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Riders share Grey Cup with fans The Grey Cup has come home. Monday night, the victorious Roughriders held the cup high in Taylor Field. The air and ground may have been cold but the fans and the players were still riding a heatwave from Sunday’s winning of the top honor in the Canadian Football League the Grey Cup championship. About 17,000 true Saskatchewan Roughrider fans bundled up and cheered their hearts out to keep warm during the half-hour ceremony Monday in the tightly packed Regina stadium. “Obviously you are the ones who deserve this,” Roughriders head coach John Gregory told the crowd. “Your support through the hard parts tells a lot about the true fans “ It was a happy celebration for the fans who screamed and shouted their zeal for everyone from the players’ parents to the ball boys before the full team came one by one onto the stage built on the field. The only ‘Boos’ heard during the evening were for the politicians Regina Mayor Doug Archer and Premier Grant Devine. After a quick victory song the players were whisked indoors under a blanket of tight security and the fans were left on their own again until next season. Before the players arrived on the field, team supporter The Flame blasted off a burst of his support, Super Fan cheered up shouts of enthusiasm from the stands and Gainer the Gopher kicked a stuffed animal version of a TigerCat around the field as well as showing his wrestling skills in demonstrating a pile driver wrestling move on the cat. Fans trickled onto the field until the ceremony was ended with a final blast by The Flame with fans surrounding the stage on the field. After years of making the 800 kilometre, round trip drive to Saskatchewan Roughriders games, farmer Doug Puff found Sunday’s Grey Cup victory sweet indeed. “All of a sudden you’re just so happy,” Puff said Monday from his farm north of North Battleford, Sask. "It’s hard to describe how you felt. You’re just elated. We’re not losers anymore. We’re winners all of a sudden.” Everyone in Saskatchewan woke up feeling like winners Monday after the province’s only professional sports franchise won its first championship in 23 years But it was especially sweet for the loyal fans in small towns scattered across the province. The Roughriders are considered as much a part of Estevan, Turtleford and Esterhazy as Regina, where they play their home games. “It was like a fairy book ending,” said Puff, 40, who watched the game at his house with eight neighbouring farm couples on a television set wrapped in a green and white Roughriders scarf. “The small town Saskatchewan team goes to the big city and wins.“ Rob Irvine, editor of the weekly newspaper in Shaunavon, in southwestern Saskatchewan, said people were happier than he has seen them in a long time. “This is a province that hasn’t had a whole lot to cheer about for the past half a dozen years,” said Irvine, whose paper also covers Gull Lake, the home town of offensive lineman Roger Aldag. “All of a sudden we’ve got something going for us again. This is always called next-year country and for once it’s not. I think there’ll be a real emotional outpouring here for a week or two and it’ll continue right through Christmas.” |
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