first place in the Eastern Conference with a 9–6–1 record and won the Grey Cup. This would be the last time in their franchise history that they would win the Grey Cup. The Ottawa Redblacks would subsequently win the 104th Grey Cup game at the conclusion of the 2016 CFL season, ending a 40-year Grey Cup drought for the City of Ottawa, which begun subsequent to their Grey Cup victory in 1976 (this ended what was arguably the longest Grey Cup drought in the CFL, though the City of Ottawa was without a CFL team between 1997 and 2001 and again between 2006 and 2013).

Offseason

1976 CFL Draft

In the first round of the 1976 CFL Draft, Ottawa selected Bill Hatanaka.^[1] Bob O'Billovich was hired as an assistant coach.^[2]

Preseason

Week	Date	Opponent	Score	Result	Record
A	June 28	vs. Edmonton Eskimos	40–25	Win	1–0
B	July 5	vs. Montreal Alouettes	26–22	Loss	1–1
C	July 8	at Calgary Stampeders	39–37	Loss	1–2
D	July 14	at Toronto Argonauts	20–9	Win	2–2

Regular season

Standings

Eastern Football Conference

Team	GP	W	L	T	PF	PA	Pts
Ottawa Rough Riders	16	9	6	1	411	346	19
Hamilton Tiger-Cats	16	8	8	0	269	348	16
Montreal Alouettes	16	7	8	1	305	273	15
Toronto Argonauts	16	7	8	1	289	354	15

Schedule

Week	Date	Opponent	Score	Result	Record
1	July 21	at Hamilton Tiger-Cats	42–16	Win	1–0
2	July 27	vs. Winnipeg Blue Bombers	38–27	Win	2–0
3	Aug 3	vs. Saskatchewan Roughriders	29–16	Loss	2–1
4	Aug 11	at Toronto Argonauts	27–16	Win	3–1
4	Aug 16	vs. Montreal Alouettes	45–9	Win	4–1
5	Aug 21	at Edmonton Eskimos	20–18	Win	5–1
6	Aug 24	at BC Lions	23–11	Loss	5–2
7	Sept 1	vs. Toronto Argonauts	40–27	Win	6–2
8	Sept 11	vs. Montreal Alouettes	21–13	Win	7–2
9	Sept 19	vs. Hamilton Tiger-Cats	28–21	Loss	7–3
10	Sept 26	at Montreal Alouettes	23–2	Loss	7–4
11	Oct 2	at Toronto Argonauts	20–20	Tie	7–4–1
12	Bye
13	Oct 16	vs. Calgary Stampeders	37–36	Win	8–4–1
14	Oct 24	at Hamilton Tiger-Cats	48–10	Win	9–4–1
15	Oct 31	vs. Hamilton Tiger-Cats	25–6	Loss	9–5–1
16	Nov 6	at Montreal Alouettes	26–17	Loss	9–6–1

^[3]

Postseason

Playoffs

Round	Date	Opponent	Score	Result	Record
East Final	Nov 21	vs. Hamilton Tiger-Cats	17–15	Win	10–6–1
Grey Cup	Nov 28	Saskatchewan Roughriders	23–20	Win	11–6–1

^[3]

Grey Cup

In the final minute, Saskatchewan punted into a strong wind. Ottawa would have the ball on the Saskatchewan 35-yard line. With 44 seconds left, Ottawa quarterback Tom Clements passed to tight end Tony Gabriel, and Ottawa was at Saskatchewan's 20 yard line.^[4] The next pass would win the game, as Gabriel caught the ball in the end zone for the game-winning touchdown.

Teams	1 Q	2 Q	3 Q	4 Q	Final
Saskatchewan Roughriders	0	17	3	0	20
Ottawa Rough Riders	10	0	3	10	23

^[5]

Player stats

Passing

Player	Attempts	Completions	Percentage	Yards	Touchdowns	Interceptions
Tom Clements	327	196	59.9	2856	20	13
Condredge Holloway[6]	106	59	55.7	973	9	6

Receiving

Player	Games Played	Receptions	Yards	Average	Long	Touchdowns
Jeff Avery	16	21	338	16.1	62	2
Tony Gabriel[7]	16	72	1320	18.3	62	14
Art Green		53	508	9.6	31	2

Rushing

Player	Rushes	Yards	Average	Touchdowns	Long
Art Green	234	1257	5.4	13	69

Awards and honours

• CFL's Most Outstanding Canadian Award – Tony Gabriel (TE)
• Grey Cup Most Valuable Player, Tom Clements, (QB)
• Tom Clements, All-Eastern Quarterback^[8]
• Art Green, Running Back, CFL All-Star
• Tony Gabriel, Tight End, CFL All-Star
• Mark Kosmos, Linebacker, CFL All-Star
• Jim Reid, Fullback, Rookie of the Year Award

References

1. Who's Who in Canadian Sport, Volume 4, p.307, Bob Ferguson, Fitzhenry and Whiteside Ltd., Markham, ON and Allston, MA, ISBN 978-1-55041-855-2
2. Who's Who in Canadian Sport, Volume 4, p.329, Bob Ferguson, Fitzhenry and Whiteside Ltd., Markham, ON and Allston, MA, ISBN 978-1-55041-855-2
3. "Ottawa Renegades All-Time Canadian Football League (CFL) Records". Archived from the original on 2009-03-13. Retrieved 2010-06-28.
4. Weird Facts about Canadian Football, p.163, Overtime Books, First Printing 2009, ISBN 978-1-897277-26-3
5. CFL.ca - Official Site of the Canadian Football League Archived 2012-02-13 at the Wayback Machine
6. "CFL.ca - Official Site of the Canadian Football League". Archived from the original on 2012-07-28. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
7. "CFL.ca - Official Site of the Canadian Football League". Archived from the original on 2012-07-28. Retrieved 2017-08-23.
8. Canadian Football Hall of Fame - Tom Clements