The Seventies
When the Ottawa Sooners joined the QRFU in the late Sixties, the Maple Leafs fortunes began to ebb. The Sooners had exclusive claims to all the talent in and around the national capital, while the closely-knit community of NDG was beginning to unravel.
Just the same they remained contenders under head coach Mike Gibbons, who coached the Maple Leafs from 1969 through 1972.
In 1970, they won their last Quebec title, before losing a heartbreaker to the Burlington Braves in the Eastern Canadian final, 22-14 (there was a horrendous official call that halted their momentum).
The '70 team was quarterbacked by Uldis Alders, who later played a couple of seasons for McGill before dying tragically in a mountain-climbing accident. Other stars on the team included Al Raphael, Bernie Muldoon, defensive captain Mac Rooney, Steve Glithero and Bob Della Serra, who became a pro wrestler.
The last Maple Leafs team, coached by Ron Maddocks in '73, was beaten in the QRFU final by the Verdun Invictus. One of his best players was Lewis Orr, now a distinguished opera singer.
"By then," Maddocks said, "interest was waning and a lot of the good players were going with Verdun. It wasn't the same as when I played for the team in the early Sixties."
But for 29 years, the Maple Leafs established a tradition of success unmatched in the annals of Quebec Amateur Football. The Maple Leaf named carried on for a few more seasons when they merged with the Verdun Invictus and became the Verdun Maple Leafs who played in the Ontario Junior Football League.
In the 70's there were up to 3 Quebec teams in the Ontario/Quebec Junior League, which competed for the Little Grey Cup. Verdun Invictus, NDG Maple Leafs, Laval Cobras/Scorpions. After 1973 only two teams remained; NDG and Verdun. They merged in 1974 and became the Verdun Maple Leafs. In 1981 the Leafs were bought out by a group from the West Island and became the Jr. Alouettes in 1981. In 1982 they became the Montreal Jr. Concordes. In 1983 they lost to BC in the Little Grey Cup. They lasted until 1984 when they folded. Two main factors were: money spent going to the Little Grey Cup and money spent going to the Little Grey Cup. In 1982ish the Quebec Jr. League formed Tier 2 Football. It's ironic that the same thing happened to the Sooners years later. By the way The Laval Scorpions won the Little Grey Cup in 1974.
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