Robservations: Long-awaited first visit to Percival Molson Memorial Stadium was something to savour

The Montreal Alouettes’ home facility is so antiquated that it was old when I was young. 

It is, in so many ways, the opposite of my workplace — the modern marvel that is Mosaic Stadium. 

Before Friday’s CFL game between the Alouettes and Saskatchewan Roughriders, I visited a lower-level washroom at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium and was reminded of dear old Taylor Field, albeit without the troughs. 

The elevator-free ascent to the Montreal press box bordered on a stress test. There were far too many steps and episodes of gasping for breath, but I made it. 

And I loved it. 

An evening spent at the 100-plus-years-old stadium was something to savour — even though the Alouettes won 41-12. 

I was reminded of my only previous trip to the complex, which is located on the campus of McGill University. 

In the fine company of my wife, Chryssoula, I walked around the exterior of the stadium in the spring of 2002. I looked through the locked gates and wished that, someday, I would have the opportunity to watch a game on the premises. 

Someday arrived on Friday, shortly after 4 p.m. — 3½ hours before kickoff. 

No, I wasn’t there too early. In my assessment, I was several decades too late. 

For more than an hour, I walked around the perimeter of the field before the game and did my utmost to soak in the surroundings. 

I took a long look at Mount Royal and concluded that its elevation exceeded that of the press box. 

Upon reaching the media area, where everyone was welcoming and friendly, I was transfixed by the Montreal skyline as the players went through their pre-game paces. 

The historian in me was fascinated by the retired numbers and all the notable names that were displayed on the opposite grandstand. 

Virgil Wagner (78). Herb Trawick (56). Sam Etcheverry (92). Hal Patterson (75). George Dixon (28). Pierre Desjardins (63). Peter Dalla Riva (74). Junior Ah You (77). Mike Pringle (27). Anthony Calvillo (13). Ben Cahoon (86). 

Has anyone in the long history of Canadian professional football ever enjoyed a season that can compare to Hal Patterson’s brilliant 1956 campaign? 

In only 14 games, he caught 88 passes for 1,914 yards and 12 touchdowns, one of which was a 109-yarder. 

He also rushed three times — for 125 yards! — and intercepted five passes. 

Tack on 10 punt returns for 91 yards and 28 kickoff returns for 771 yards (including a 105-yard TD) and you have a season for all time. 

Scanning the names, which were in my line of sight for much of the night, I took a long, appreciative look at 74 DALLA RIVA and was reminded of my mother. 

Mom always liked Peter Dalla Riva … and Terry Evanshen … and Doug Flutie and … (dare I mention him?) … Tony Gabriel. 

First and foremost, Mom loved the Green and White, but Helen Vanstone was a great fan of Canadian football in general. 

That explains why she took her proud son to the Grey Cup in 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981. Only one of those games included Saskatchewan (1976). Two of them included (here’s that name again) Tony Gabriel. 

Gabriel’s final CFL game capped the last mother-son Grey Cup excursion. We were at Olympic Stadium on Nov. 22, 1981, when Edmonton edged the Ottawa Rough Riders 26-23. 

Ottawa led 20-1 at halftime, but the powerful Edmonton side rallied and ultimately won on the strength of a 27-yard field goal by Dave Cutler with three seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. 

It was a crushing conclusion to a career for Gabriel, a truly nice man who experienced the kind of heartbreak that had resulted from his game-winning, 24-yard TD reception for Ottawa in the 1976 Grey Cup. Gabriel’s clutch catch, with just 20 seconds left, powered Ottawa to a 23-20 victory over Saskatchewan. 

(Yeah, I cried. I was 12.) 

The Roughriders’ lack of prominence in our subsequent Grey Cup trips was not a deterrent. 

Hence the first two visits to Montreal, in 1979 and 1981. Both times, we walked in the Grey Cup parade. In 1979, I even made a sign by expertly spray-painting “RIDER PRIDE IS ON OUR SIDE” on a bedsheet.  

(Confession: I did that before informing my sainted mother that I had helped myself to and destroyed a bedsheet.) 

The sign, I should assert, was so eye-catching that it was shown on national television. Those were the days, remember, when the parade was aired live from coast to coast. 

Two years later, viewers across the country were surely dazzled by my stylish Joey Walters jersey when it was worn in another Montreal-based Grey Cup parade. The Look, however, was ruined by my hideous-looking moustache.  

The ’81 parade included a float that showcased the CFL’s newly crowned award winners. 

Before the procession began, I simply had to scurry over and get autographs. So there I was, resplendent in green and white and sadly oblivious to the sheer revulsion that my moustache was creating, chatting with Winnipeg Blue Bombers stars Dieter Brock (Most Outstanding Player) and Joe Poplawski (Most Outstanding Canadian). 

From that day forward, Poplawski was my version of Gabriel, Evanshen, Flutie and Dalla Riva — a non-Roughrider for whom I always had a soft spot. 

In fact, our touch football team even named a play after him. “Joe Pop” was a quick slant. 

Mom and Pop, then, were part of the equation in 1981. 

Reflecting on it all, so many years later, I wish that I could have called Mom before Friday’s game and asked her: “Guess where I am right now?” 

At the same time, I am comforted by treasured memories of all the fabulous fun we had and appreciation of the fact that she gave me so much — more than I could ever have suspected at the time. 

Little did I know that the Grey Cup trips of 40-plus years ago were a form of preliminary research for someone whose job description would eventually include “Roughriders Historian.” 

The franchise’s history, beginning as the Regina Rugby Club, can be traced back to a landmark first game that was played on Oct. 1, 1910. 

Five years and three weeks later, the first sporting event — a track meet — was held at what was then known as McGill Graduates Stadium. 

The first football game at the venue — McGill 25, Queen’s 2 — was played on Nov. 8, 1919, not even a month after the current name was attached to the facility.  

The stadium was rededicated in honour of Percy Molson, a decorated war hero who was killed in action on July 5, 1917. 

The first (and only) Grey Cup game at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium was played on Dec. 5, 1931, when the Montreal Winged Wheelers blanked the Regina Roughriders 22-0. 

The game included the first two touchdown passes in Grey Cup history — from Warren Stevens to Kenny Grant and Wally Whitty. 

Anyone who loves alliteration has to appreciate the Winged Wheelers’ Wally Whitty. 

And anyone who loves football simply has to spend time at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium.

ROAD TRIP REWIND 

En route to Montreal on Thursday, I was reminded of a once-in-a-lifetime excursion. 

Arielle Zerr — the Roughriders’ Director of Communications — was seated one row in front of me on the WestJet charter.  

Somewhere over Manitoba, she held up her phone and showed me a story on the North Regina Little League representative winning a Canadian championship. 

The grand prize for the NRLL squad was a trip to Williamsport, Pa., for the Little League World Series. 

It was the second such journey for the North Regina organization, which had previously travelled to Williamsport in August of 2002. 

I remember it well. I was on the bus — for 33 hours 20 minutes. 

Along with legendary photographer Bryan Schlosser, I covered the 2002 trip for the Regina Leader-Post. We travelled to Pennsylvania, and back, on a chartered bus. 

The entire trip was a dream. One moment in particular reminded me of Friday night at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium. 

Instead of sitting in the press box at Howard J. Lamade Stadium, I decided to watch a game from a terraced hill that is located beyond the outfield. 

It was the most peaceful experience. I sat back and, in the days before iPhones, tried to take mental photographs.  

Oh, how I could have used my current mobile device back then. 

At the time, I was still getting used to my first cell phone. It had been purchased mere days before the NRLL captured its first national title. 

While we were in Williamsport, the Roughriders played a road game against the Toronto Argonauts on Aug. 16, 2002. 

The contest was reaching its culmination at the same time my curiosity was peaking. I was standing in a parking lot outside the stadium, without any way of following the play by play.  

I couldn’t take it anymore, so I called my wife and asked her to put the phone beside the radio in order that I could listen to the final few minutes of the game.  

Alas, the Argos won 18-10. Additional discomfort was noted a week or two later when I opened a phone bill that included the extended (and expensive) Williamsport-to-Regina call. 

Fast forward to 2023: Thank goodness for the miracle that is WiFi. 

OPENING WEEK! 

Here’s a quick shout-out for the Saskatchewan-based Prairie Football Conference teams, both of which open their 2023 regular seasons on Sunday. 

The Regina Thunder — fielding a team that includes Roughriders practice-roster players Isaiah Woodley, Max Parkinson and Riley Schick — is to visit the Calgary Colts. 

Meanwhile, the Saskatoon Hilltops are to play host to the Edmonton Wildcats (1 p.m., SMF Field). 

ROLL CREDITS … 

•  Nice people who deserve a plug: Levi Johnson, Maverick Johnson, Dallis Johnson, Evan Johnson, Derel Walker, Darryl Ricker, Francis Dupont, S.J. Green, Dylan Hanson, Nevaeh Hanson, Brynlee Hanson, Anthony Lanier II, Brett Lauther, Herb Zurkowsky, Dave Stubbs, Rich Preston, Marc Calixte, Benoit Rioux, Harvey Kehler, Rod Smith, Duane Forde, Bryan Schlosser, Tony Gabriel, Peter Dalla Riva, Terry Evanshen and Joe Poplawski.