Back – way back, in fact – in black.

“The guys,’’ recalls Calgary Stampeders’ venerable equipment manager George Hopkins, 23 years after the fact, “didn’t even know they were going to be wearing them that first time.

“(Vice president of marketing and communications) Ron Rooke had decided in the off-season that we should go to black jerseys. There’s just something about black, right? It’s beyond nastiness. Kinda in your face. The Oakland Raiders were perfect with it.

“And us, we’ve got the nice, white cowboy hats on all the time, right?

“So to go black? Really cool.”

Hopkins and Rooke worked out the design together, had the jerseys manufactured and quietly put them aside.

“That made us the first team in North American sports to have a third jersey,’’ says Hopkins.

“And Labour Day, because of all the hype and playing against Edmonton and everything, seemed to be a perfect moment to introduce them.

“But nobody knew a thing.

“So when the players came in after warm-up that day, the black jerseys were hanging in their stalls.

“And everybody … lost their minds. They loved them.

“From that point on, we knew what we were going to wear. It’s a lot of fun.

“When we sit down at the start and do our uniform declaration for the year, the Labour Day one’s real easy. You’re wearing black and where’s the other game gonna be.”

Modelling their new colour scheme for the first time, the Stampeders crushed the Edmonton Eskimos 48-15.

At the time, though, the change in colour scheme drew decidedly mixed reviews. Mixed enough for Rooke, the man behind the change, to admit: “We thought that for special occasions, we’d do something different. We may never wear these uniforms again.”

All these years later, after a tweak or two, they still do.

Like a boss.

“The black on Labour Day has become a fixture for us,’’ says Hopkins. “This last incarnation, with the helmets, pants, everything, well, that just took it to the next level.”

If anyone on this planet is qualified to talk Labour Day Classic in southern Alberta, that person is George Hopkins, of course.

His debut in the seasonal game-of-games dates back to 1972. He’s been toting equipment bags, lugging gear, moving boxes and bins, packing, parcelling, hauling, pushing trunks and bossing the back room for 46 CFL seasons now.

Asked for a most memorable Classic from among all the Labour Day tilts he’s worked along the Stampeder sideline, Ernest Manning High School’s favourite son takes a moment to consider.

“I’d say … a couple, for different reasons. One of them, I can’t remember the year. But Labour Day’s always beautiful, right? This one was just nasty.

“Nas-ty.

“Maybe five degrees.

“Raining hard. And sideways.

“It was (Eskimo fullback) Neil Lumsden runs left, Neil Lumsden runs right. The whole game.

“There might’ve been 10 passes thrown all afternoon. Nobody wanted to be here. Just a crappy, crappy, crappy day.

“And then, of course, Jeff Garcia’s coming-out party stands out, 1995. where he threw for something like 600 yards” – 546, to be exact.

“And we beat the hell out of them (51-26). Which was nice.”

As the years have passed, eras shifted, personnel changed and early September football Mondays came and went, the scope, the magnitude, of Labour Day has only increased.

“In my time, when both teams got competitive, late ’70s, after Jack (Gotta) got here and notched it up a bit, that’s when it got really fun,’’ says Hopkins. “Even in the ’80s, when we weren’t that good, we could play good on Labour Day.

“And it certainly didn’t hurt to have the Battle of Alberta in hockey arrive, right? The rivalry between the cities just crossed from summer to winter.

“Most of the time, it’s been pretty good between the teams. Even the trash-talking now, there’s a lot of respect behind it.”

Those nifty, now-trademark black jerseys are still waiting to be unveiled for the first time this season.

“Oh, I still enjoy Labour Days,’’ says a man who’s seen so many. “Of course. All that BS about the real season not starting until Labour Day? For me, the real season starts first game of the year.

“But Labour Day ratchets everything up.

“I mean, this year’s a perfect case in point. We’re in first place but it took us nine weeks and one loss to get to first place.

“So tell me this doesn’t mean more.”