Formerly one of the oldest and longest-lived professional sports teams in North America, the Rough Riders won the Grey Cup championship nine times.

The club adopted the name Ottawa Rough Riders on Friday, September 9, 1898, and changed its team colours to red and black.

[4] The club absorbed the Ottawa St. Pats when the Riders helped found the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union in 1907.

Editor Edwin Allen stated "Roy Berry" was an alias for Bohn Hilliard, a Texas Longhorns footballer who had played semi-professional baseball.

[5] In February 1936, Amateur Athletic Union of Canada president W. A. Fry announced the suspension of nine members of the Ottawa team due to the Roy Berry incident.

The Riders next won the Big Four and Eastern title in 1939, but lost to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 8–7 in the Grey Cup game, held in Ottawa.

[4] The Big Four went out of existence during the Second World War, but the Riders were able to field a club in the Eastern Rugby Football Union, along with Balmy Beach, Montreal and the Argonauts.

The Riders won the 1942 ERFU title over the Argonauts, but again lost to the Blue Bombers in the Canadian final, 18–16 at Varsity Stadium.

With General Manager Red O'Quinn and Coach Frank Clair at the helm along with players Russ Jackson, Whit Tucker, Ron Stewart, Tom Clements, and Tony Gabriel, the Riders were one of the CFL's best teams, winning the Grey Cup in 1968 and 1969 to finish out the decade and then two more under Clair as GM, including their last victory in 1976, where Tony Gabriel made the game-winning touchdown catch in the end zone in a 23–20 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

But a controversial double interference call against Riders receiver Tony Gabriel late in the game proved to be costly, as the Eskimos, led by backup quarterback Tom Wilkinson, came from behind to beat the Riders 26–23 on a game-winning field goal by kicker Dave Cutler, giving the Eskimos their fourth (out of five) consecutive Grey Cup championship.

Throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s, except for two even (.500) records (8–8 in 1983 and 9–9 in 1992), the Riders struggled with losing seasons, poor ownership, mismanagement, and decreased fan support.

She became the first woman in CFL history to be appointed to an executive post, and the first female General Manager of any professional sports franchise in North America.

Despite a promising year in 1992 the bottom fell out in 1993, when the Gliebermans began making noise about moving the Rough Riders to the United States.

The Canadian half retained the Rough Riders name, colours and history under the ownership of modern Ottawa Senators co-founder Bruce Firestone.

The colour changes proved to be unpopular as the team dropped dark navy in favour of a return to black for the 1996 season.

For a few years, the CFL did not acknowledge the Redblacks (or for that matter, the Renegades) as the Rough Riders' successor in the same way it considered all three incarnations of the Montreal Alouettes as a single franchise.

"[19] [20] Ottawa Journal sports editor Bill Westwick poked fun at the team rather than criticize during their struggles in the mid-1950s.

When coach Chan Caldwell suggested that the team could practice on a train ride to an away game by attaching a railway flatcar filled with dirt, Westwick played along with the joke although the plan never happened.

[23] Newspaper journalist Eddie MacCabe regularly reported on the Rough Riders, travelled with the team, and was the link between the players and the Ottawa community, and was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

[24][25][26] Notable radio broadcasters for the Rough Riders include Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees Ernie Calcutt and John Badham.