History of the Ottawa Indians Rugby Football Club

The Ottawa Indians Rugby Football Club was founded in 1962 (yes this year – 2012 – is our 50th anniversary) after a split from the Ottawa Beavers. This split was coordinated to increase the number of clubs playing in the Ottawa area.

At the time the Beavers had to travel to Montreal and Toronto to play all of their games. As such the Beavers and ourselves are the two oldest clubs in Ottawa and still get along quite well off the pitch (on the pitch is a different matter).

Some people in recent years have raised an eyebrow to the fact that we still call ourselves the Ottawa Indians.

The reason for this is twofold:

1. The two clubs, the Beavers and the Indians, are so named to maintain a link with the native cultures of Canada and Canada’s historical origins – the fur trade and the natives for whom the Europeans depended on for survival. Also the Original executives of the clubs did not want to use traditional rugby club names from Britain (i.e. the Irish, Wanderers, and Harlequins etc.).
2. More significantly, we are named after the actual Ottawa Indians tribe, which traces their origins to the Ottawa River area. Although through many forced migrations now live in Oklahoma.

This brings us to today. Currently the Ottawa Indians Rugby Football Club runs two senior men’s teams, one senior women’s team, and the U16/U18 junior boys and varsity junior women.

Additionally the Ottawa Indians Rugby Football Club youth program has teams for all ages such as U6, U8, U10, U12 and U14.