Riders legends gather for Grey Cup anniversary

There’s a family reunion of sorts set for Saturday at Mosaic Stadium.

A number of players, coaches and administrators from the 1989 Saskatchewan Roughriders are to be on hand for the 2019 Roughriders’ CFL game against the Montreal Alouettes. Game time is 5 p.m.

Those from the ’89 team who have returned for the reunion have been in Regina for a couple of days, celebrating the 30th anniversary of their victory in the Grey Cup game.

During conversations this week with The Green Zone, five members of that team talked about the close-knit nature of their squad. That camaraderie helped propel the Roughriders on a remarkable playoff run that ended with a 43-40 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the CFL final in Toronto.

“We got along very well, just like every good team gets along,” recalled Roger Aldag, a guard who was the elder statesman on that Roughriders team.

“We had a lot of fun — a lot of fun — and it was just icing on the cake to win a Grey Cup with those teammates. They were the best teammates in the world.”

John Gregory, Saskatchewan’s head coach at the time, knew his players had the makeup to be champions.

“Players have to have fun — and we did,” Gregory said. “They have to work hard — and they did. They have to learn and not get down when tough things happen (and) get through the tough times — and they were great doing that.”

The 1989 Roughriders were 4-5-0 after the first half of the regular season, prompting something of a reboot.

Ray Elgaard, then one of the Roughriders’ star slotbacks, recalled the team turned to a sports psychologist for help.

New schedules were printed featuring just the second half of the slate, T-shirts were made featuring a new nickname for the team — the 89ers — and the players started wearing tape on their ring fingers to signify Grey Cup rings.

“I wasn’t a guy who was necessarily touting it as, ‘Well, this will be the answer,’ ” Elgaard remembered. “But by the same token, I wasn’t somebody who was downgrading it or denigrating it or making it seem like a dumb thing. I was in.”

Saskatchewan went 5-4-0 in the second half of the regular season and finished third in the West Division. The Roughriders then travelled to Calgary and beat the second-place Stampeders in the division semifinal.

The following week, Saskatchewan went into Edmonton and defeated the first-place Eskimos — who had posted a 16-2 regular-season record — in the division final.

Then, in the Grey Cup game in Toronto on Nov. 26, the Roughriders beat the Tiger-Cats 43-40. Dave Ridgway’s 35-yard field goal with three seconds left in regulation time produced the winning points — and his name quickly became part of Roughriders lore.

Dave Ridgway and Glen Suitor celebrate after Ridgway’s 35-yard field goal helped the Saskatchewan Roughriders claim the 1989 Grey Cup title. (Saskatchewan Roughriders/Twitter)

“In a way, it’s a little overwhelming,” Ridgway said. “I look at guys like George (Reed) and Ronnie (Lancaster), guys like Ray Elgaard, Bobby (Jurasin) and those kind of guys. They truly to me are the blue-collar, working, hero type of guys.

“I was lucky in the fact that I was put in a position to contribute to that game and I often say, ‘Thank God that (kick) went through.’ But I like to think that over the course of 14 years there was more than one field goal that got us a game.”

Aldag had been with the Roughriders since 1976 and had endured some lean times — including a run of 11 straight seasons without a playoff appearance.

In ’89, the Gull Lake product finally got his mitts on the Grey Cup.

“I’m just thankful to the football gods that it happened because that would have been an empty, empty feeling if you never, ever won one Grey Cup as far as the time we played and being in Saskatchewan through the tough years,” he said.

“It was just great for our team, our family and the great fans of Saskatchewan.”

Don Narcisse, who was in his third season as a Roughriders receiver in 1989, thought he’d have more opportunities to win a title in Saskatchewan. It didn’t happen, so he reflects every day on that victory — especially when he looks at his ring.

“It’s quite an honour that I got a chance to win the Grey Cup,” Narcisse said. “Not too many people play the game and get an opportunity to win and I’m so blessed to be in that position.

“I got a chance to talk to some kids the other day and I was bragging about my ring. It’s something that plays a big part in my life.”

That’s the way every surviving member of that team views it.

Ridgway said it was “flattering” that fans remember the game, but then noted he knew what the title meant to the team’s supporters because he lived in the province for many years. Aldag, meanwhile, said getting to hold the trophy for the first time was “a dream come true.”

Elgaard concurred.

“What happened to us in ’89 was a big deal,” he said. “It’s something that I get to hang on to myself. That matters to me and I have lots of positive recollections of it. It was important.”