This time, John Lipp was strictly a very interested observer.
It was his turn to watch the dignitaries stand before a lectern and herald the news that Saskatchewan had been awarded a Grey Cup Festival — 2027, in this case.
Some of the people who packed Mosaic Stadium’s AGT Lounge for Monday morning’s announcement weren’t even alive when Lipp and associates played an integral role in landing the first, and previously unthinkable, Grey Cup for our favourite province.
So there he was, in his unassuming and kind manner, sharing in the celebration of a fifth — yes, a fifth! — Grey Cup for Mosaic Stadium, old or new.
“Yeah, it is cool,” Lipp, a 2003 Plaza of Honour inductee, reflected as the AGT Lounge slowly cleared.
“If we wouldn’t have gotten our first one, who knows if we would have gotten this fifth one? If we hadn’t gotten the one in ’95, who knows when we would have tried again? Then people would have said, ‘What’s the point? They can’t do it.’
“But it was such a success that we knew from then on that people were going to take us seriously. That’s why we were able to get four other bids — because they know that after that first one, against all odds, it was such a success.”
The notion of a Grey Cup in Saskatchewan was first floated for public consumption by Phil Kershaw. Then the Roughriders’ incoming president, he outlined a grand goal at the community-owned team’s annual general meeting in the giddy aftermath of Saskatchewan’s 1989 Grey Cup victory.
Many of the attendees scoffed at the idea. Lipp, who succeeded Kershaw as the president (the equivalent of the current Chair of the Board of Directors) in 1993, was not among the naysayers.
“People said, ‘You’re crazy,’ ” Lipp recalled with a chuckle. “I’m a stubborn German guy. I said, ‘I think we can do it. Let’s just give it a good shot.’
“Gradually, we convinced our own people in the community that, ‘Yeah, we can do it.’ ”
The key, however, was to convince the CFL’s Board of Governors that a Grey Cup held in Regina would indeed be feasible and, considering our accustomed climate in November, not just freezable.
Presentations took place on March 3, 1994 in the California capital of Sacramento, which was a CFL burg at the time.
Saskatchewan’s bid committee was chaired by erstwhile Roughriders president Dick Rendek (Plaza of Honour, 1997).
The Roughriders were up against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for hosting privileges. A minimum two-thirds majority was required to win the day.
The initial vote: 7-5. (These were the days of U.S. expansion, remember.)
After some negotiating and cajoling, along with a sweetening of the financial guarantee by the Province of Saskatchewan, a second vote was taken.
Make the final: 8-4, Saskatchewan.
“We’ve got it!” a Regina Leader-Post headline screamed.
Still, there was skepticism.
Was Regina too small to pull off such an event? Was Saskatchewan too small?
Were there enough hotel rooms?
Was it too cold?
The answers, in hindsight: No, no, no and, well, sort of.
The accommodations hurdle was cleared thanks to an ingenious concept known as “Huddle Up in Saskatchewan.” Residents of the greater Regina area were encouraged to open up their homes and hearts to visitors. That initiative was a resounding success.
As for the weather …
On game day — Nov. 19, 1995 — the wind was ferocious. So ferocious, in fact, that it endangered the structural integrity of temporary bleachers that had been erected behind Taylor Field’s south end zone.
The winds calmed down, eventually, and the gates finally opened. Fingers were crossed that last-minute gales or gusts would not lead to the postponement of a game that was to be held a mere 86 years after the first Grey Cup.
Once the ball was kicked off, Saskatchewan became the last of the foundational CFL teams to hold a national football final.
The Baltimore Stallions’ 37-20 victory over the Doug Flutie-quarterbacked Calgary Stampeders was witnessed by 52,564 onlookers — nearly twice the stadium’s seating capacity.
Barely a month earlier, Calgary had been the visiting side for a dry run, if you will, for the 83rd Grey Cup Game.
A still-unfathomable number of fans — 55,438 — watched the Roughriders defeat Calgary 25-20.
“I just kept pinching myself,” said Lipp, 86, who has been in the crowd for all four Roughriders Grey Cup victories (1966, 1989, 2007, 2013).
For about three hours on Oct. 14, 1995, Taylor Field was the third-largest city in Saskatchewan.
After 1995, the conversation changed regarding Grey Cups in the 306. The question became “when?” instead of “if”?
The Grey Cup Festival returned to Saskatchewan in 2003. It was another phenomenal success, to the astonishment of absolutely nobody.
The only missing piece at that point was the home team’s presence in the CFL’s marquee game. That box was checked on Nov. 24, 2013, when the Roughriders defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 45-23.
It still seems like yesterday when victorious quarterback Darian Durant was hoisting the Grey Cup over his head. But, in this case, yesterday was 4,356 days ago.
The Taylor Field site is now an empty expanse of land.
Not far away, new Mosaic Stadium — site of the 2022 Grey Cup Game — is a monument to the success of Saskatchewan football.
There was a time, remember, when such a facility was unthinkable. Sort of like a Saskatchewan-based Grey Cup, once upon a time.
So there we were on Monday, celebrating what will be our fifth Grey Cup hosting experience.
The formal announcement was made by CFL Commissioner Stewart Johnston. Growing up in Ottawa, Johnston got to know a next-door neighbour named Gerry Organ.
Organ handled punts and placements for the Ottawa Rough Riders against Saskatchewan in the 1976 Grey Cup Game. That contest is among Johnston’s earliest football-related recollections.
In 1976, a Grey Cup hosting rotation began that consisted entirely of Toronto (see also: 1978, 1980, 1982) and Montreal (1979, 1981).
Although the 1975 Grey Cup Game had been played in Calgary, neither the score (Edmonton 9, Montreal 8) nor the temperature (minus-15) whetted the appetite for another championship game on the Prairies.
The Grey Cup Festival didn’t return to the Prairies until 1984, when Edmonton was the host city. Then came Winnipeg in 1991, followed by Calgary two years later.
Still, the question persisted: Regina? Saskatchewan? Really?
Really.
“I like to see the Grey Cup represented across the country,” Johnston said on Monday. “We’ve had so many outstanding Grey Cups over the last few years here in Western Canada, as we have in Eastern Canada.
“It is something that touches the entire country. It’s a celebration for the entire country, and I want to make sure that is represented.
“But here in Saskatchewan, we have the experience as recently as ’22 and we know what a success this can be.”
That has been a given since November of 1995.
“Oh, it was a big deal,” Lipp reflected. “It was huge.
“It was such a relief. It’s hard to describe how great all of us felt. We were all kind of in awe.
“We all just said, ‘We did it!’ — against, big odds, right from the start.”
And look at what they started.
