Jeremy O\u2019Day is poised to celebrate two diamond anniversaries.<\/p>\n
The Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager excitedly awaits the 60th Labour Day Classic \u2014\u00a0today\u2019s matchup with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (5 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).<\/p>\n
A few hours after starting at centre for Saskatchewan in the 39th such game, played 22 years ago today, O\u2019Day offered a sparkling engagement ring to his future wife, Dana.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always tell everyone, \u2018I lost the game, but I\u2019ve been winning ever since,\u2019 \u201d says a smiling O\u2019Day, the proud father of Tyson, Brooklyn and Alyssa.<\/p>\n
The original (and ultimately successful) plan was for O\u2019Day to propose on his birthday \u2014\u00a0which was then his 29th. However, the Blue Bombers\u2019 36-18 victory led him to ponder a deferral.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe lost the game, so I wasn\u2019t going to ask her that day,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Fellow offensive lineman) Rob Lazeo noticed that I was a little more dejected than normal after a loss. He asked, \u2018What\u2019s going on?\u2019 He actually sat me down.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018I was going to ask Dana to marry me today. He said, \u2018If you\u2019re going to do it, you need to do it. It\u2019s just another game.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Another factor to consider: The cat was already out of the bag, so to speak.<\/p>\n
In an old-school move, O\u2019Day had sought out Dana\u2019s father (Don Steidl) the previous day to formally request permission to marry his daughter. Permission was granted, but the news was kept from O\u2019Day\u2019s future mother-in-law, Marge.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Day took everything into consideration and followed through on the proposal, which was quickly accepted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI asked her and then we went right to her parents\u2019 house,\u201d he says. \u201cWe walked on to the deck and everyone was sitting there.<\/p>\n
\u201cHer dad saw us coming and went into the house. Dana walked up to her mom and just put her hand out. Her mom saw it and started jumping up and down. Then Don walked out with champagne. He was already ready for a toast.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mother-in-law looked at him immediately and said, \u2018You knew?!\u2019 He said, \u2018Yup!\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
More good news: The Labour Day weekend loss was avenged 63 days later when the Roughriders posted a 37-21 playoff victory in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
When the Roughriders and Blue Bombers next met in the post-season, Saskatchewan registered a 23-19 Grey Cup victory on Nov. 25, 2007.<\/p>\n
A sellout crowd of 28,800 was treated to a championship-game preview on Sept. 2 of that year, when the Roughriders won 31-26 in what is widely regarded as the best of all Labour Day Classics.<\/p>\n
With six seconds remaining, Kerry Joseph scored the game-winning touchdown on a 27-yard quarterback draw. O\u2019Day made one of the key blocks, driving a Bombers defensive lineman to the north as Joseph began his southward sprint to the end zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor me, the best one \u2014 the funnest one \u2014 was \u201907,\u201d O\u2019Day says.<\/p>\n
\u201cKerry got skinny and got through the hole. They were blitzing on the play, so there was no second level and no contain. He ran in for the big score.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a big one and it was exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
A quarterback had also made headlines five years earlier, when Rocky Butler made a surprise start behind centre and piloted the Roughriders to a 33-19 upset victory over Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Day had an unaccustomed vantage point on Sept. 1, 2002. He watched from Taylor Field\u2019s west sideline.<\/p>\n
He suited up for all 18 regular-season games in 10 of his 13 years as a Roughriders player. One of the exceptions was the 2003 season, in which he missed five games after suffering a torn ligament in his right knee.<\/p>\n
Andrew Moore started at centre as Butler, who got the nod at quarterback due to the Roughriders\u2019 rash of injuries at that position, ran for three touchdowns.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was our fourth-string quarterback coming into camp, so it was the first game he played,\u201d O\u2019Day remembers. \u201cI remember on the one run he scored on, his helmet got knocked off.\u201d<\/p>\n
The headgear went flying as Butler landed in the north end zone to complete a 32-yard touchdown run on a quarterback draw \u2014 the same play on which Joseph took off five years later.<\/p>\n
All these years later, O\u2019Day awaits his 26th Labour Day Classic.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s contest will even his personal slate: 13 Classics as a player and as a key member of the football-operations staff.<\/p>\n
As it stands, the Roughriders are 18-7 in Classics since he joined the team in 1999.<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan was victorious in his first Classic as a player (42-25 in 1999), a member of the front office (27-7 in 2011), an interim GM (37-18 in 2015) and the full-time GM (19-17 in 2019).<\/p>\n
The latter game ended in unforgettable fashion when Brett Lauther kicked a 26-yard field goal to give the Roughriders a 19-17 win.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter Brett\u2019s walk-off in 2019, I remember him and (holder) Jon Ryan jumping into Pil Country,\u201d O\u2019Day says.<\/p>\n
Long before Pil Country, the territory behind the\u00a0 south end zone at the Roughriders\u2019 home facility was unofficially known as Hemorrhoid Hill. There wasn\u2019t any formal seating, but the area was a popular destination for overflow customers \u2014 including resourceful Rider Priders who brought lawn chairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me, it goes back to the old stadium where there was grass in the end zone and it was standing room only,\u201d O\u2019Day reflects. \u201cYou got excited because you knew it was going to be the biggest crowd of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people came back for one game, it was always the Labour Day game.\u201d<\/p>\n
A contest that often leaves the fans \u2014\u00a0and, in one case, the starting centre \u2014 engaged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeremy O\u2019Day is poised to celebrate two diamond anniversaries. The Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 Vice-President of Football Operations and General…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-110407","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}