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Whitehorse became Green-and-Whitehorse during a memorable weekend in 2014.
A few months after the Saskatchewan Roughriders captured a CFL championship, veteran linebacker Mike McCullough brought the Grey Cup trophy to Yukon.
“It was awesome,” recalls McCullough, special teams captain of the 2013 Roughriders. “They treated me like royalty.”
The 2022 SaskTel Plaza of Honour inductee was so impressed that he returned to Yukon nine years after his introductory visit.
McCullough travelled north with his wife, Laura, and played in the Copperbelt Classic Society Golf Tournament.
The most-recent event, held last year, increased to nearly $150,000 the amount the tournament has raised for Yukon charities since its inception in 2018.
McCullough, Chris Getzlaf and John Chick have represented the Roughriders alumni at the tournament in past years.
One of the key organizers is Scott Kent — an MLA in the Yukon Legislature and a transplanted Saskatchewanian.
Kent, who was born in Meadow Lake, relocated to the Yukon with his family when he was five.
“Being a Rider fan is one thing that sticks with you when you move away from Saskatchewan,” Kent says from Whitehorse.
“Rider Nation extends north of 60.”
Kent isn’t just speaking solely for himself.
“There are lots of Rider fans here in the north,” he says. “When Mike McCullough came up here with the Grey Cup, I learned exactly how many Rider fans there are.
“I’ve always been a proud CFL fan. The way the guys treated us when they were up here made me even prouder to be a Rider fan.”
When possible, Kent returns to his home province — several family members live in the Grenfell area — and times his visit around a Roughriders home game. In 2023, for example, he was at Mosaic Stadium when Saskatchewan played host to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Hamilton was also the opponent when Saskatchewan registered the first home-field Grey Cup victory in franchise history.
The following April, McCullough visited the Yukon capital and enjoyed a whirlwind weekend tour of the city.
He visited schools, local businesses and Whitehorse’s Canada Games Centre before capping the visit with an appearance at the Special Olympics Festival.
The Whitehorse Star reported that the latter event generated upwards of $56,000 for Special Olympics Yukon.
“It was a sold-out event,” Kent recalls, “and there was a lot of green in the audience that day.”
There is a lot of green, period, when the surroundings are taken into consideration — such as the “forestry,” cited by McCullough.
“It was unbelievable,” he marvels. “It’s such an amazing place with great scenery.
“I had never been that far up north. You hear about it in school and you see it on the map, but you never think you’re going to get to the Yukon or the Northwest Territories.
“When I had the opportunity to go there in 2014, I took it.”
Hence the return visit — a three-day excursion — in 2023.
“The people there are awesome,” McCullough says. “They treat you so well.
“My wife and I loved it. I would definitely go back.”
