This 100th-anniversary celebration of the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ nickname appears just in the nick of time.
The Roughriders’ long-standing moniker, which has been used universally since November of 1924, has been linked to the team as far back as 1912.
I should have a better recollection of events, having covered the Regina Rugby Club as it evolved into the Regina Roughriders, but the past century (plus 12 years) has exacted a toll.
Fortunately, contemporaneous newspaper reports and the unmatchable research of historian Bob Calder are invaluable in helping us trace the often-meandering path to 1924 and the unwavering utilization of “Roughriders.”
According to Calder, who has co-authored two Roughriders history books, the likeliest scenario is that the then-rugby team adopted its name as a reference to the “rough riders” who broke in horses in Western Canada.
However, it has also been speculated that the team was named after an American cavalry regiment — “Roosevelt’s Rough Riders” — that fought in the 1898 Spanish-American War. Those Rough Riders were under the command of future United States president Teddy Roosevelt.
“It has been argued that the American ex-patriots in the Regina Rugby Club wanted to adopt the name in tribute to the ebullient Roosevelt,” Calder wrote in Saskatchewan Roughriders: The First 100 Years.
The first such nickname in Canadian rugby/football belonged to an Ottawa-based club that was established in 1876.
“Then in 1898, as a tribute to Teddy Roosevelt’s Roughriders Unit that fought in the Spanish-American War, the team’s name was changed to Ottawa Rough Riders, with the iconic red and black colour scheme,” reads a team history that is published on ottawaredblacks.com.
In 1925, according to the website, the Ottawa team changed its name to “Senators” before reverting back to “Rough Riders in 1930.”
The Ottawa Rough Riders endured through the 1996 season, after which the franchise folded.
The CFL subsequently returned to Ottawa as the Renegades (2002-05) and REDBLACKS (2014-present).
The Regina Rugby Club, founded in 1910, was invariably labelled as such until 1912, when “Roughriders” entered the equation.
Research conducted by a devoted chronicler of local sports history, Tom Fuzesy, uncovered a reference to the Regina Roughriders in the Oct. 19, 1912 edition of the Saskatoon Daily Star.
The spelling was slightly different on Aug. 31, 1915, when Regina’s Morning Leader published a headline referring to the “Regina Rough Riders.”
“Rough Riders” was also used in a Sept. 25, 1915 story that previewed the Saskatchewan Rugby League season.
Four days later, the Leader (later the Leader-Post) reported that the “Rough Riders” had elected three new officers.
The Daily Star used “Rough Riders” on Oct. 2, 1915.
The following year, “Rough Riders” was referenced by the Saskatoon StarPhoenix on Oct. 10 and Oct. 21.
Beyond 1915, “Rough Riders” was not used by the Leader-Post in a local-sporting context until 1924. As Calder wrote in Rider Pride — a 1984 team history that was written in collaboration with Garry Andrews — the nickname may very well have been mothballed by the rugby team to avoid confusion.
A local lacrosse team was known as the Rough-Riders, as evidenced by a newspaper report from Sept. 2, 1913.
A noon-hour hockey team known as the Rough Riders existed in 1916 (and perhaps in other years).
As well, a perusal of the StarPhoenix archives uncovers a “Rough Riders” basketball team that played at the Saskatoon YMCA gym in 1914.
When the tag was next applied to the Queen City’s rugby team in one of Saskatchewan’s larger newspapers, it was the StarPhoenix that snapped the extended drought (on Oct. 13, 1923). Worth noting:
The S-P also referred to the Regina team as the “Roughriders,” eschewing the two-word version that had customarily been used in previous references.
The Daily Star then reported on Nov. 5, 1923 that the “Rough Riders” of Regina had advanced to the Western Canada rugby final.
The Regina Rugby Club/Roughriders/Rough Riders eventually advanced to the 11th Grey Cup Game, played on Dec. 1, 1923.
That day, the Edmonton Journal touted the “Regina Rough Riders” as the Western Canada rugby champions. “Rough Riders” was also used in the Journal’s game reportage of Dec. 3, 1923.
The game, versus Queen’s University, was played at Varsity Stadium in Toronto. The Toronto Star used “Regina Rugby Club” in its description of the Western champions.
The ensuing season, 1924, was the one in which the use of “Roughriders” crystallized.
“In 1924, the team changed its name from the Regina Rugby Club to Regina Roughriders,” reads a portion of a team history that appears on this website. “Ottawa’s Rugby Club had been called the Rough Riders since the 1890s, but dropped it in favour of the ‘Senators’ in 1924. Regina jumped at the chance to adopt the name ‘Roughriders.’ ”
The StarPhoenix frequently referred to the Roughriders in October and November of 1924.
Not until Nov. 6, however, did the sort-of-new nickname appear in or above a Leader-Post-produced story.
The icebreaker was a story, adorned by a headline that included a bold publication of “Rough Riders,” about an injury to star player Howie Milne.
By 1925, “Roughriders” was conventionally used in the Leader-Post. One word was in vogue — as was one nickname, at long last.
