{"id":376775,"date":"2025-12-30T07:07:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T07:07:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/376775\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T07:07:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T07:07:23","slug":"hogan-a-heated-yet-friendly-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/376775\/","title":{"rendered":"Hogan: A Heated, Yet Friendly Rivalry"},"content":{"rendered":"

For fans of the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the Labour Day Classic gives them a reason to stand on their feet and cheer. Four fans will be cheering on Monday, but forgive them if they\u2019re not standing.<\/p>\n

For a second season<\/a>, a group of CFL fans will walk from BMO Field to Hamilton Stadium to not only celebrate a rivalry game, but also to raise money for cancer research.<\/p>\n

Connor Sauve and Dallas Bergen made the walk last year<\/a>, Sauve completing the task despite recovering from a significant ankle injury.<\/p>\n

The pair is back, but the Pied Pipers of pigskin will have another duo join them on the trek; Argo fan Nick Small and Ticat fan Rick Boccaccio. They\u2019ll join Sauve and Bergen for the entire four-day, 65-kilometre trek \u2013 split up into three 20 km chunks to save Sauve\u2019s ankle \u2013 followed by a relative 5 km sprint to the tailgate, er, finish line on game day.<\/p>\n

All funds raised will be donated to CFL Fans Fight Cancer (CFLFFC), a group founded two decades ago after CFL legend Ron Lancaster was diagnosed with the disease. Each year a facility dedicated to cancer research in the Grey Cup host city receives the financial benefit of the fans\u2019 year-long fundraising efforts.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s more than a Labour Day labour of love. There are several off-season events across the country, as well as their biggest fundraiser, which happens every year in the Grey Cup host city the day before the game. Three years ago, the group raised $22,000 for Regina, $41,000 went to Hamilton in 2023, while last year for Vancouver CFLFFC raised a whopping $75,000.<\/p>\n

With this November\u2019s game set for Winnipeg, all money raised will go to CancerCare Manitoba<\/p>\n

The connection between cancer research and this year\u2019s game is particularly poignant because of the health of Ted Goveia. The long-time CFL personnel man is in his first season as the Ticats general manager and is waging a battle with the disease, something that has touched both sides of the rivalry.<\/p>\n

The Burlington native worked in the Argos scouting department 2011-13, first as the director of Canadian scouting before being elevated to director of player personnel. He\u2019d win the first of his three Grey Cup rings in 2012, adding two more as Winnipeg\u2019s assistant GM and director of player personnel.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Earlier this year the Argos copied a TeamTed tee-shirt design used by the Ticats, opting to use double blue colours, with the coaches and staff members donning them for the game against the Ticats at BMO Field on July 4. The shirt features two of Goveia\u2019s non-football passions; sailing and the guitar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While the two never worked together, Goveia\u2019s paths have crossed John Murphy\u2019s several times over the last two decades. Murphy, the Argos senior advisor to the general manager, wanted to act when he heard of Goveia\u2019s illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen something in our league happens to one of us it affects all of us,\u201d Murphy told Argonauts.ca. \u201cClearly this is something we could all agree on, that no matter what team you\u2019re rooting for, or what team you work for, we\u2019ve all unfortunately had experiences with this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s encounter with cancer came in the most personal of ways. He lost his mother Lucy to the disease in April 2019. He\u2019s going to join the fan procession for a portion of their almost marathon-and-a-half length walk.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very personal,\u2019 said Murphy, who, when thinking about his mom, became uncharacteristically choked up, needing several seconds to compose himself before continuing. \u201cWhen you lose the most important person in your life to something like this, you can only imagine what Ted, and his wife, and his family are going through. Having dealt with it first person, this is something very easy to lean into.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Murphy isn\u2019t the only one contributing to the pre-game truce between rivals. Sam Quinn is a self-described Tiger-Cat fan by default from Rotherham, England. He arrived in Canada in 2004, and his first CFL experience was the Labour Day Classic that year, a heated 30-30 tie that saw four players ejected.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t have a favourite team, and living in Orangeville he had no immediate local rooting interest. Quinn fell in love with the league and picked the Argos to cheer for, but with a caveat, he wouldn\u2019t become a permanent Argo fan if they won the championship that year because he didn\u2019t want to be considered a bandwagon jumper.<\/p>\n

The Boatmen won their 15th title that year and Quinn has been in Grey Cup Hades ever since. That doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s against donning the Double Blue, albeit for one day a year.<\/p>\n

He does it to bring attention to the CFLFFC cause, hoping to raise a few bucks along the way.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThere used to be a thing in the UK called \u2018Shirt of Hurt,\u2019\u201d he explained to Argonauts.ca. \u201cIt was a BBC Sports charity initiative where it challenged fans to wear the jerseys of rival soccer or rugby teams. I figured we could do something like that here, there\u2019s no bigger rivalry in Canada than the Argos and Ticats, so I figured it would be a fun way to raise some money.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the past he\u2019s donned an Arland Bruce III Argo jersey; the same one he\u2019ll be wearing on Monday. It\u2019s something most, but not all Ticat fans have embraced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of responses have been positive when explaining the reason,\u201d said Quinn. \u201cI\u2019d would always wear a Ticat hat with the jersey, so there\u2019s always a bit of confusion. There were some people who would say things like \u2018I would never wear that, you couldn\u2019t pay me a million dollars to wear that jersey,\u2019 but at the end of the day, we\u2019re raising money for a great cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

They are.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While being best of friends during the pre-game festivities, all bets are off during the game. There\u2019s nothing each fan base wants to do more than win bragging rights on Labour Day.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a heightened importance to this game as the Argos can move to within two points of\u00a0 playoff spot with a win, while the Ticats are trying to hold off Montreal atop the East.<\/p>\n

No matter which team claims the two points, fans will be eager to share a post-game beverage, trash-talk their friends, and celebrate their contributions to an exceptionally worthwhile cause.<\/p>\n

You can donate at cflfansfightcancer.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For fans of the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the Labour Day Classic gives them a reason to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-376775","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\/376775","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=376775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}