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By Stampeders.com Staff
A rematch of last year’s Grey Cup will kick off the 70th regular season in Calgary Stampeders history.
The Stamps will play host to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Friday night at McMahon Stadium. Kickoff is shortly after 7 p.m.
It’s the third time the Stampeders have opened the defence of a Grey Cup championship by facing their opponent from the previous season’s championship game. Following their 1992 title, the Stamps faced Winnipeg in the 1993 season-opener and Calgary followed up its 2008 Grey Cup by facing East Division champ Montreal in the first game of the 2009 campaign.
In addition to the 20-16 Grey Cup victory over the Ticats on Nov. 30 at Vancouver’s BC Place, the Stamps beat Hamilton twice in regular-season play a year ago — 10-7 at McMahon on July 18 and 30-20 in Hamilton on Aug. 16. The Stamps have won 10 straight home games against the Ticats with the most recent Hamilton victory at McMahon dating back to July 4, 2004.
Both teams were undefeated during pre-season play as Calgary recorded wins of 20-6 against BC and 37-29 against Saskatchewan while Hamilton downed Ottawa 37-10 and Winnipeg 26-15.