Football is an amazing and wonderful game.
There’s an old saying that sports build character, but, in my experience, sports reveal character. You can tell a lot about people by the way they play a sport or even a game. But that said, in all my interactions with athletes, football players are among the nicest and most freely engaging people I’ve ever dealt with.
That said, when it comes to rivalries, football guys are absolutely fierce.
A quick look around North America gives us a glimpse of rivalries that are celebrated and, often, historic. When we lived in Seattle, we got to see the Apple Cup between the University of Washington and Washington State. There’s Ohio State and Michigan, Notre Dame and Southern California, Army-Navy, Oklahoma-Texas, Alabama-Auburn and Oregon-Oregon State just to name a few collegiate gridiron disputes.
In the National Football League, the National Football Conference is replete with them. The Dallas Cowboys and any of the New York Giants, Washington Commanders or the Philadelphia Eagles. In fact, you can put any of those teams against each other and the hatred and vitriol will be spilling all over the place.
Here in Canada, the Calgary Stampeders and Edmonton Elks discord is pretty healthy. But, in Ontario, the Labour Day Classic between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts is getting up there as well. And then there’s the animosity between the province of Saskatchewan and the city of Winnipeg – if not the province of Manitoba. Their big rivalry game every year is either their Labour Day meeting or what is now called The Banjo Bowl, and both teams trade paint in the pits with the best of them.
But why the Banjo Bowl? How did the banjo become central to the theme of the rivalry between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers? Let’s examine that, shall we?
The enmity between these two teams has always been strong. But there have been times when, even though the Bombers were playing in the Eastern Division, the intensity between the two teams has not waned. That said, since 1982, these two teams have met up in Regina for a game on the Labour Day weekend every year.
Why is the Labour Day game always in Regina? When Dave Ritchie was the Blue Bombers head coach from 1999 to 2004, he would ask that question constantly. His team was always playing the game in hostile territory and, the results bear that concern out exactly. The teams have been playing each other in Regina every year since 1982. After the meeting in 2024, the teams had faced each other in The Queen City 42 times on Labour Day weekend. Winnipeg has won just 13 of those games.
But the reason that game is in Regina is, well...because it is. The league has often tried – and succeeded – to have a rematch on the schedule in Winnipeg the following weekend. That doesn’t happen every year, but it’s happened frequently enough.
Lest you think that the game being in Regina is too massive an advantage, the cities are six hours apart by car. There are always plenty of Winnipeg fans who make the drive west to take in the game. Nic Demski has been a wide receiver for the Bombers since 2018. Before that, he played in Saskatchewan for his first three seasons. He’s a Winnipeg native. He spoke to Vicki Hall of www.cfl.ca about the vibe for those Labour Day games in Regina.
“Oh ya, it’s a hostile environment. You know, Saskatchewan, they’re very passionate about their football. Their fans, they love the ‘Riders. But our fans here, you know, they’re just as passionate, if not more. So, you know they’re going to make the trip.” Indeed, there’s always plenty of blue among the green (and the watermelon headgear).
So, how did the Banjo Bowl come about? For that, we have to go back to just before the 2003 Labour Day game. Something was said. People’s feelings were hurt. And there was some anger and some fire dousing that some people wanted done. Here’s the best way I can describe it to you.
As I said, we have to go back to a day well before the Labour Day game played between the ‘Riders and Bombers. Winnipeg’s place kicker, Troy Westwood, was having breakfast in Vancouver with punter Bob Cameron ahead of a game between their team and the British Columbia Lions. According to Ed Tait, in a 2020 www.cfl.ca piece, Westwood was reading a newspaper and a writer in the local paper called the Bombers “banjo-picking inbreds”. He and Cameron both laughed about it as that quote then embedded itself in Westwood’s brain.
Fast-forward to the days before the 2003 Labour Day game between the Bombers and Roughriders. Westwood’s mother was born in Saskatchewan and his grandmother and aunt still lived there. Before the game on that long weekend, Westwood would always make time for a turkey dinner with his Mom’s family and they would spend requisite time together teasing each other about which team would win the game. “I would always bet a loonie with my grandmother for every Labour Day game,” Troy told Tait.
What Westwood did before the 2003 game was to call the fans of the ‘Riders “banjo-picking inbreds”. He was trying to be funny, even though many didn’t see the humour in his statement. “My shots were directed precisely at those two – my aunt and my grandmother. Sure, I was addressing all the ‘Riders fans, but specifically, it was for those two sets of ears.” After that, he didn’t think much of it, or so he claimed.
Westwood spoke about his thought process after the moment he first read the words of the Vancouver columnist back at that breakfast with Bob Cameron. “I don’t know how to explain it. It’s the winds that blow around in your mind and I came up with the quote. I thought it was funny, and I kept it to myself for a long time. And then, as the weeks went on, I had the quote and I ask Bob, ‘How funny is this? What do you think?”
Cameron did what he could to absolutely prevent Westwood from ever giving what he thought was his witty quote. “He said, ‘DON’T EVER SAY THAT! That will be front-page news right across the country. Don’t say that!’ I said, ‘Bob, it’s too funny to keep to myself. I can’t not share this.’ Again, he says, ‘DON’T DO IT!’”
Westwood continued with Tait. “There’s never been anything that Bob Cameron told me not to do that I didn’t listen to. It saved me and kept me out of trouble as a young player, for sure. But this time, I didn’t listen to him.”
One of his former teammates remembered some anxiety from his kicker over the comments. Doug Brown was a defensive tackle with Winnipeg from 2001 to 2011. “I remember Troy being a bit uneasy and nervous about what he said and the reception he might get in Saskatchewan. I think he got death threats or was legitimately concerned about his well-being going into that game.”
Westwood couldn’t contain himself but before he gave the reporters their big piece of raw meat, he tried to explain his motivation before he said the ‘magic’ words. “I can remember calling everyone around in the locker room, the media, the day before the game. It was to have fun with the fans in Saskatchewan. I wasn’t trying to motivate the fans in Saskatchewan, that’s for sure. So, I gather everyone and make the statement and there’s a lot of laughter.
Meanwhile, the people ‘upstairs’ were not exactly thrilled with what their kicker said to the media. Brendan Taman was the Bombers’ general manager from 1998 to 2008, and he spoke with Ed Tait. “For whatever reason, I flew to Regina that year for the Labour Day game. When I landed in Regina, I turn on my cell phone and I have a voicemail from my boss, Mr. (Lyle) Bauer (former player, team president and chief executive officer). He had read the quote and wanted me to talk to Mr. Westwood.” Taman laughed after he said ‘Mr. Westwood’.
“I won’t tell you the actual wording in this voicemail, because it wasn’t pretty. Lyle told me to ‘go buy a f***ing newspaper and read it for your f***ing self!’ I told whoever I was with when I got there, ‘Uh-oh. I gotta read a paper. It sounds like our kicker opened up his mouth.” Taman saw what Westwood had said and called Bauer back. He told his boss that he would take care of it after the game was over.
“That’s how I first became aware of the ‘banjo-picking inbreds’ quote. That’s not the most ideal way to find out.”
Anyway, the game was played and the Bombers won it easily, doubling the Roughriders 36-18. But that’s not where the story ends. Oh no.
At season’s end, the Edmonton Eskimos finished at the top of the CFL’s Western Division. But in a tie for second, with identical 11-7-0 records were the Bombers and Roughriders. So, those two teams were set to play each other in the division semi-final. The game was set to be played on November 2. On Halloween, a couple of days before the elimination game, Westwood called a couple of reporters to his stall to make a statement.
One of the reporters that Westwood summoned there was Ed Tait. The Winnipeg kicker spoke and said, “I had referred to the people of Saskatchewan as a bunch of banjo-picking inbreds.” Tait said that Westwood was trying to hold back a smile, and he had a mischievous sparkle in his eye. “I was wrong to make such a statement, and I would like to apologize.”
He paused before continuing. “The vast majority of the people in Saskatchewan have no idea how to play the banjo.”
Bauer, who was not at all happy with the first statement from Westwood, actually changed his tune about the ‘atonement’ from his kicker. “I actually loved the ‘apology’. Football is a tough game and Troy was a professional. There was method to his madness, and it created a great atmosphere and upped the rivalry.”
It may have ‘upped the rivalry’, but it also motivated the Roughriders.
Scott Schultz played on the defensive line for those ‘Riders. He came up with an idea for how to celebrate a sack of Winnipeg’s quarterback Khari Jones. He would play an ‘air banjo’. Not all his defensive mates were down with that gesture though. “I told (fellow lineman) Nate (Davis) and initially, Shonte (Peoples) didn’t want to do it. I’m like, ‘Come on. We gotta do it. It’ll be classic.’ Then he realized how it would correlate with what he (Westwood) had said. So, whoever got a sack, we were going to do it. The irony was that it was me, a Saskatchewan kid, who got to do it.”
There was at least one Saskatchewan player who would not let Westwood forget that his team was trailing in the game. Schultz told Cory Wolfe of the Saskatchewan News Service that ‘Riders’ linebacker Terrence Melton was freely giving the Bombers’ kicker the verbal business. “Terrence Melton was all over him. He was calling him a jackass – you know the usual banter that goes on.”
Saskatchewan disposed of the Bombers by a score of 37-21 IN WINNIPEG! Troy Westwood’s words did come back to bite him.
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So, how did the actual Banjo Bowl come about? Here’s the story of that.
The Blue Bombers had been in a state of financial uncertainty and there was a necessity to try to bring fans back to games at CanadInns Stadium. Everything that happened in 2003 proved to be a catalyst to increasing the intensity of the rivalry between the two clubs. One of the members of the Bombers’ board of directors came up with the idea of a new ‘official/unofficial’ title for the return match between Winnipeg and Saskatchewan.
David Asper had been a successful lawyer and the son of Izzy Asper, who founded Canwest Global Communications. Asper also sat on the board of directors for the Blue Bombers in 2003. The Labour Day game was ensconced in Regina. But how could the return match in Winnipeg be packaged and marketed to a not-yet-salivating fan base?
“The concept behind it was to create a signature game and to ensure that we had the back-to-back (games),” Lyle Bauer told the Winnipeg Sun’s Kirk Penton in 2006. “I mean, we’d love to have the Labour Day game here, but I’m not sure the ‘Riders would be enthralled with that.”
Asper had been researching American college football rivalries and all of the bells and whistles that accompany them. Asper also said, “We were still very much in the (financial) turnaround of the football team at that point, and we needed to create some excitement. And then out of the blue, Troy shot his mouth off.”
Westwood’s remarks sparked an idea in Asper’s mind. The ‘banjo’ theme stuck in his craw.
In the spring of 2004, Asper walked into Bauer’s office and exclaimed, “We’re calling it the Banjo Bowl.”
Bauer seemed to be taken a little aback. “Are you serious?”
Asper responded, “Yes, I’m serious.” Asper also said that his newspaper, The National Post, would be donating $10,000 to the United Way in whichever city won the game. The Banjo Bowl was played in the fall of 2004 and has been played every year since. Twenty years later, it’s bigger and more electric than ever.
The idea was well received in Winnipeg. In the province where ‘Green is the colour’ though, the idea was seen with some derision. Asper explained, “The league said ‘Yeah, that sounds like a good idea’ and the ‘Riders’ organization, in particular, I think it was (GM Roy) Shivers and (coach Danny) Barrett got their knickers in a knot.”
Fans in Saskatchewan associated the new game with the new name and Westwood’s comments still carried some weight. Jeff King was a Saskatchewan native but living in Steinbach, Manitoba and he wasn’t thrilled with the idea. “It doesn’t show a quality league to me, a family league. It’s brutal the comments I get at the game. My Mom would want to leave.”
But Lyle Bauer had a comment that encompassed what was truly good about the rivalry and the league. “It’s all in good fun. I mean, I’m from Saskatchewan and I don’t play the banjo, right? And my mother and father weren’t brother and sister. And it’s the same with Brendan. It’s a lot of fun. It’s a heated rivalry and it’s two community owned teams that have great similarities and have fabulous fans. We’re great partners certainly at a league level, but we’re unbelievable competitors. It’s good. That’s what the game is all about.”
Knowing that the Roughriders didn’t like the name of the game and given Asper’s intransigence on taking the word ‘banjo’ out of the game title, the Bombers announced that the first game would be called the National Post Charity Banjo Bowl. “My attitude was I don’t really care what the ‘Riders think, Asper said. “We wanted to have them believe that we were kind of together, so Year One, we gave it (‘Charity’ in the title) to them. In Year Two, we dropped it.”
After a couple of seasons, the effects were being seen. The first two Banjo Bowl games were the only sellouts Winnipeg hosted. Asper was happy. “It’s starting to become and take on a life of its own, which is exactly what I hoped would happen. Whether the Bombers win or not, a United Way is a beneficiary. So, it’s good for the community and it’s good for the football team, because people are starting to get excited about it and want to be at that game.”
Rivalry games like this one are what make sports such a great outlet, especially if your team wins. But the one thing I’ve experienced, especially when I’m at a Grey Cup, or the festivities that surround it, is that Canadian football fans are inhabitants on our own little island. We love our teams, but we all care about the league that contains our favourite teams. And it always seems like we have to incubate our league to good health constantly.
Anything that helps get fans out to CFL games is only a good thing.
And to think that these games all began because a kicker ignored his impulse to keep quiet and wanted to get the ‘funny line’ out of his head and out to the world. “It’s kind of funny,” Westwood told Penton. “It’s pretty cool. It’s a lot of fun, and a lot of people are just embracing the rivalry. It kind of faded there for a while when we were in the East for a long time. It’s just good to see the fans really embracing the rivalry again.”
May the Canadian Football League live long. Oh, and it should prosper too.
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Howie’s latest book The Consequences of Chance, seventeen new and incredibly detailed stories of outlandish and wild events that occurred in sports over the last fifty years, is available on Amazon. It’s the follow-up to his first books, Crazy Days & Wild Nights and MORE Crazy Days & Wild Nights! If you love sports and sports history, you need these books!
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