Saskatchewan Roughrider fans had several reasons to celebrate the evening of Nov. 24 as their beloved team won the 101st Grey Cup against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
This was the fourth Grey Cup win for the Roughriders who first won the cup in 1966, playing the now defunct Ottawa Rough Riders. They won again in 1989, beating the Tiger-Cats. Their third win in 2007 was against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Founded in 1910, the team sought change in 1948; being renamed the Saskatchewan Roughriders and changing their colours to green and white. Previously the team had been called the Regina Rugby Club and the Regina Roughriders and had their team colour changed multiple times.
The team, recognizing the support of its fans, has always considered Rider Nation as the 13th man, ironically losing the 2009 Grey Cup championship to the Montreal Alouettes for having an extra (the 13th) player on the field. The team made it to the championship game again in 2010, but once more lost to the Alouettes.
Rider Nation is most likely the strongest fan base in the CFL, and was given the 2010 CFL Commissioner’s Award for its exceptional fan support. After the Roughrider win two weeks ago, the streets of Regina were painted in green. Regina also held a Grey Cup parade on Nov. 26 with another excuse to rally the city’s residents about its winning team.
Scores Sports Club & Grill aired the Grey Cup and gave one lucky fan in attendance $1,000. Scores had 150 people show up and claimed their crowd was at least 90 per cent Roughriders fans.
“The ‘Rider fans were definitely loud, excited,” says one of the Scores’ employees who worked the night of the Grey Cup.
Leading up to the Grey Cup, Jersey City in Park Place Mall says they sold more Roughriders merchandise than all of the other teams combined.
{rokbox size=|90% 90%| title=|Roughriders info-graphic| thumb=|images/RokBox/riders thumb.jpg| thumbsize=|300 405|}images/RokBox/riders.jpg{/rokbox}
Since Lethbridge is located in Western Canada, these stores do not sell Tiger-Cats merchandise.
Even now, Jersey City still has people going in and asking for the championship merchandise.
