Grey Cup Sunday, late November at (fill in the blank) notwithstanding, this is the place and the time that the lights on the marquee blaze brightest.

Labour Day afternoon. McMahon Stadium.

Where identities are forged and legacies launched. When cameo-keepsake memories are embedded in our collective consciousness and championship ambitions fired.

The local equivalent of an opening night at La Scala or Carnegie Hall.

The biggest stage.

“I like the big stage,’’ Roy Finch is saying, a shade over 48 hours from the latest instalment of a football holiday staple. “That’s where you want to perform well.

“Labour Day Classic. Rivalry game. Battling for first place. It always seems to be us and Edmonton at the top every year.

“That’s pretty big.”

A year ago on the first Monday of September, remember, the Calgary Stampeders jumped out to an 11-0 cushion via a chip-shot Rene Paredes field goal, a 17-yard Bo Levi Mitchell-to-Anthony Parker touchdown collaboration and ensuing two-point convert.

Mitchell would shred the northern interlopers for 380 yards on the afternoon. Jerome Messam would lug the rock for 110 more on 18 totes and a bounty-hunting Calgary defence would sack Iron Mike Reilly four times.

But unquestionably the debilitating shot to the Eskies’ solar plexus was a seam-splitting 85-yard TD punt return by Finch – making his Labour Day debut – with three ticks left in the first quarter to push the hometown lead to an unassailable 18 points.

Finch actually bobbled the 48-yard Grant Shaw hoist before unfurling his sails, catching the breeze and setting out to open sea.

From there the Stamps cruised, 45-24.

“Being my first one (back to The House), it was special. Always will be special,’’ Finch says, approaching a calendar year later.

“From a fans’ standpoint, from the outside looking in, it might’ve looked like I panicked a bit. But when you drop the ball, there’s a certain way you have to be holding your hands, so when it hits them, it drops straight down, doesn’t go bouncing all over the place.

“So it was easy to pick up.

“From there, I just used my gift. I’m just trying to be a spark for my team any time I get my hands on the ball.

“Yeah, it’s Labour Day, a lot of attention but we’ve got to treat like a normal business week. We’ve got to be focused and sharp.”

This year’s edition of the Classic couldn’t carry more resonance: The 7-1-1 Stampeders against a 7-2 Eskimo outfit looking to regain vital equilibrium after back-to-back losses.

A year ago, the Stamps parlayed their Labour Day success and an OT win five days later at the Commonwealth Stadium rematch into a 15-2-1 regular-season finish and top perch in the West.

“There’s a lot of history involved in this game,’’ agrees Stamps special teams coach Mark Kilam, readying for his 14th Labour Day Classic. “So many traditions, from the teams to the players from the past to the fans from both cities and the tailgating.

“The air gets a little bit cooler. The stakes always seem to be high.

“Just a cool thing to be a part of every year.”
Stamps boss Dave Dickenson sounds as if he doesn’t mind the additional trappings.

“I know when I was in BC,’’ he recalls, “Labour Day didn’t carry near the same flavour. We used to play Montreal. Not quite the same flavour.

“But in Alberta here, and on the prairies, it’s huge. With both games. In Ontario, too.

“From a team standpoint, from Labour Day on is when you want to be playing your best football.”

There’s always a hero on Labour Day. Whether it’s Jeff Garcia hopping off the bench to shred the Edmonton secondary for 546 yards in ’95 or Doug Flutie serpentining his way past green-and-gold defenders, Allen Pitts rising to make a catch, Jon Cornish slashing for needed yardage or Roy Finch detonating on a punt return, it usually delivers an afternoon of moments and memories.

“That’s what’s great about this game in particular, and about football and sports in general,’’ says Kilam. “You just never know who that guy will be. But, yeah, there’s always one who really seems to leaves an imprint on this game.”

Who’ll be that guy come Monday?

A newcomer to the festivities? Or a decorated campaigner of Labour Days gone by?

“Doesn’t matter to me who it is,’’ says the 2016 edition, Roy Finch. “As long as it’s somebody on our team.”

The countdown has begun.

McMahon Stadium. Monday. 1 p.m.

Set the traps. Synchronize your watches.

“They don’t call it a Classic,’’ reminds Kilam needlessly, “for nothing.”