If you attend Mosaic Stadium in person (kick-off at 2 p.m.), or are watching on TV, be forewarned, for today’s home game only the players with green on their jerseys are the enemy. That’s because, as part of their centennial celebration, the Riders are wearing special black and red retro jerseys similar to what the team wore between 1912 and 1948.
For some background on the uniforms and the related issue of where the team’s name originated here’s a link to an article on Riderville.com
Overall, the province in general, and Regina in particular, are doing up the Rider centennial pretty big. At the Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame now, and coming in late August to the Dunlop Art Gallery and the Cumberland Gallery at the Legislature, are special exhibitions exploring the devoted relationship the Saskatchewan Roughriders enjoy with their legion of fans in the province and across Canada.
The Saskatchewan Archives Board is publishing a special issue of its journal Saskatchewan History this fall that will focus exclusively on the Rider centennial. And the CFL Hall of Fame Game and Induction ceremony are being held here Aug. 11-14 with the B.C. Lions providing the opposition on Aug. 12. And then there’s the two Rider boners (in Carle’s memorable words, and pictured above) that downtown Regina currently sports courtesy of Harvard Developments.
Gee, if the third tower Harvard is supposed to be building at Hamilton & 12th was already up, I wonder if they would’ve dressed it like a Rider boner too. Or would sixty stories of Rider “Man-Meat” in a two-block stretch of downtown Regina have been considered too much?
Too … gang-bangy, as opposed to the undeniably passionate, but still mostly honourable, relationship that Rider fans have with their team. Yeah, sometimes it leads to a bit of abuse. But overall, the Riders have done the province and their fans proud.
So if you’re a fan, cheer loud today. Because this is a game that the Riders could lose if they aren’t careful. Edmonton lost to a not very good B.C. team at home in week one, but probably should’ve beaten Montreal in week two. Yeah, the Riders had softened them up a bit in their dramatic 54-51 OT victory on July 1, but Montreal is still a pretty good team (although not as dominant as last year).
The Riders had the Eskimos down 22-0 in a game around this time last year at Mosaic Stadium and fans remember well what happened then. So the Riders better come to play, otherwise …