The Saskatchewan Roughriders and Mosaic have rewound 60-plus years to establish a new tradition.

After every victory this season, a customized branding iron has been used to burn a single digit into a wooden beam that is conspicuous above the entrance to the “Bring ’Em Out” tunnel at Mosaic Stadium.

Fittingly, The Mosaic Company — which holds the 33,350-seat facility’s naming rights — was a key part of the process that led to the acquisition and installation of a plank.

The piece of wood was extracted from a well-used storage bin at Mosaic’s K2 potash mine in Esterhazy. Lawrence Berthelet, Mosaic’s Vice-President of Operations, said the plank was part of a storage bin that would have been installed in 1963 or 1964.

“It’s a great way to make a connection,” the Esterhazy-born potash executive said. “It’s good for the Roughriders, it’s good for us, and it’s good for our communities.

It is the product of a good idea by Jeremy O’Day.

“I thought, ‘Is there any kind of tradition that we want to start or something that we haven’t done or something kind of cool?’ ” the Roughriders’ Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager said. “Originally, I thought it would be kind of cool to try to find a piece of lumber that has been in Saskatchewan.

“You drive around the province and you see old barns. There are railroad ties all over the place. I thought it would be cool if we had something that was sitting out in the weather in Saskatchewan — something we could put up in the tunnel and have the players see or touch … something they always walk under.”

O’Day ran the concept past Head Coach Corey Mace, who was instantly supportive, before raising the idea with President-CEO Craig Reynolds.

Reynolds and O’Day revisited the brainstorm during an off-season Board of Directors meeting that was hosted by 2021 Plaza of Honour inductee Paul Hill. The Executive Chairman of The Hill Companies was a long-time Board member.

“Paul has this awesome piece of wood over his fireplace and I said, ‘That’s kind of what I want for the tunnel — something like that,” O’Day recalled. “That was my vision of it — a big piece of wood and hopefully it’s weathered.”

Greg Yuel, a current Board member, overheard the conversation and filed it away. A few days later, Yuel reached out to Berthelet.

“Lawrence replied and said, ‘I’ve got a beam that is from one of our storage bins,’ ” O’Day said.

“Greg copied me on the next e-mail and said, ‘It’s time to bring Jeremy in. This one is his baby.’ ”

Berthelet was so intrigued by and invested in the idea that he sent pictures of the prospective plank to O’Day, adding that “it has seen a lot of potash over the years.”

An in-person introduction took place in the spring, when O’Day and Berthelet were both at a fundraiser that was held during training camp in Saskatoon.

“I ran into someone who said, ‘Hey, Jeremy, we’ve been trading e-mails. I’m Lawrence from Mosaic,’ ” O’Day said. “He said, ‘Just let me know. We’ll have it sent up.’

“We gave him the address and when we came back from training camp, that piece of wood was sitting outside (Equipment Manager) Gordie Gilroy’s room on a dolly.”

Well … hello, dolly!

The beam was soon scaled down to fit a spot above the tunnel. “Rider Nation” was engraved into the wood.

“We came up with the idea that we were just going to brand it with a tick after every win,” O’Day said.

Gilroy aided the process by enlisting a friend, the appropriately named Brandon Lang, to build a customized branding iron.

“We just needed somebody who knew how to weld,” Gilroy explained. “They just welded a flat piece of iron on to one of those fireplace pokers.

“It’s a piece of steel and at the end of it, there’s just a mark. You just hold it on to the wood.”

From there, a few trial runs were needed. Gilroy experimented by heating up the end of the branding iron with a blowtorch.

Everything unfolded for real after a season-opening, 31-26 victory over the visiting Ottawa REDBLACKS on June 5.

Running back Thomas Bertrand-Hudon was called upon to be the first brander after scoring two touchdowns in the Ottawa game.

At first, the branding was supposed to take place after each home-field victory. The protocol was soon changed, however, and now a brand is added as soon as possible once the team reconvenes at Mosaic Stadium after a road win.

“It’s funny, because everyone’s marks are at a different angle,” Gilroy said. “That kind of makes it look better. They’re all over the place. They’re not lined up perfectly or anything like that.”

But, in the larger context, everything worked out perfectly.

“I think it’s a really cool tradition,” Mace said, “and I hope it lasts until the end of time.”