EDMONTON – Lance Hackewich loves his Saskatchewan Roughriders — and he’s got a 75-year-old desiccated, positively inedible piece of history to prove it.
It’s a loaf of bread from 1951.
It sits amongst other treasured mementoes in wall-to-wall glass case displays alongside old and latest Roughrider jerseys, helmets, newspaper clippings, posters and footballs in Hackewich’s son’s old bedroom in Regina.
When the son moved out in 2019, the Rider Pride moved in, together with the bread to commemorate 1951, the yr the Riders made it to the 39 Grey Cup. They ended up losing to the Ottawa Rough Riders.
“(It) looks like a big crouton now,” Hackewich said concerning the bread in an interview from what’s often called “The Rider Room” on social media.
Don’t worry, it’s real.
“It’s still sitting within the box that I got it in. It’s got a label on it that proves what it’s.”
Hackewich is amongst those Canadian Football League superfans planning their rituals, trips to the stadium and game-day menus ahead of Sunday’s battle for the Grey Cup between the Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes.
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He said the vibe across Saskatchewan has been electric since his team defeated the B.C. Lions within the West Division final and secured a ticket to the championship game.
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Hackewich said he plans to depart Friday morning along with his son, who’s now 33, for the five-hour-plus drive to the Manitoba capital.
“There’s going to be an enormous, long line of traffic going to Winnipeg in the subsequent couple of days,” he said.
“We’ve had hotels booked for probably three months now. We don’t have tickets to the sport, but we’ll find tickets. I’m not fearful about that.”
Watching the sport along with his son is a practice. “When my son got here along, it was vital to me to take him to games and construct this bond between us,” he said.
In Saskatoon, Rider superfan Arlene Mongovius says watching the Grey Cup championship games along with her family has been a practice for nearly a century.
She said the love for the team was passed down from her 94-year-old mother, who bleeds Rider green and used to throw extravagant parties for the championship games within the Sixties.
She said her family has been meeting to look at the games in person for the last 30 years.
“We’ve family in Ontario which can be huge Roughrider fans as well, and a lot of times we’d meet up on the Grey Cup,” Mongovius said. That’s why she said she’s devastated she will be able to’t go this yr because her husband is sick.
But they’ve settled for an additional party of their front room.
She said she has been seeing green and white in all places she goes in recent days.
“We don’t produce other skilled sports teams like NHL teams so you’ll be able to consider the Saskatchewan Roughriders as our important, skilled sporting team,” she said.
Not everyone seems to be gung-ho for the Green.
In Mirabel, Que., Denis Genereux, a Montreal Alouettes superfan, says he plans to practise his rituals before he sits right down to watch with family, friends, fondue, pizza and beer of their front room, too.
“The primary superstition is just not to speak about it,” the 55-year-old consultant said in an interview.
He said he would’ve gone to Winnipeg to look at the sport but his daughter has a volleyball game the identical day that he can’t miss.
But he will likely be cheering on his team as all the time.
“I’m behind my players. I like my Alouettes. They should be at that final game,” he said.
Montreal and Saskatchewan are meeting for the third time within the Grey Cup.
The Alouettes defeated the Riders in 2009 and 2010. Montreal last won the Grey Cup in 2023 against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers while the Roughriders last held the trophy in 2013.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2025.
© 2025 The Canadian Press