ROBSERVATIONS — Souvenir Grey Cup edition: Players’ stories … shuttle-van nostalgia … Wally Whitty and the Winged Wheelers!
WINNIPEG — Trevor Harris was proud to watch his son shine.
It happened the other day at the Grey Cup Festival — the lead-up to Sunday’s CFL championship game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes.
“My son signed an autograph,” the Roughriders’ marquee quarterback said of eight-year-old Trenton James Harris. “It was awesome.
“He was standing there next to me and somebody was like, ‘Can I have your autograph?’ He looked at me and I was like, ‘Heck, yeah! Sign that thing!’
“There have been a lot of cool ‘Dad’ moments this year, like T.J. introducing the offence and announcing, ‘Your quarterback … my dad!’ ”
Personally, I have enjoyed innumerable cool “old enough to be Trevor’s dad” moments over the past three years.
He was the first person I interviewed in the Roughriders’ employ, back in February of 2023.
We joined the organization within a week of one another.
After the Roughriders’ new (but very old) journalist/historian was introduced to Harris by Director of Communications Arielle Zerr, the veteran quarterback quickly put me to the test with some skill-testing questions.
QUESTION: Who holds the Roughriders’ record for passing yardage in a season?
“Kent Austin — 558 against the host B.C. Lions on Aug. 13, 1992.”
NEXT QUESTION: Who holds the Roughriders’ record for receiving yards in a season?
“Joey Walters — 1,715 in 1981.”
Evidently, I passed the test. I’m still here, aren’t I?
(Checks pulse.)
Much has been said and written about Harris during Grey Cup week. He has answered every question — several times, in many cases — while demonstrating the class, intelligence, insight and humour that have long been synonymous with this Hall of Fame person.
But now that most of the hay is in the barn, as it were, there is little left to do but wait for Sunday’s kickoff of the 112th Grey Cup Game.
Shortly after 5 p.m., Harris will join Glenn Dobbs, Ron Lancaster, Kent Austin, Reggie Slack, Kerry Joseph and Darian Durant as quarterbacks who have started for Saskatchewan in a Grey Cup.
Fittingly, the Roughriders’ No. 7 will be seventh on that list.
SAM-SATIONAL!
Samuel Emilus and must-win games are a perfect match.
The nine receptions he made in last week’s Western Final tied a career high he originally established against the same team — B.C. — in Round 1 of the 2024 playoffs.
Sandwiched between those two games is the 2024 Western Final, in which he caught a touchdown pass.
And now, Emilus is preparing for the most important game of his four-year CFL career.
“Sam, to me, is a future Hall of Famer,” Harris stated. “He’s one of the best I’ve played with — all around, in terms of everything he does.
“People don’t understand what he does. Everybody sees him catch passes and get up-field and make catches, and he’s got some insane highlight-reel catches, but he blocks. He blocks like an O-lineman, man. He’s an animal.”
As a bonus, he has “vice grips for hands,” in the assessment of the Riders’ starting quarterback.
The plaudits are reciprocal.
Emilus remains grateful to Harris for the events of June 16, 2023, when the Roughriders played host to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“I just remember he gave me my chance in 2023 to have a breakthrough season,” Emilus said. “For my first touchdown, he decided to give me three.”
With three TD receptions, Emilus earned a 1/19th share of a single-game team record.
Shawn Bane Jr. followed up in the 2024 regular-season opener by registering the 20th three-TD-catch game in Roughriders history.
NOW WE’RE ROLAN
Defensive halfback Rolan Milligan Jr. showed how it could be done.
Milligan Jr., who suffered a season-ending toe injury in the 2023 Roughriders’ fourth game, rebounded with a flourish the following year and was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player.
Five games into the 2024 campaign, offensive tackle Jermarcus Hardrick sustained a quad injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the season.
A la Milligan Jr., Hardrick responded by being called to the awards podium the next year. On Thursday, he was honoured as the league’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman.
“One of the biggest things was that I saw Rollie do it last year, so I really just had an open book to it,” Hardrick said. “I asked Rollie everything I could. I talked to him all the time.
“I saw Rollie come back last year and I saw him go to the awards show, so I had somebody who had already done it.”
ALBERT … AT LAST!
Albert Awachie is poised to compete in his first Grey Cup Game.
“It feels great, man,” the Roughriders’ 33-year-old fullback and special-teams stalwart said. “I’m just soaking in the experience.”
Awachie nearly got to the big game as a rookie. Saskatchewan, a crossover team in the 2017 playoffs, was one defensive stop away from defeating the host Toronto Argonauts in the Eastern Final.
“I’ve been waiting for this since my first year,” said Awachie, who has 105 games of CFL experience (playoffs included). “It’s going to be electric.
“Obviously, my adrenalin’s going to be high. I’m going to start strong, start fast. I’m looking to hit somebody and get that first hit out of the way. Then, hopefully it just keeps going, hit after hit after hit.
“I want it to be something the fans can get behind and cheer about. It’s really about them and about this team and about the city and bringing the Grey Cup to Saskatchewan.”
JUST THE FAX
A message arrived, via X, in the waning minutes of Wednesday.
An avid communicator named @VINTAGESASKO wondered when the Roughriders had last played four road games at the same stadium in the same season.
“I shouldn’t fax @robvanstone this late,” it was noted.
The impetus for the question was the 2025 Roughriders’ looming fourth game at Princess Auto Stadium, following one pre-season visit (May 30) and two subsequent matchups with the host Blue Bombers (Sept. 6, Oct. 17).
I had the answer right on the top of my head — after spending 30 minutes looking it up.
The four-games-at-one-venue scenario applies for the first time since 1992, when the Roughriders visited Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium four times.
The other four-gamers: 1951 (Winnipeg), 1956 (Edmonton) and 1963 (B.C.).
A July 24, 1963 loss to the Lions at Empire Stadium in Vancouver was the catalyst for a franchise-changing trade — consummated with the Ottawa Rough Riders five days after the rout.
As Lancaster recalled in 2007: “I saw in the paper where Saskatchewan got the heck beat out of them — 40-0 — in a preseason game, so I figured, ‘Sure enough, they’re going to trade me out there,’ and they did.”
WHAT A GUY!
Mark Guy, a Grey Cup hero with the 1989 Roughriders, was recently inducted into the University of Tennessee at Martin Athletics Hall of Fame.
At UT Martin, Guy started as a cornerback and returned kickoffs before moving to receiver as a senior.
His first CFL season was punctuated by the Roughriders’ 43-40 Grey Cup victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Guy enjoyed a double triple in that game, leading the Roughriders in receiving yards (100, on four catches) and returning four kickoffs for 137 yards.
Although he had a 53-yard reception in the 1989 classic, Guy is best remembered for back-to-back catches that put Saskatchewan in position for Dave Ridgway’s Cup-winning kick.
Ridgway snapped a 40-40 tie 42 seconds after Tony Champion’s twisting touchdown catch — a play that was especially remarkable because he had suffered cracked ribs earlier in the game — helped Hamilton knot the game.
Like Guy, Champion is a UT Martin alumnus. He entered the school’s sporting shrine in 2010.
TURNING TO BASKETBALL …
While riding in a media shuttle, I had a conversation with veteran Winnipeg sports writer Jim Bender.
We started swapping tales of excursions from yesteryear. Jim was kind enough to share a priceless tale from the early 1990s, when the Tom Nissalke-coached Winnipeg Thunder was a member of a short-lived World Basketball League.
Early in the Thunder’s abbreviated history, Jim accompanied the team on a warm-weather road trip that included games in Jacksonville and Boca Raton.
Shortly before tip-off, Jim counted the attendance (?) at one of the games.
1 … 2 … 3 … 4 … 5 … 6 … 7 … 8 … 9 … 10!
“I remember Tom Nissalke telling me, ‘Enjoy Florida, because these two teams aren’t going to be here by the time we get home,’ ” Jim said as our van approached Princess Auto Stadium.
“And he was right!”
The Florida Jades and Jacksonville Stingrays both ceased operations on June 15, 1992.
ONE MORE SHUTTLE STORY
Another one from the early 1990s, related by a shuttle driver.
Once upon a time, he visited Commonwealth Stadium and helped himself to a sign that directed people to various landmarks in the facility.
Years later, the future shuttle driver’s sister met Lancaster, who was then the head coach of Edmonton’s football team. Ronnie was asked if he would go along with a prank and, of course, he was happy to oblige.
With perfect penmanship, Ronnie wrote a letter to the sign thief and jokingly made a plea for the return of the sign, noting that “our players don’t know where to go without it.”
One fine day, the unsuspecting victim of the practical joke received a letter from Ron Lancaster. The envelope had the team’s letterhead.
“I was in shock,” the shuttle driver told me.
So, I wondered, did you return the sign?
“Nope.”
JUST WINGING IT
History was made the first time the Roughriders opposed Montreal with a national title at stake.
I take you back to Dec. 5, 1931, when the Montreal AAA Winged Wheelers defeated the Roughriders 22-0 in the 19th Grey Cup Game. (I think I covered that one.)
In the third quarter, Warren Stevens threw the first touchdown pass in Grey Cup history — a 24-yarder to Kenny Grant.
Stevens found Wally Whitty for another score, from six yards away, in the fourth frame.
As well, Huck Welch tied a Grey Cup record for the most field goals in a game (one).
Stevens threw one interception — to Angie Mitchell, who also made his third consecutive Grey Cup start at quarterback for Regina.
Lancaster leads all Roughriders quarterbacks in Grey Cup starts (five). Mitchell and Durant are next in line at three.
ROLL CREDITS …
• Nice people who deserve a plug: Anton Amundrud, Albert Awachie, Trevor Harris, Cody Harris, T.J. Harris, T.J. Lee, Kristina Costabile, Nathan Rourke, Barry Clarke, Doug Hodson, Kim Hodson, Troy Lauther, Tommy Nield, Arpan Kaur, Cyndi Cherney, Carter Haroldson, Al Cameron, Dan Farthing, SueAnn Farthing, Lake Korte-Moore, Ty Robinson, Joe Baker, Mike MacNeil, Gordon Gilroy, Dave Naylor, Farhan Lalji, Matthew Scianitti, Robbie Abrahamson, Herb Fung, Lucas Barrett, KeeSean Johnson, Joe Robustelli, Guillaume Tremblay-St-Gelais, Ashley Prest, Doug Lunney, Taylor Shire, Tony Champion, Brian McLarty, Herb Fung, Claire Hanna, Marissa Roberto, Jim Bender, Dave Thomas, Luc Mullinder, Britton Gray, Jamie Nye, Rylee Cohen, Donovan Maess, Adam Bent and the people of Winnipeg for being such wonderful hosts.
