Historically, the Ravens football team first began play just after the Second World War in 1945 and was in continuous operation until the program was dropped in 1998.

[3][4] In their history, the Ravens won one Dunsmore Cup conference championship in 1985, but lost in the following Western Bowl to the Calgary Dinos 56 to 14.

Joe Scanlon, author of History of Football at Carleton, lists these fine gentlemen as the members of the Originals: Bob Forbes, Frank MacIntyre, Mel Carson, Bill O'Neill, Johnny Urquhart, Bill Rankin, Charlie Kerr, Don Sim, Johnny Moore, Charlie Charlebois, Donald McGregor, Merton Keith Salisbury, Wayne Dunphy, Ross Cavey, Al Holtby, Johnny Chown, Jim McNee, Lyall Graham, Bernard Garand, Harold Barnhart, Jim McKnight, Chuck Winters, Peter Ayearst, Russ Brown, Rock Robillard, Ted Graves, Robert Forbes, John Bell, Bill Morgan, Doug Good, Dave Morgan, Al Holley, J W York, Ted Ricker, Peter McDougal and Johnny Shore.

Norm Fenn, assistant coach and full-time director of Athletics, provided the first link between the college administration and the football team, and would prove vital in the years to come.

The new head coach, Bill Stanton, led the team to winning games against Loyola (now Concordia University) and McGill.

Coach Keith Harris arrived for the start of the 1959 season, bringing needed leadership and routine to the Ravens squad.

The results of these changes began to surface as early as the 1960 season, when the Ravens beat RMC twice in a row and non-winning games had small point spreads.

[8] The Ravens football club moved from the mediocre Central Canada Intercollegiate Conference (CCIC) into the highly-competitive Ontario University Athletic Association (OUAA) in 1971.

Coach Kim McCuaig left to work full time with the Athletics Department and was replaced by Brian Kealey.

Though the Birds lost the first three games of the year, the season was redeemed when the Ravens brought "Pedro the Panda" home with a 30-21 win over the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees.

Training camp had the Ravens practicing two or three times a day, with a largely veteran team that was hungry for a taste of success.

Cam Collins, Clark Oliver, Dan Petschenig, Steve Hamlin and Tom Timlin formed the nucleus of the 1983 team.

A three-game winning streak followed and wide receiver John Dawley helped to turn around the Panda Game, which the Ravens snagged 33-28.

After this game, the Bishop's coach stated, "I said at the season's start that I felt Carleton had the best team in the conference and today they went out and proved it."

The 1985 team began the season with a very balanced attack against its opponents, using the new Cam Collins-Mark Brown quarterback-wide receiver combination to fuel the offence.

After a 40-20 win over Bishop's in play-offs, the Birds found themselves heading to the Ontario-Quebec-conference final to meet the Concordia Stingers for the first time since the days of Coach Harris (1962).

Everyone in Ottawa and the surrounding areas had Ravens fever as the Carleton team headed to Calgary to face the Dinosaurs in the Western Bowl (Vanier Cup semi-final).

Veteran starting quarterback Sean O'Neil and Harry Van Hofwegan on defence were expected to help bring the team new success.

Dave Bosveld, Harry Van Hofwegan (the O-QIFC outstanding lineman of the year) and Sean O'Neil (the TSN Russ Jackson Award winner) had individual successes that shed a positive light on the team.

From the small group of war veterans in 1945 to its 78-member squad in 1998, Ravens football made a memorable contribution to the rich heritage of Carleton University and to sports in the Ottawa area.

With the encouragement of coach Keith Harris, Ravens veterans Jim Sevigny, Norm Jamison, Jeff White and Kim McCuaig established this group to further football at Carleton and nurture lasting team kinship.

However, on June 25, 2009, an announcement was made that the Lansdowne Live group, which owns the Ottawa Redblacks, the new Canadian Football League team, was in negotiations with the university to bring back the football program and play at a rebuilt Frank Clair Stadium to be shared with the CFL team and the Ottawa Gee-Gees.

Lansdowne Live partner and Ravens alumnus John Ruddy has pledged $2.5 million to provide funding for the program and it would follow the private partnership model that has proved successful both financially and on the field with the Regina Rams and Laval Rouge et Or teams.

[62] The program needed to raise a minimum of $5 million in pledge commitments in order to secure final approvals, and establish Old Crows Football Inc. by May 2011 for the team to start play in time for the 2012 season.

[63] While the group closely missed the May deadline, Old Crows Football Inc. and Carleton University announced on July 6, 2011 that the program would return in 2013.

The $5 million was raised and the team operates independently by Old Crows Football Inc. as a non-profit corporate entity that will fund and market the program.

Overall, the team finished with a 4-4 record that year, including a memorable Hail Mary Panda Game victory over the Ottawa Gee-Gees.

[68] McNulty later convinced Snow to display the panda in his front window and then organized the first "Pandanapping", a ritual in which Pedro would be stolen from each campus in various ways.

In 1998, it was decided that Carleton University would be cancelling their football program at the end of the season after numerous years of sustained losses.

This decision rendered the Panda Game tradition dead and left the Gee-Gees as the lone collegiate football team in the city for the first time in 53 years.