Trevor Harris says Winnipeg Blue Bombers game will be cool in Saskatoon
The winnipeg blue bombers are headed to Griffiths Stadium on Saturday at 5 p.m., and Trevor Harris says the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ pre-season finale will be “really cool to play in front of the people of Saskatoon.” It is the first Saskatoon-based CFL game since 1991, a 35-year gap that turns a routine exhibition date into a rare local event.
Trevor Harris at Griffiths Stadium
Harris, the Roughriders quarterback and reigning Grey Cup MVP, has spent the past 2½ weeks moving around the University of Saskatchewan campus by scooter, from the dorms to dinner, to meetings and the locker room. He also said, “All of us are part of the province of Saskatchewan. That’s why we’re the Saskatchewan Roughriders.”
That setting fits the way he has handled camp. Harris has been one of the fastest Roughriders players at Coors Light Training Camp, and he has also been routinely stopped by fans while staying accommodating to them.
Roughriders and Winnipeg in Saskatoon
The matchup sits inside a short but specific line of pre-season history in Saskatoon. Trevor Harris is poised to become the fifth Roughrider to start at quarterback during a pre-season game versus Winnipeg in the city, joining Tom Burgess, Jeff Bentrim, Kent Austin and Ted Wahl.
Those previous starts produced three Saskatchewan wins and one Winnipeg win. Burgess opened on June 26, 1988, in a 41-6 Roughriders victory; Bentrim started on June 25, 1989, in a 37-7 win; Austin started on June 24, 1990, in a game Winnipeg won 41-40; and Wahl was first out of the gate on June 23, 1991, when Saskatchewan won 17-16 at Gordie Howe Bowl.
Craig Reynolds and the long gap
Craig Reynolds, the Roughriders’ president-CEO and a University of Saskatchewan alumnus, said he was in high school the last time a Roughriders pre-season game was held in Saskatoon. He answered “I hope not,” when asked whether fans would have to wait another 35 years for the next one.
That answer matches the point of Saturday’s game: it brings the CFL back to Saskatoon after a long break, with Harris leading the Roughriders in front of a crowd that has not had this kind of home-city preseason matchup since 1991.
