By Bill Powers
Special to Stampeders.com

Most of us have had a job that forces us to have an early start but most of us also have had a job with normal hours.

George Hopkins, who has been the Calgary Stampeder equipment manager for 40 years, cannot be included with the most of us. Not on your life.

I dropped into his McMahon Stadium office just recently asking for 10 minutes of his valuable time just to tell me what he does in one day. I’m sorry but I don’t think I could get it all in one story. I’ll do my best, though.

When I arrived at 9 a.m. “Hops” as I call him had been in the office for three hours already making preparations for the club’s final exhibition game in Edmonton that night.

But I wanted him to go back over the 20 plus days of training camp when almost 90 players had gone through two sessions per day under head coach John Hufnagel and his staff.

After opening the office at 5:50 a.m. “Hops” and his staff of one full-timer and two part-timers start by preparing healthy breakfasts for the players. They lay out cereals, bagels, toast, yogurt, fruit and cheese along with protein shakes. No longer are foods containing high amounts of sugar included.

Then it’s time to wash the gear from the practice of the night before. That involves doing four loads before practice but while the club is practising there will be another three loads and then four more after the afternoon session.

What they have in their laundry room are two 65-pound washer machines and six 50-pound dryers to get the job done. While the wash is in the works, George and his crew — which also includes, by choice, people from the medical staff — will take the necessary equipment like blocking pads onto the field for the upcoming workout while setting up water and Gatorade for the players at the same time.

After the morning practice, the players get to go to lunch while their laundry bags including socks, shirts and shorts are cleaned and dried and then returned to each individual locker. George doesn’t leave the dressing room and eats whatever his part-time help can salvage from the lunch.

“Hops” says that a normal dry day of practice will see the crew with 10 loads of washing but if it rains, they must do four or five more. And remember, they also wash the clothes of the coaching staff which this year numbered almost 20 when you include guest coaches and the like.

In the dressing room is a Jetspan machine that distributes three different types of Gatorade for the players. That machine must be filled up to five times a day and it’s handled by anyone on the staff who sees it’s empty.  And then as practice is winding down, the crew places water or Gatorade in every players locker for hydration purposes.

The club made a change in recent years in hiring a janitorial service to manage the washrooms but that doesn’t include vacuuming the whole dressing room before anyone goes home. And I’ve seen Pat Clayton, the director of medical services, and his staff doing that job if the rest are busy doing something else.

My description of what happens in that dressing room is that they have a team within a team and a championship team it is.

“Hops” and Clayton are the keys, of course, and they’ve worked together for 28 years or since Pat came over from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. In team terms, they would be co-captains of what goes on behind closed doors. But as George puts it, I don’t diagnose players and Pat doesn’t fit helmets.

In closing, though, I have to point out last Friday once again. After playing in Edmonton, the club bussed home but as the players headed to their homes “Hops” and crew washed the team jerseys first, then the rest of the gear, while also disinfecting all of the helmets and shoulder pads. Remember he started at 5:50 a.m. and on this night finished at 4:30 the next morning, hustled home and was back at work at 7:30 a.m. for what he called his busiest day, the day the club roster had to be declared.

At the end of last season, “Hops” had worked 673 regular season games, most wearing his famous shorts, 34 playoff games and seven Grey Cup games.

He’s done this job, as I say for 40 years, and even today says it’s the best job in the world. But he works at it, to be sure.