Former Rough Riders owner Horn Chen dies

Horn Chen, who owned the Ottawa Rough Riders for two seasons – 1995-96 – died on Monday in Illinois. He was 83.

While owning the Rough Riders, Chen was invisible – he never saw the team play – and at the time, the Ottawa Sun hired a private detective to find him to make sure there actually was a Horn Chen. Turns out he was real and he admitted in an interview later that he “made a mistake” by buying a CFL team. Horn also owned the rights to the name, Rough Riders.

Chen, a minority owner of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets, owned several minor-league hockey teams along the way, founding the Central Hockey League in 1992.

While he owned the Rough Riders, the team finished with a record of 3-15 both seasons, before folding Nov. 6 of 1996 with Revenue Canada freezing the franchise’s assets.

VIA: http://www.ottawasun.com/2015/12/11/former-rough-riders-horn-chen-owner-dies