With the Stampeders celebrating their 65th anniversary and McMahon Stadium celebrating its 50th anniversary, there’s a nostalgic feel to the 2010 campaign in Calgary. This being Retro week with a salute to the 1970s, there’s one more reason to stroll down memory lane. Stamps fans were kind enough to share their remembrances of the Red and White and here are some of their stories.

I don’t remember exactly how old I was — or what year it was for that matter — but there was one special day that started my love affair with the Calgary Stampeders and football.

I remember it was a nice sunny Alberta day when my Dad, my brother, and my Uncle went to see a Stampeders football game. I’d never been to a game before, nor did I really understand what it was all about. But walking through the concourse with the people and your senses on overload from the noise and the smell of hotdogs, hamburgers and popcorn, it was all too much to believe. Walking out to find our seats, I stood there in amazement of this vast field of green and of seeing the men in Red and White warming up.

I watched the team go through their drills, with the quarterback throwing perfect spiral after perfect spiral to receivers who seemed to run like the wind and could turn on a dime.

I saw men who were bigger then my Dad. Hell, they were bigger then my Dad and Uncle put together, and they weren’t small men. To this day I can’t remember who we were playing or who won the game. I do however remember focusing in on one player for the Stampeders who amazed me with his
talent. Jerry Keeling, quarterback for the Stamps, was unbelievable. He= could throw with the greatest of ease, or make a play look like it was something he did in his sleep. I went home that afternoon with a profound realization that football, Stampeders football, was going to be in my blood for a very long time.

I’ve watched the great Willie Burden run like there’s no tomorrow. I’ve seen Herm Harrison and A.J. hit people like they were rag dolls. Pitts, Forzani, Danielsen. All could catch and run before any defender knew what happened. I’ve watched a lot of great Stampeders come and go. I’ve seen records
fall and Grey Cups hoisted. I’ve shaken hands with Sugarfoot, Garcia and Burris. But nothing has, or will ever come close, to that day I fell in love with the Stampeders.

Although I don’t live in Calgary anymore, I still have season tickets and come home for every game that I can. I will forever bleed Red and White, and will proudly say I’m a Stamps Fan till the day I die!

Dave Karpiak
Kamloops

*****

I was seven years old and this would be my first time to watch the Calgary Stampeders at McMahon Stadium. My family had watched all the games on television and my parents had gone to games but not me.

It was a Sunday afternoon game, I believe it was in July or August, and it was against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.  My dad and I drove up for the game from Rosemary, Alberta, and I remember being very excited. We parked at the stadium and my dad was getting our gear for the game and told me we had to buy tickets for the game. I was very excited and
could hardly wait to go into the stadium and some older ladies overheard our conversation and offered us two tickets for the game. The only stipulation is that we had to sit with them at the game.

My dad offered to pay for the tickets but they wanted to give them to people who would enjoy the game. We took them up on the offer and we sat on the East side of the stadium, in section S row 25. Not sure on the seat numbers, but they were excellent seats. The ladies enjoyed watching me with my father as he explained the entire game to me and what would happen when the offence and defence came onto the field.

I was always on the lookout for Ralph the Dog, he was my favourite. We now have season tickets for many years and it is my mom and I who come to the games — my dad has MS and can’t do the stairs and finds the crowds too much to handle — but I will never forgot the day he took me to my first live football game and I cherish this memory always.

Darla Wiebe
Rosemary, Alta.

*****

My wife and I had just purchased our season tickets for the very first time. We were extremely happy with our seats and were very excited, hunkered down with a loaded double cheeseburger and a Coors Light ready for an exciting game. Our seats are smack dab in the middle of the row on the 53 =-yard line — as I said, awesome seats.

It was the second game of the season and it was seasonably warm out. Just as the game started there was a bit of a commotion in our row as people were getting up, obviously letting someone pass through. As we had two empty seats right beside us, I assumed the newcomers would be sitting there and I was right. Within a few seconds, this very large man and his companion sat down right next to me. He was an elderly fellow but seemed quite spry for his age. Now I am a pretty large man at 6’3” and somewhere upwards of 250 lbs., but this gentleman was bigger than I was. Needless to say, our shoulders were touching.

After exchanging pleasantries, we once again settled in to watch the game. After the first quarter, I happened to glance over at my sizeable neighbour and noticed three very impressive rings on his fingers. I was sure at least two of them were Grey Cup rings and needless to say, my eyes popped wide open. I nudged my wife and pointed out the rings to her and we both were kind of amazed. Obviously this was a Stampeder of old. It was probably 10 or 15 minutes later when my curiosity overcame my innate shyness and I asked the gentleman who he was. With a large smile and no small amount of pride he said to me “Sugarfoot Anderson.”

Quite honestly, I had never heard of him but still felt I had to respond, “Nice to meet you.” It was a while later that my wife nudged me and pointed up above on the stadium headboards. Double-0 was there and I realized just who Sugarfoot Anderson was . . . yikes, he was a superstar!

Since that day, Sugarfoot has been at many of the games and we have shared our displeasure with the refereeing, missed catches, poor decisions as well as the triumphs, awesome plays and the countless victories the Stamps have produced. I’ll never forget that first meeting and hope “the big guy” is with us for years to come.

Glenn Conrick

*****

I blame my parents. I grew up in Calgary and while I was a young boy they exposed me to the thrills of following the fortunes of the Stampeders.

From Peter Liske, Jerry Keeling, Willie Burden, and the Forzani brothers to the glory days of Doug Flutie and Allen Pitts up to the present (where my adult children still join me and my parents to watch Stamps playoff games, clad in our Stamps jerseys, hoping Henry Burris
will have yet another magical day).

I had season tickets for many years, cheering just as loud during the struggling years as in the triumphant ones. Through
rainy spring games, to sweltering summer bouts, to shivering through playoff battles, I was there.

During the late ’80s, I was frequently accompanied by my gal, whose love of the game matched mine, although she had the misfortune of being raised a Blue Bombers fan. When we decided in 1990 to get married that fall, it didn’t miss our attention that there was an upcoming Stamps/Bombers duel.

Who needs a wedding rehearsal, anyway? Instead, we invited our friends and families, and spent a lovely mid-September evening cheering for our favourite teams. Prior to the game, Janna and I had wagered that if the Stamps won, she would take my last name, and if the Bombers won, I would take hers. What did I have to worry about? Wally Buono had come on board and Calgary was enjoying a stellar season.

In the dying moments of the game, the Stamps were down by two. Would I really change my name? Then, Mark McLoughlin came out for the field-goal attempt. I silently regretted all the times I had called him the “single point kicker!”

Ken Francis
Vernon, B.C.

It was Friday, Sept. 14, 1990,  and the night before we were to be married. Our love for each other was matched by our passion for the CFL and HIS team, the Calgary Stampeders and HER team, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Deciding about changing or keeping my name was difficult as I wanted to become his wife in every way.

Known for our unconventional and fun-loving spirits, we invited our wedding guests to join us at McMahon Stadium that night. Changing my name depended on a Stampeders win. Our guests eagerly joined our pre-nuptials in the stands as the Stampeders and Blue Bombers took to the field. Dressed in our respective team jerseys, many family members and friends eagerly cheered, curious to learn the fate of the Francis name. Surrounded by boisterous Stampeders fans, the minority Bombers were determined to be heard.

Both teams showed their fans the excitement that only a Canadian football game provides.  My soon-to-be husband was confidant the new Stampeders coach, Wally Buono, would lead his team to victory. However, with just minutes left in the game and the Bombers in the lead, such did not seem likely. I recall looking behind me and up into my future father-in-law’s face as he pantomimed wiping a tear from his eye. I grinned from ear to ear calling out for my team to block that kick.

Neither Wally nor my fiance were to be denied a Stampeders win as McLoughlin kicked the needed field goal.

Happy marriages require determination, team work and healthy competition. These are the legacies we took into our lives over the past 20 years along with our passion for the CFL and HIS and HER teams.

Janna Francis
Vernon, B.C.

*****

I have been a Stampeders season-ticket holder since McMahon Stadium opened in 1960, without missing a season, so it is difficult to pick from all the great memories which the Stamps have provided over the last 50 seasons!

Still, one of my all-time favourites has to be Larry Robinson’s game-winning field goal in Regina, on the last play of the game, kicked into the teeth of a winter blizzard in November of 1970. Leading up to that winning kick, the Stamps had to move the ball quickly with only two or three plays to get them into possible field-goal range. 

Even with a great effort from Hugh McKinnis to give some hope, it seemed virtually impossible that anyone could kick a successful field goal into that raging snowstorm!

But Larry came through, much to the chagrin of all those die hard Roughriders fans at Taylor Field and the Stamps were off to the Grey Cup game! I think I remember hitting my head on our living-room ceiling, jumping for joy as the ball barely dropped over the crossbar! We did lose the Grey Cup game to Montreal that year, but beating Saskatchewan was the most important thing that day.

My wife and I attended the Grey Cup game in Vancouver the following year (1971) to watch our Stampeders win their first Grey Cup since 1948. We have been on a pretty good roll the past few years and hopefully will be in the big game again in 2010!

Larry J. Gammon

*****

Wow! My favourite memory after over 40 years of Stampeders football, it’s tough to pick one.

From Leon McQuay’s fumble to PeeWee Smith running into the locker-room to Doug Flutie losing his shoe . . . These are all great memories, but what I remember most about going to the games is who was with me. In the ’60’s, it was my Dad. In the early ’70s, my husband. When he passed away, my Dad filled in again until the late ’80s when my game partner was my son.

Brett and I still go to the games but we’ve added Mike, my husband, and can’t wait to add Tristran, age 2, to our group. I guess my favourite memory of all is simply watching the team take the field to start each season and the rush of anticipation that brings.

Trudy Taylor

*****

I remember first cheering for the Stampeders when I was just a youngster in the ’70s.

Then came the ’80s . . . well, we won’t talk about that decade.

Then the ’90s started off about the same . . . they made a coaching change AGAIN. In came Wally and from the day he took over, it was a new team.

Now my story. We had a good regular season in 1991 and won the semifinal against BC. Then it was our turn to go up to Edmonton and take our beating. NOT on this day. It’s 19 years latter and I remember that game as if it was played yesterday. It went back forth and we had the ball. Danny Barrett goes back to pass and Pee Wee Smith is open.

In the old days, we’d drop the ball or trip or a holding call or something bad would happen. NOT TODAY. He caught the ball and ran right out of the stadium. My Gawd, we just might win this game. Well we did win — then the excitement started, getting tickets to the Grey Cup in Winnipeg.

Two friends and I caught a bus going from Calgary to Winnipeg in Medicine Hat. What fun a busload of Stampeders fans. They showed the 1971 Grey Cup Game on the bus. Well, we lost that Grey Cup game against Toronto, but the fortunes of our team changed on that cold night in Edmonton in late November in 1991. We’ve been a changed team eversince. I’m Gary Adams of Oyen, Alberta, and that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Gary Adams
Oyen, Alta.

*****

I have a special moment that, in the big picture, is very insignificant but it meant so much at the time.

I forget the year but the Stamps had just won a playoff game. From my recollection it was after the win in Regina with the infamous Larry Robinson field goal in the blizzard. My dad took us three kids to the airport, when it was still McCall Field, to see the Stamps come in. If it was that year, I would have been 13. We waited along the outside of the fence line and they brought the players from the plane to the so-called reception area where they were cheered on.

At that age, it meant so much to me to be close to my heroes. A player came up to me and signed his autograph on a piece of paper which, over all these years, has sadly disappeared. That player was Uriel Johnson. He wrote his number 27 on the piece of paper and then signed his name. From my recollec
tion, he even supplied the piece of paper because I was not expecting this. It is this sort of thing that stands out in a kid’s mind and now at this age, putting all things into perspective, it may have been such an insignificant thing for that football player to give some kid his autograph, but that kid will never forget that.

I am so proud of my Stampeders for keeping up the tradition of the community relations with the fans which to me means means more than what transpires on the field. I am so honoured to be a season-ticket holder now and be able to have my kids and grandchildren go to the games. It is so neat to hear the grandchildren say their favourite team is “the ones with the horses on the helmets.”

Who knows? Maybe some day, they will be the season-ticket holders.

Bob Garbe

*****

My family moved to Calgary in 1967. It was the 1969 season that my brother and I would go to the games.

We always had the tickets to sit in the Safeway end-zone and watch the games. There were so many great games and, as it turned out, Don Luzzi lived close by and I believe his son played football with us in the neighbourhood.

We were able to meet Larry Robinson on the field after a game and as kids, it was the beginning of a life-long passion for the Stampeder Football Club. The best memory was the reception at the Stampede Corral after winning the Grey Cup in 1971.

Go Stamps Go!

Ken Gruber