Saskatchewan Roughriders
- Publisher
- Editions de la Montagne Verte
- Initial publish date
- Apr 2012
- Category
- Football
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9781897277232
- Publish Date
- Apr 2012
- List Price
- $18.95 USD
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
Saskatchewan is the home to Rider Nation, the rowdiest and most passionate football fans in Canada--and hey, what other sports fans wear hollowed-out watermelons on their heads? Featuring exclusive interviews with legendary players and coaches, Graham Kelly provides fresh insight into the defining moments in Roughrider history:
- In 1948, the team switched colours from red and black to green and white after a club executive bought two sets of football sweaters on sale in Chicago for a price he couldn’t pass up!
- The Banjo Bowl, the annual grudge match with Winnipeg, got its name in 2004 after Blue Bomber Troy Westwood called Saskatchewanians "a bunch of banjo-pickin’ inbreds"; the two teams now play for a $10,000 charity prize
- In 16 years with the Riders, quarterback Ron Lancaster held more than 20 CFL records and played a key role in the team’s first-ever Grey Cup win in 1966
- Relive the agony and the ecstasy of each Rider Grey Cup victory and the disastrous mistakes that cost them four championships, including the infamous 2009 13th man boondoggle
- Even when times are tough, they’re never dull. Who else began a playoff game before a half-empty stadium, only to finish with a full house? Or lost a game because of a thunderstorm? Or lost fan support because the general manager wouldn’t take his hat off?
Sometimes being a Rider fan hurts...even with a watermelon on your head!
About the author
Graham Kelly grew up in Regina, and worked for the Saskatchewan Roughriders as a teenager. He covered the CFL for United Press International in Regina from 1963 to 1968. Since 1972, he has written a weekly column on the CFL for the Medicine Hat News. During those years, he has covered Calgary, Saskatchewan and Edmonton games, plus 30 Grey Cups. He has been selected to vote for the CFL All-Star teams and to be a nominator for the CFL Schlenley and League awards, as well as the Coach of the Year. In 2002, Kelly was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, football reporters` division. Kelly and his wife, Lorena, live in Medicine Hat, Alberta.