Even a Canadian football dinosaur didn’t instinctively know that this weekend is the 75th anniversary of the “Labour Day Classic.” It’s a weekend of special football games that seem to have been played since, well, forever.
Most fans know the traditional schedule: Edmonton’s in Calgary, Winnipeg’s in Regina, Toronto’s in Hamilton. Attempts to establish those traditions for Ottawa, Montreal and B.C. have been a failure which can be explained by folding teams (Ottawa, Montreal) and geographic undesirability for creating a rivalry (B.C.).
The surviving three rivalries are really two: Saskatchewan-Winnipeg and Edmonton-Calgary. Aside from the fact this is “only” the 74th anniversary for Toronto and Hamilton, the intensity and emotions created on Labour Day Weekend out west are what makes those games “classic” confrontations.
“Over the years, when the Riders have had poor teams, Saskatchewan players have told me that their fans have told them they don’t care if they win another game all year, just beat Winnipeg on Labour Day Weekend,” says Bob Irving, arguably the finest play-by-play broadcaster Canadian football ever had.
The first of those Labour Day games, all in Regina, allegedly drew a “record-breaking” crowd of 7,500, although in the grainy video I discovered it looks like fans at field level, maybe 12 rows deep. Saskatchewan won 20-0, kicking off 58 Labour Day Classics in 75 years (there were only 17 in the first 33 years).
While the Regina game seems more traditional, Calgary and Edmonton have played four more (62). Both have been played continuously since 1982, except for the cancelled COVID season. Oddly enough, the 1949 Alberta inaugural was played in Edmonton — as were two others — and won by Calgary, 20-6, also in front of a sellout crowd (11,123). The last 57 games have been in Calgary, with the Stampeders ahead 31-30-1 going into Monday’s game, while the Roughriders have won 18 more games than the Blue Bombers (38-20).
The Ontario teams have played all 52 games in Hamilton, the Tiger-Cats winning 36 and the Argos 15, with one tie. This tradition has been interrupted 10 times, as recently as 2011, which makes it a quasi-tradition that hasn’t been indispensable, known simply as “Football Day in Hamilton.”
Meanwhile, the Western games produced spinoffs. On the Friday after Labour Day, the Stampeders and the Elks (nee Eskimos) meet in Edmonton for “Battle of Alberta” bragging rights. It’s a battle that has raged non-stop since 1989. Starting in 2004, Saskatchewan has visited Winnipeg the weekend after Labour Day for the “Banjo Bowl” — a title which requires explanation.
Former Winnipeg kicker Troy Westwood named it.
“I had referred to the people of Saskatchewan as a bunch of banjo-picking inbreds,” Westwood recalled years later for sportswriter Kirk Penton. “I was wrong to make such a statement, and I’d like to apologize. The vast majority of the people in Saskatchewan have no idea how to play the banjo.”
The name insulted and enraged rabid Saskatchewan fans. To this day, they refuse to call it the Banjo Bowl. To this day, both teams are reluctant to sell tickets to opposing fans for either game. To this day, the games and the spinoffs and the passion have all made them into Labour Day Classics.
