Earlier this season, we asked fans to tell us their Stampeders stories in the Share Your Legacy contest.
We received many wonderful submissions, including this one by Jeff Takacs that was drawn as the grand prize winner. The prize package included a VIP package to attend a Stamps home game, a pair of jerseys and a Sirius satellite radio.
Congratulations to Jeff and thanks to everyone for sharing their stories in this, our 65th anniversary season.
Now, here is Jeff’s story . . .
Well, when I received this email this morning from the Stampeders, I thought: “Wow, what a great idea because I am sure there are so many Stamps fans out there that have great stories about past moments they shared with the team/stadium/players.”
So instead of passing on a great moment or story regarding the Stamps, I thought I would share what the Stamps mean to me.
My brother Todd and I became season-ticket holders under my parents’ account from around 1979 to about 1986. At that point, they decided they had had enough of the team as the Stamps were always struggling in those years and didn’t want to pay to follow the team anymore.
Well my brother and I didn’t feel the same way. Yes, we got frustrated with the Stamps and how they struggled (especially against the hated Eskimos) but we always supported them by buying the Safeway Fun Zone tickets and sneaking into the good seats. We probably missed maybe 5-7 games in total from 1987 to 1994 but by buying the cheapest tickets, we could almost always sit in section J each and every game.
In 1994, we played the BC Lions in the playoffs and in my opinion it was the best football game and most exciting football game ever played at McMahan stadium. It was back and forth, Doug Flutie throwing for a million yards and Danny McManus throwing for a million yards. On the last play of the game, with the snow coming down, Danny McManus threw to Darren Flutie (Doug’s younger brother) for their winning touchdown (our losing one).
It was over. “We lost.” I couldn’t believe it. We had what I still consider the greatest CFL football team of all time and we lost. My brother was irate and stormed out of the stadium madder than all hell while I just sat there with another diehard Stamps fan crying (I know, I know, a frickin grown man) that’s when I said to myself wow I can’t believe how huge of a Stamps fan I really am.
Well sorry to say, in the spring of 1995, my brother died in a tragic car accident and his wife gave me his Stamps jacket which I had worn to each and every Stamps game up until last year when my really good new Stamps buddies (since 1993) bought me a new Stamps jacket with the same Stampeder horse on the front. To this day, I have sat in section J for the past 17 years as a season-ticket holder now, and each and every time the Stamps make a great play or we score a touchdown, I rub that horse on my coat, look up to the heavens and say “Boo Yah Todd I know you are cheering right beside me.”
Jeff Takacs . . . and Todd Takacs