The ORFU was founded on Saturday, January 6, 1883 and in 1903 became the first major competition to adopt the Burnside rules, from which the modern Canadian football code would evolve.
[4] In December 1906, The Gazette reported that a proposal originated from Ottawa for the ORFU and the Quebec Rugby Football Union to merge, which would allow for higher calibre of play and create rivalries.
With the return of peace, the ORFU found it increasingly difficult to compete in a sport dominated by the IRFU and the Western Interprovincial Football Union, which had both become fully professional.
Following the unexpected triumph of the Edmonton Eskimos in the 1954 Grey Cup, it was increasingly apparent that the WIFU's quality of play had become the equal of the IRFU, and the Western union soon made it publicly known that a playoff with the ORFU was no longer desirable.
In reality there was virtually no chance of this occurring since the only practical means of improving their quality of play would have been for the ORFU to become a professional union, an arrangement its clubs lacked the financial resources to sustain.
The professional unions would go on to create the Canadian Football Council and effectively assummed control of organizing Grey Cup competition from the CRU.