59th Labour Day Classic looms: “This is when the real football starts, so let’s go.”
Trevor Harris was green — with envy — as last year’s Labour Day Classic neared.
Sidelined by a knee injury, the veteran CFL quarterback wished he could have been among the players who suited up for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in their annual long-weekend clash with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
That opportunity arrives on Sunday, when Harris will lead the Roughriders’ offence at a sold-out Mosaic Stadium (5 p.m., TSN, CKRM).
“I remember I called my mom on the way into the stadium last year,” Suzanne Harris’s proud son said on Saturday. “It’s probably a theme. I call my mom a lot.
“But I remember saying, ‘Man, this one hurts.’ Everywhere I turned, there was a green jersey — and there was a random pack of those ugly blue-and-gold jerseys.
“You could just feel it in the air that this game means more. There’s more people in the stands. Somebody told me it’s going to be the biggest crowd in Mosaic history tomorrow, so tell me it doesn’t mean more to this province and this community.
“It means more to us because it’s starting to get later in the season. With the urgency of where we’re headed and where we want to go, it has to start now.”
The Roughriders carry a 5-5-1 record — good for first place in the West Division — into Sunday’s contest. Winnipeg and the B.C. Lions, both 5-6-0, are only one point off the pace.
Factor in the long-standing Roughriders-Bombers rivalry, which will soon include the 59th Labour Day Classic, and Sunday’s game will be a happening.
“In terms of the atmosphere, we know it’s going to be juiced up,” Harris said. “That doesn’t mean the game’s different.
“I’ve played in Grey Cups and the game is still the same. It just means more. There’s more eyeballs on it. That doesn’t mean you play it differently or prepare for it differently.
“This is when the real football starts, so let’s go.”
Harris is poised to become the 30th quarterback to start for Saskatchewan in a Labour Day Classic, dating back to 1949.
Darian Durant leads the way with seven starts, followed by Ron Lancaster (six) and Kent Austin (five).
Cody Fajardo and Reggie Slack each made three starts.
Ten quarterbacks have started twice — John Hufnagel, Doug Belden, Tom Burgess, Henry Burris, Kevin Glenn, Warren Jones, Kerry Joseph, Joe Paopao, Bob Ptacek and Frank Tripucka.
Harris is about to join a list of one-time starters that also includes Joe (747) Adams, Michael Bishop, Rocky Butler, Zach Collaros, Marcus Crandell, Larry Dick, Glenn Dobbs, Jake Dolegala, Nealon Greene, Jack Hartman, Homer Jordan, Kevin Mason, Brett Smith and Don Weiss.
Bishop, Burgess, Collaros, Glenn and Slack have started at least once for both Saskatchewan and Winnipeg in a Labour Day Classic.
Collaros and Glenn are the only members of that quintet to emerge victorious with each team.
Harris is hoping to become the ninth consecutive quarterback to win his first start as a Roughrider in a Labour Day Classic.
The streak began in 2005, when Crandell was behind centre, and was extended in 2006 (Joseph), 2008 (Bishop), 2009 (Durant), 2015 (Smith), 2018 (Collaros), 2019 (Fajardo) and 2023 (Dolegala).
VOICE OF EXPERIENCE
Roughriders defensive lineman Micah Johnson has been a part of the CFL’s three traditional Labour Day weekend matchups.
As a member of the Calgary Stampeders from 2013 to 2018, he routinely opposed the arch-rivals from Edmonton during the final long weekend of summer.
With Hamilton in 2021, Johnson was introduced to the Tiger-Cats’ long-standing, early-September matchup with the Toronto Argonauts.
Now he is ready for his fourth appearance in a Classic against Winnipeg.
“It’s always fun,” Johnson said. “To me, it’s the best rivalry up here.
“This year it’s going to mean something, with both of us fighting for first place. I think that just adds a little motivation, but this game is huge.”
The Lions are to oppose the Ottawa REDBLACKS today, 5 p.m., in the inaugural Touchdown Pacific. The game is to be played in Victoria, B.C.
PACIFIC SPECIFICS
Four Victoria-born players have dressed for the Roughriders in regular-season play.
They are receivers Alex Anthony (one game in 2013; three games in 2014) and Alex Carroll (eight games in 2015), long-snapper Bill Chamberlain (one game in 2007) and kicker Quinn van Gylswyk (one game in each of 2016 and 2017).
Six other Victorians have tried out for the Roughriders: Linemen Larry Brownlee (1952), Joe Fry (1952) and Trevor West (1952), fullback Ken Higgs (1952), receiver Mark Townsend (1983) and linebacker Christopher Judge (2019).
Defensive back Bernie Crump signed with the Roughriders in 1979 but failed his training-camp medical.
Brownlee, Fry, Higgs and West were invited to the Roughriders’ 1952 training camp on the strength of impressive performances in junior football with the Victoria-based Oak Bay Goblins.
On Aug. 13, 2016, van Gylswyk registered his only field goal as a CFLer. It was an impressive kick indeed — a 54-yarder against the visiting Stampeders.
Calgary was also the opponent on Aug. 22, 2015, when Carroll scored the first (and heretofore only) touchdown by a Victoria-born Roughrider. He connected with Smith for a 15-yard major.
As a refresher, that would be Brett Smith — one of 30 quarterbacks (Harris included) to start for Saskatchewan in a Labour Day Classic.
