An untold number of fans did a Doubles-take following the greatest of all Saskatchewan Roughriders home-field victories.
Without seeking to draw attention to himself, Darian Durant nonetheless turned heads by wading into the madness of the Green Mile after quarterbacking the Roughriders to a 45-23 conquest of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Nov. 24, 2013.
“I had to be a part of the celebration,” Durant — nicknamed “Doubles” — told yours truly in an interview for my third book, 100 Things Roughriders Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. “It was an historic moment.
“Of course, the celebration in the locker room lasts forever, with the champagne and cigars and all that stuff. Then I met with (former teammate and ex-Roughriders Quarterbacks Coach) Marcus Crandell and gave him a big hug. Then we went out to Albert Street and then we went to Dewdney Avenue.
“We walked up and down with the fans and took pictures and we were a part of the festivities.”
The celebration is to resume next week, when the Roughriders welcome back members of the 2013 championship team.
Durant and associates will be front and centre on Oct. 7 — Legends Night — when the Roughriders play host to Hamilton. The return of Durant to Saskatchewan for the event was announced Thursday.
The 2013 Roughriders, who are to be inducted as a team into the SaskTel Plaza of Honour, will be honoured at halftime of the next home game.
Wendy Kelly, the first female to serve on the Roughriders’ Board of Directors, will also be enshrined. Kelly, who passed away in 2018, enters the Plaza as a builder.
Fittingly, Kelly was the Production Manager for the 2013 Grey Cup Gala.
Durant also put on a show in a different context.
The tone was set in the regular season, when he threw a career-high 31 touchdown passes en route to being named a CFL West Division All-Star.
Then came the best playoff run of any quarterback in Roughriders history.
Most memorably, Durant took over the 2013 West Division semi-final, which became his signature game.
Saskatchewan was trailing the B.C. Lions 25-16 after three quarters, so a non-meteorologic chill was in the air at historic Mosaic Stadium.
At that point, Durant took the game into his own hands, principally by using his feet.
During the fourth quarter, Durant rushed for 76 of his game-high 97 yards, while also connecting with Weston Dressler for their second aerial touchdown of the day.
One inspired social-media post — LegendDarian — succinctly and suitably summarized his impact on a game Saskatchewan won 29-25.
“I just felt like Darian was not going to let us lose,” Rob Bagg, a Roughriders receiver from 2008 to 2018, said earlier this year.
“He was a man on a mission, whether he was using his arm or his legs.
“It didn’t matter how banged up he was at that point in the year. I just felt like it was his moment, his time.
“We were obviously all there doing our thing, too, but I just felt like Darian was at another level that year.
“I often think of that B.C. game where I felt like we just ran quarterback draws up the middle with him more or less the entire fourth quarter. It didn’t matter if he had a guy around his legs in the backfield. He made positive yards.”
Durant followed up one week later by completing 24 of 30 passes for 280 yards as the Roughriders (11-7) upended the favoured Calgary Stampeders (14-4) at McMahon Stadium in the West final. He threw TD passes to Bagg, Dressler and Chris Getzlaf as Saskatchewan assumed a 22-6 halftime lead.
All of that was a prelude to the 2013 Grey Cup Festival, to which Durant did not invite his family. It was a difficult decision, but he wanted to avoid the slightest distraction as he immersed himself in preparations for the biggest football game of his life.
Once the ball was kicked off late on a Sunday afternoon, Durant would not be denied.
He threw two touchdown passes — both to Geroy Simon — to help Saskatchewan carry a 31-6 lead into intermission.
A third TD toss, to Dressler with 4:09 remaining in the fourth quarter, completed the Roughriders’ scoring spree and propelled them into a 45-16 lead.
It was Durant, appropriately, who took a knee as the final seconds ticked away.
Just like that, he was a Cup-winning starting quarterback after suffering heartbreaking losses to the Montreal Alouettes in the league finals of 2009 and 2010.
“Even when you look at going to the Grey Cup in ’09 and ’10 and back in ’13, it really was an amazing run he had as the leader of our team and the organization, and he was the face of the organization for so, so long,” Roughriders President-CEO Craig Reynolds marvelled.
“As time goes on, his legacy will grow.”
His legacy as a legend was cemented on the final Sunday of November, nearly 10 years ago, when — at long last — he was able to hold the Grey Cup over his head as a front-line signal-caller.
“I was brought to tears, and I had only been there (in Saskatchewan) eight years at the time,” recalled Durant, a Roughrider from 2006 to 2016, who was the team’s third-string quarterback during the championship season of 2007.
“To see the emotions of everyone in that crowd, the people who have endured the tough times, who have lived through (crowds of) 15,000 people, max, at the stadium, the telethon days, the heartbreaks of 2009, the plane crash, all the heartbreaking moments in Rider history … you could see everyone’s emotions come out and they let it all go. I guarantee you that out of the 40,000 people in that stadium, 30,000 of them shed a tear that night.”
Many of them stayed at the stadium well after the game before wandering over to Albert Street and the Green Mile.
They were eventually joined by No. 4, Darian Durant, after the Roughriders won championship No. 4.
“I stayed low-key, for sure,” he said. “I wasn’t in the middle of it, but I definitely was able to get out there and experience it.”
It was, after all, “the best moment in Rider history, hands down,” in the appraisal of Durant.
It was also the one opportunity for Roughriders fans to interact with their Grey Cup-winning QB on the streets of Regina in the giddy aftermath of a rare championship victory. Saskatchewan had won its other titles in either Toronto or Vancouver.
“I was actually telling people, ‘Yes, this is me,’ because most people were drinking their butts off and they weren’t in their right mind,” Durant said with a laugh.
“They were saying, ‘Is this really you?’ I said, ‘It’s me!’ They’re wiping their eyes like they’ve seen a ghost. It was crazy.
“There’s no way I was going to miss being a part of that. I had to enjoy it.”
Nor will he miss Legends Night — nearly 10 years after LegendDarian.
