Bombers try to avoid Labour Day letdown
More often than not, it’s been Riders winning traditional holiday match
It all started exactly 66 years ago Sunday.
It was Sept. 4, 1950, when the Winnipeg Blue Bombers travelled to Taylor Field riding high on their horses. They were off to a great start in that CFL season, sporting a sparkling 2-0 record, and were facing the 0-2 Saskatchewan Roughriders in the fourth Labour Day Classic. No problem, right? Wrong. The Roughies roughed up the Blue and Gold by a 17-2 score that Monday (the first 19 LDCs were played on actual Labour Day), and it kick-started a trend that Saskatchewan fans have come to know and love.
That would be the Bombers going to Regina with a superior record and proceeding to choke like dogs. In the prairie grudge match’s 53-game history, which dates to 1939, the Bombers have gone into the contest with a better record 28 times. This year will be No. 29.
Despite the Bombers being the better team going into more than half of all Labour Day Classics, the Roughriders still hold a 3518 advantage in the series. That includes a 17-11 mark in those 28 games when the Bombers boasted the better mark.
Look more closely at the records, however, and there is even more proof that this year’s Bombers, who are 5-4 and have won four straight, cannot go into Sunday’s tilt thinking they will roll over the 1-8 Roughriders.
That’s because Winnipeg has been at least three games better than Saskatchewan eight times in Labour Day Classic history, yet it sports a 2-6 record in those contests.
Winnipeg’s record is 2-7 in Classics they were heavily favoured in if you include the 1990 clash, when Kent Austin and the Roughriders (4-4) destroyed the eventual Grey Cup champion Bombers (6-2) to the tune of 55-11. The margin of victory was 44 points; Winnipeg’s other five losses that season were by a combined 36 points.
The Roughriders have won 11 straight Labour Day battles against the Bombers, and that’s because it’s ingrained in them early in the season that they have to beat Winnipeg.
“This is the Super Bowl for those guys,” Bombers right tackle Jermarcus Hardrick said. “I was there last year. We were 0-9 going into the same game. When we were 0-4 we were talking about Labour Day. We were 0-4, and we were talking about how we just needed to beat Winnipeg and everybody will be happy.
“So this is big. I know that. So I’ve been stressing to the guys that since week two or three when they were losing they were still talking about Labour Day. I promise you. The coaches stressed it. You can lose all you want. Just don’t lose Labour Day.”