The Polecat and a flagpole seemed to be a natural match.
But there was some reluctance.
Bob Poley was approached shortly before the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ June 24, 1990 pre-season game against Ottawa and asked to take part in a flag-raising ceremony to celebrate the 1989 Grey Cup victory.
“Somebody came up to me and said, ‘We want you and Roger Aldag to drive around Taylor Field with the Cup,’ ” Poley recalls. “I said, ‘I’m not doing that. It’s game day.’ Then Rog came up to me and said, ‘We’d better do it …’ ”
At that point, Poley’s resistance began to weaken. Any hesitation disappeared when he was approached by Don McDougall — a Roughriders board member who was then in charge of game entertainment.
“I said, ‘OK, Don, I’ll do it for you,’ ” Poley continues, laughing.
Poley and Aldag — two veteran offensive linemen — had helped the John Gregory-coached Roughriders defeat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 43-40 in the 1989 Grey Cup Game.
Poley, in fact, snapped the ball to Glen Suitor, who pinned the ball for Dave Ridgway on the game-winning, 35-yard field goal with two seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
Such was the climactic moment of the second Grey Cup victory in Roughriders history. The previous championship-game win was in 1966.
Two members of the 1966 team — fullback George Reed and Head Coach Eagle Keys — were at Taylor Field for the flag-raising on June 24, 1990.
“It was a pretty historic moment,” Poley says. “To have Eagle, George and Coach Gregory there, it was pretty special. When they raised the flag to honour the ’89 team, it was a pretty good deal.
“There were a lot of stars on that team, like Captain Ray (Elgaard) and Ridge and all those guys. For a couple of home-grown boys — a couple of fat offensive linemen — to do the flag-raising, that’s not bad!
“Growing up in Saskatchewan and watching the Roughriders and then wearing their uniform at the end, it was pretty special.”
Much like the events of June 24, 1990, despite some initial hiccups.
“When we had to hand the Grey Cup back, the first thing I thought about was, ‘Oh, it won’t be hard. We’ll just win it again and we’ll do this again next year,’ ” Poley remembers.
“That didn’t happen for a while.”
The championship banners of 1966 and 1989 were unaccompanied at the north end of Taylor Field until June 13, 2008, when a ceremony was held at halftime of a pre-season game against the B.C. Lions. Saskatchewan had defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23-19 in the 2007 Grey Cup Game.
For the 2008 flag-raising, the Grey Cup was brought on to the field by two RCMP officers.
Roughriders fans enjoyed two championship celebrations at the historic stadium when the Green and White next captured a Cup.
On Nov. 24, 2013, Saskatchewan registered its first home-field championship-game victory, defeating Hamilton 45-23 in the 101st Grey Cup.
Hamilton was also the visiting team when the 2013 Grey Cup banner was raised. At halftime of the Roughriders’ regular-season opener on June 29, 2014, Saskatchewan’s first four championship teams — those of 1966, 1989, 2007 and 2013 — were honoured.
Saskatchewan’s fifth Grey Cup win took place on Nov. 16, 2025, when the Montreal Alouettes fell 25-17 at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg.
The first banner-raising at new Mosaic Stadium will take place during a pre-game ceremony on Saturday, when the Roughriders are to open their 2026 regular season against B.C.
Kickoff for the game, which has a championship celebration theme, is set for 5 p.m. Tickets are AVAILABLE HERE.