OTTAWA — Two members of Ottawa’s Jewish Sports Hall of Fame have played on Grey Cup teams. Noah Cantor was a three time champion with the Toronto Argonauts and B.C. Lions in an illustrious 11 year CFL career. Less is known about our other Grey Cup winner.
Noah’s uncle, Moe Segal, competed in an era that featured leather helmets and cleats, canvas football pants and players that played their hearts out on offence and defence.
At Ottawa Technical High School, Moe was an offensive and defensive lineman, and co-captain of the 1943 City of Ottawa Junior Championship team. Upon graduation, 18 year old Moe joined the navy and was assigned to a wireless communications training course on the HMCS Donnacona in St. Hyacinthe, Quebec. When the navy fielded a team in the Quebec Rugby Football Association, he decided to try out for the squad. The five-foot-nine, 190 pound, Segal made the team and remembers that the roster boasted eight pros from the Toronto Argonauts.
The Montreal St. Hyacinthe-Donnacona Navy team – ‘the Donnies’ – had a terrific season. Moe jokes that although there was great camaraderie, there was little fanfare when the team won. There was little time for practice and when the team did work out, players were gathered on a truck and carted to Montreal and then back to the base.
During the pre-CFL war years, the Grey Cup was contested between the amateur Ontario and Quebec Rugby Football Associations and the Big Four professional teams in Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Hamilton.
Moe starred in the playoffs, blocking punts and picking up fumbles on the way to securing the 1944 QRFU title. Montreal St. Hyacinthe-Donnacona Navy then beat York to advance to the Canadian Championship, but in that game, Segal was injured in a freak collision with CFL Hall of Famer Annis Stukus. Moe was convalescing in the hospital, when Navy upset the Hamilton Wildcats 7-6 to win the Grey Cup at Varsity Stadium.
The triumph was short lived. The team was disbanded after the season and by December 1944 Segal was serving in Plymouth, England. He spent the next year and a half with the wireless corps in Europe. Even overseas, football was not far from Moe’s mind as Ottawa scout Tom Daley had contacted Moe about trying out for the Rough Riders, which he did upon discharge from the navy.
Moe made the team as a two-way lineman in 1946, the first year the Big Four allowed American imports. He recalls that Howie Turner and Montreal’s Herb Trawick were terrific players.
By this time, he had met the love of his life, Sandy Schwartz, who filled in at the Bank Street confectionary the couple owned, when her husband attended practice at Landsdowne Park. Moe received the princely sum of $50.00 per game to play in the 1946 season, but ran into a bit of trouble that season after informing the team that he would not play on Yom Kippur. Moe shakes his head when recalling that Coach George Fraser benched him for the next two games, but prefers to believe that management had decided to go in a different direction on the offensive and defensive lines rather than it being a punitive action for not playing on Yom Tov.
Moe jumped to the Ottawa Trojans in 1947 for a guaranteed $500 contract. In the league semi-final, he recovered two fumbles to help defeat the Hamilton Wildcats 16-7. Ottawa then beat Toronto Balmy Beach to win the ORFU title. In what was to be Segal’s final professional game, the Trojans were defeated by Joe Krol’s Argonauts in the Grey Cup semi-final. Moe had suffered two concussions during the season and decided that it was time to retire.
After selling his Bank Street confectionary, Moe worked for Joe Feller for a decade before opening the trendy Squire Shop on the Sparks Street Mall. He finished his business career in commercial real estate working for CA Fitzsimmons and Regional Realty. During that time, he also logged many years of community service with B’nai Brith Lodge #885.
Moe was an active member of the Rough Riders and Renegade Alumni. In 1994, he participated in the Peter Dalla Riva benefit game for the Handicapped and in 1995, he and his Navy Grey Cup team mates were inducted to the Canadian Forces Sports Hall of Fame. Segal is still a big football fan and prefers the CFL game. He wishes the Greenberg-Shenkman proposal for Landsdowne Park well, and hopes professional football will return to the nation’s capital.
Moe was married for 46 wonderful years to the late Sarah Leah (Sandy) Schwartz. Sons Eric and Steven reside in Toronto, and Moe drives there twice a month to spend time with his family. Those wanting to talk football with Moe can usually find him at Agudath Israel Congregation most evenings helping with the mincha and maariv minyan.
Irv Osterer is the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin’s sports columnist.
