The Saskatchewan Roughriders had tunnel-vision on Friday.
After conducting a walk-through in advance of Saturday’s CFL game against the visiting Edmonton Elks, the Roughriders’ players formed two lines and invited their predecessors to run the gauntlet, as it were.
One by one, members of the alumni emerged from the Mosaic Stadium tunnel after being introduced over the public-address system by Director of Football Operations Jordan Greenly.
An image of each player appeared on the MaxTron as he was greeted and applauded by players, coaches and administrators with the 2024 edition.
“How awesome was that?!” Head Coach Corey Mace said during his Friday media conference, as current and former Roughriders had lunch together in the nearby players’ lounge.
“We talked with the guys and said, ‘Let’s make it fun.’ Sometimes you get lost in the sauce and, when you’re playing, you forget about the cool times and what it feels like to run out of the tunnel and into the stadium. Jordan was announcing their stats lines and stuff.
“What an experience — not only for the alumni, but also for our guys, just understanding the groundwork that those guys put in for the same crest that we work for today.
“I thought it was really cool to marry the two generations and for them to break bread together. What better way?”
Friday’s special guests were Mike Abou-Mechrek, Alan Ford, Carm Carteri, Gerry Fellner, Andrew Greene, Al Johns, Steve Mazurak, Bob Poley, Rob Pyne, Scott Redl, Scott Schultz, Barry Taman, Preston Young, Paul Vajda and Cleveland Vann.
Add it all up and a total of 138 seasons of service — as a player, coach, general manager, business office employee or broadcaster — and 1,194 regular-season games emerged from the tunnel.
The dignitaries boasted a collective eight Grey Cup rings.
Six of them — Ford, Greene, Mazurak, Poley, Schultz and Vann — are in the SaskTel Plaza of Honour.
“It’s awesome to meet the guys who laid the path out for you and are the reason why you’re here now,” quarterback Shea Patterson said.
“As much as we can talk with them and learn from people who were with successful teams in the past, it will be pretty beneficial to us.”
CANADIAN QB CHRONICLES
The Roughriders are poised to face a Canadian-born starting quarterback — Tre Ford, in this case — for the 15th time in the CFL’s post-Russ Jackson era (1970 to present).
Over the past 14 games against a team with a home-grown signal-caller, Saskatchewan has a 7-6-1 record.
We both knew this was coming … here are the details!!!!
Sept. 6, 1976: B.C. Lions 14 at Saskatchewan 17 — The Lions’ Eric Guthrie, nicknamed The Canadian Rifle, went 7-for-16 for 83 yards, with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions (7-16-83-0-0). Ron Lancaster threw a game-winning touchdown pass to Rhett Dawson with 1:48 left in the fourth quarter.
Oct. 8, 1978: Montreal Alouettes 35 at Saskatchewan 35 — Canadian starter: Gerry Dattilio (17-28-300-1-2). Montreal overcame a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit. Historical note: Lancaster threw his final two TD passes at Taylor Field (to Mazurak and Joey Walters).
Sept. 26, 1981: Montreal 26 at Saskatchewan 35 — Dattilio (22-30-427-2-2). Saskatchewan overcame a 26-8 deficit as John Hufnagel threw for three scores.
July 24, 1982: Saskatchewan 25 at Calgary Stampeders 19 — Dattilio (9-21-166-1-1). Greg Fieger scored the winning TD on a 16-yard run at 10:55 of the fourth quarter.
Sept. 12, 1982: Saskatchewan 13 at Montreal 16 — Luc Tousignant (12-35-158-1-1). Tousignant also rushed nine times for 83 yards, including a 49-yard scamper.
Oct. 3, 1982: Calgary 8 at Saskatchewan 53 — Dattilio (7-17-55-1-0). Dattilio was replaced behind centre by Phil Kessel, whose son (Phil Jr.) played in 1,286 games. More trivia: The Roughriders-Stampeders game was televised by NBC during the NFL players’ strike. Joe (747) Adams threw an 84-yard touchdown pass to Dwight Edwards on the Roughriders’ first play from scrimmage.
Aug. 19, 1984: Saskatchewan 11 at Calgary 32 — Greg Vavra (27-48-276-2-2). Saskatchewan’s Craig Ellis had a 92-yard kickoff return — the second-longest in team history at that point. It’s now ninth.
Sept. 9, 1984: Calgary 32 at Saskatchewan 18 — Vavra (19-30-237-3-2). Roughriders slotback Chris DeFrance caught eight passes for 136 yards and one TD.
Oct. 17, 1993: Hamilton Tiger-Cats 10 at Saskatchewan 33 — Bob Torrance (13-25-176-0-1). Darrell Wallace rushed for 101 yards and two TDs.
Nov. 8, 2015: Saskatchewan 30 at Montreal 24 (OT) — Brandon Bridge (21-30-220-2-0). The Roughriders rallied from a 24-6 fourth-quarter deficit on the strength of three TD passes by Brett Smith.
Aug. 6, 2021: B.C. 29 at Saskatchewan 33 — Nathan Rourke (10-18-194-2-2). Saskatchewan, which scored a touchdown on each of its first three possessions, led 31-0 late in the second quarter.
July 29, 2022: B.C. 32 at Saskatchewan 17 — Rourke (27-33-336-2-0). Rourke also rushed for a TD. Roughriders linebacker Larry Dean had nine defensive tackles, including one for a loss.
Aug. 19, 2022: B.C. 28 at Saskatchewan 10 — Rourke (22-31-375-2-2). Rourke rushed three times for 63 yards, with a long gain of 33. Six more tackles and one interception for Dean.
Sept. 15, 2023: Edmonton 36 at Saskatchewan 27 — Ford (13-20-173-1-1). Ford also rushed eight times for 70 yards and one TD. The Roughriders’ Shawn Bane Jr. caught two TD passes.
Over the same span (post-Jackson), the Roughriders have started a Canadian-born pivot on eight occasions, with four victories resulting for the green guys.
Oct. 30, 1977: B.C. 28 at Saskatchewan 38 — Guthrie (12-23-232-1-0). Guthrie also led off the previous list, by the way. Walters and Paul Williams scored punt-return TDs.
Nov. 6, 1977: Saskatchewan 0 at Edmonton 38 — Guthrie (2-7-11-0-0). I was at the game. No further comment.
Sept. 15, 2017: Saskatchewan 27 at Hamilton 19 — Bridge (21-31-231-3-0). Devon Bailey, Bakari Grant and Naaman Roosevelt scored the Roughriders’ majors.
June 30, 2018: Montreal 23 at Saskatchewan 17 — Bridge (8-18-111-0-2). Two sacks for Saskatchewan’s Willie Jefferson.
July 5, 2018: Hamilton 13 at Saskatchewan 18 — Bridge (11-13-101-0-0). Marcus Thigpen ran 34 yards for the game-winning TD with 1:29 left.
July 19, 2018: Saskatchewan 31 at Hamilton 20 — Bridge (17-22-165-1-0). Thigpen rushed for a game-high 80 yards … on one carry. Touchdown!
July 28, 2018: Calgary 34 at Saskatchewan 22 — Bridge (19-29-147-0-0). Saskatchewan’s Brett Lauther went 5-for-5 on field-goal attempts, the longest of which was from 56 yards.
Nov. 11, 2018: Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23 at Saskatchewan 18 — Bridge (12-22-100-0-1). Bridge was the Roughriders’ leading rusher, with 86 yards on five carries, in the West Division semi-final.
REED’S ROUGE
It may seem odd that George Reed finished his illustrious CFL career with an odd number of points.
After all, each of his 137 touchdowns was worth six points.
Over 13 years with the Roughriders, he didn’t attempt a punt, convert or field goal. Nor did he line up for a kickoff.
So, there really isn’t any obvious reason for a rouge — and a resulting odd-numbered lifetime point total — to be attached to his good name.
Yet, he retired as a CFLer with 823 points, 822 of which resulted from touchdowns.
What, then, is with the mystery rouge?
We take you back to Sept. 6, 1965, when Saskatchewan met Edmonton at Taylor Field.
The Roughriders opened the scoring at 4:22 of the first quarter. The scoring summary credits “McKee” for a Saskatchewan single.
Grant McKee played for Edmonton.
Per the now-unthinkable rules of the day, McKee produced a point for the opposing team by pouncing on a fumble in the end zone.
Here is the description by Laurie Artiss in the best-selling, Sept. 7, 1965 edition of the Regina Leader-Post: “Bill Gray burst 44 yards on the Riders’ opening sequence to the Esk 13. Reed plowed up the middle but fumbled at the two. McKee recovered in the end zone for a single point.”
That point was ultimately credited to Reed.
Hence the odd number.
“In those days,” CFL Associate Vice-President of Football and Team Analytics Steve Daniel said the other day, “a fumbled ball in the field of play that gets recovered in the end zone by the defence resulted in the offence being credited with a single.”
There are, according to Daniel, a couple of handfuls of such instances in the CFL’s statistical archives.
Thanks to Steve and the league’s Senior Director of Player and Game Statistics, Jeff Krever, for their assistance and enlightenment.
Thanks as well to my colleagues Arielle Zerr (Director of Communications) and Mark Habicht (Director of Retail Operations and Licensing) for noticing Reed’s single and wondering: “What’s up with that?”
Now we know.
ROLL CREDITS …
• Nice people who deserve a plug: Steve Daniel, Jeff Krever, Arielle Zerr, Mark Habicht, Dr. Jen Johnston, Dave Thomas, Jacob Carr, Mychaela Giesbrecht, Cara Hull, Dale Derkatch, Neil Rathod, Marnie Forsberg, Nadine Mounir, Noah Pelletier, Peter Godber, C.J. Reavis, Dean Kleisinger, Michaela Kleisinger, Georgette Reed, Angie Reed, Brett Lauther, Anthony Partipilo, Dr. Tom Robinson, Jessica Gelowsky, Miles Brown, April Green, DeMarcus Fields, Bianca Millions, Shadia Ismail, Kelly Peterson, Brandon Council, Summer McIntosh, Jorgen Hus, Tami Makowsky, Barry Taman, Eva Fletcher, Jamie Nye, Mike Abou-Mechrek, Cleveland Vann, Barry Taman, Glenn (Chico) Resch and Carol Gay Bell.
