As hard as it may be to believe, it’s been 38 years since the Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders have met in a West Final.

The previous West Final meeting between the Red and White and the Green Riders was all the way back in 1971 and even predates the familiar single-game format for the contest. Back then, teams played a best-of-three format and the Stampeders swept the 1971 series in two straight en route to the Grey Cup title.

The 1971 Stampeders-Roughriders tussle started on Saturday matinee on Nov. 13 at McMahon Stadium. Thanks to a pair of touchdowns by George Reed, the Riders built a 21-10 lead through three quarters but the Stamps roared back with 20 unanswered points in the final period to take a 30-21 victory.

Reggie Holmes started the comeback by picking off a Ron Lancaster pass and returning it for a touchdown. After a Larry Robinson field goal cut the visitors’ lead to 21-20, Jerry Keeling and Gerry Shaw connected for a 35-yard touchdown pass that put Calgary ahead with less than three minutes to play. The attendance at McMahon Stadium was 23,616.

The clubs then headed to Regina’s Taylor Field for the second game, which was played in front of 14,582 spectators on a frigid Wednesday night with an 8 p.m. local start time. Calgary led 9-0 at the half thanks to a 21-yard touchdown pass from Keeling to Jon Henderson and a couple of punt singles. The Riders took a 14-9 lead with a pair of third-quarter rushing touchdown — including Reed’s third major of the series — but Calgary went back ahead to stay thanks to a 42-yard scoring run by Hugh McKinnis. Both McKinnis and Jesse Mims recorded 100-yard rushing games for the Stamps in the 23-21 victory while Rudy Linterman had three catches for 104 yards and a touchdown.

That 1971 encounter marked the fifth consecutive season the Stamps and Riders had clashed in the West Final, which makes the subsequent 37-year stretch without a Calgary-Saskatchewan championship game all the more amazing. Calgary won the matchups in 1968 and 1970 as well as 1971 while the Riders prevailed in 1967 and 1969.

The teams also met twice in the late 1940s when the game was played under the banner of the Western Interprovincial Football Union final. Calgary won the two-game, total-point series in both 1948 and 1949.