On a frigid November day in 1992, Doug Flutie had the heartbeat of McMahon Stadium at his mercy.
“I remember 19 seconds left and we were losing,” explained Belinda Mitchell, one of the most loyal and zealous Stamps fans in the city. “I sit right behind the (visiting) players’ bench and everyone around me thought that his shoe was the ball. I remember everybody going, ‘He dropped the ball! He dropped the ball! He dropped the ball! Oh my god, it’s his shoe!’ I had gone to the Grey Cup in ’91 and right then I knew we were going back.”
The aforementioned recollection depicts Flutie’s three-yard touchdown run when arguably the greatest player in CFL history rolled to his right and crossed the goal line to defeat the archrival Eskimos in the Western Final. Flutie, the league MVP that year, slipped out of his right shoe before scoring in what is remembered as one of the most iconic moments in Stampeders playoff history. The following week, Calgary accomplished something they soon hope to repeat again – winning the Grey Cup in Toronto.
“Man oh man, we hadn’t beaten Edmonton (in a long time),” Mitchell recently reflected some 14 years later. “I don’t think that anybody believed that it could happen. It created tears and excitement and screaming and yelling.”
“Don’t be the one that misses out. Join in. The more the merrier. We will welcome you.
– Belinda Mitchell
Mitchell, a longtime spectator at McMahon who first helped fill the stands as a 10-year-old girl, did not let the winter weather conditions deter her from remaining in the building to witness that epic play at the end of the game.
“It was an absolutely cold day,” recalled Mitchell. “Not the coldest I’ve been to, but it was most certainly cold. But I’ll tell you, at the end of the game it could have been 75 degrees because you didn’t feel any cold. Everybody was so focused on the win. But before those 19 seconds, it was pretty cold. It was kind of horrible to have that feeling, but then to go from so low to so high (was amazing).”
Having swapped the Junior Quarterback Club – now the North end zone’s Red & White Club – for her current seats in Section S during the 1980s, Mitchell was forced to wait her turn for the prime vantage point.
“I’m the third generation in my seats,” Mitchell proudly proclaimed. “My grandfather and his sister-in-law sat in Mewata (Stadium). It was a little bit of a birthright. I have a nephew that has sons and he’s next in line. He can’t wait. Right now he brings his kids but they sit up at the top of the stadium. He’s like, ‘Do you have to die before I get to sit there?’ Well, almost.”
With just over two weeks remaining until the 2016 Western Final at McMahon, Mitchell knows the atmosphere will be electrifying, regardless of the opponent.
“You feel the excitement from the C-Train bridge,” said Mitchell of the pre-game vibe for playoff games in Calgary. “There’s more people tailgating and more general excitement around the stadium and it doesn’t really matter who we’re going to play. People say, ‘Oh no, that only happens if we play Edmonton,’ but it’s not going to matter who we play.”
Mitchell’s passionate plea to sell out McMahon on Nov. 20 is intended to create the home-field advantage necessary to propel the Stamps into the prestigious Grey Cup game.
“Don’t be the one that misses out,” Mitchell warns. “Join in. The more the merrier. We will welcome you.”
Be at McMahon on Sunday, Nov. 20 and create one more memory. Kickoff is at 2:30 p.m.