Roughrider and Alouette superfans prepare for the Gray Cup

EDMONTON – Lance Hackewich loves his Saskatchewan Roughriders – and he has a 75-year-old, dried-out, absolutely inedible piece of history to prove it.

It’s a loaf of bread from 1951.

It sits among other cherished mementos in wall-to-wall display cases next to old and new Roughrider jerseys, helmets, newspaper clippings, posters and footballs in Hackewich’s son’s old bedroom in Regina.

When the son moved in 2019, Rider Pride moved in, along with the bread commemorating 1951, the year the Riders reached the 39 Gray Cup. They ultimately lost to the Ottawa Rough Riders.

“(It) looks like a big crouton now,” Hackewich said of the bread in an interview from what is known as “The Rider Room” on social media.

Don’t worry, it’s real.

“It’s still in the box I got it in. There’s a label on it that proves what it is.”

Hackewich is among the Canadian Football League superfans planning their rituals, trips to the stadium and game-day menus ahead of Sunday’s Gray Cup battle between the Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes.

He said the atmosphere in Saskatchewan has been electric since his team defeated the BC Lions in the West Division final and secured a ticket to the championship game.

Hackewich said he plans to leave Friday morning with his son, now 33, for the more than five-hour drive to Manitoba’s capital.

“There’s going to be a big, long line of traffic heading into Winnipeg over the next few days,” he said.

“We’ve probably had hotels booked for three months now. We don’t have tickets for the match, but we’ll find tickets. I’m not worried about that.”

Watching the match with his son is a tradition. “When my son came along, I thought it was important to take him to games and build this bond between us,” he said.

In Saskatoon, Rider superfan Arlene Mongovius says watching the Gray Cup championship games with her family has been a tradition for almost a century.

She said the love for the team was passed down from her 94-year-old mother, who bleeds Rider Green and threw extravagant parties for championship games in the 1960s.

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She said her family has been gathering to watch the games in person for the past 30 years.

“We have family in Ontario who are also big Roughrider fans, and we met often at the Gray Cup,” Mongovius said. That’s why she said she’s devastated that she can’t go this year because her husband is sick.

But they settled for another party in their living room.

She said she has been seeing green and white everywhere for the past few days.

“We don’t have any other professional sports teams like NHL teams, so you can think of the Saskatchewan Roughriders as our premier, professional sports team,” she said.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about Groen.

In Mirabel, Que., Montreal Alouettes superfan Denis Genereux says he plans to practice his rituals before sitting down to watch with family, friends, fondue, pizza and beer in their living room.

“The first superstition is not to talk about it,” the 55-year-old consultant said in an interview.

He said he would have gone to Winnipeg to watch the game, but his daughter has a volleyball game the same day that he can’t miss.

But he will cheer on his team as always.

“I support my players. I love my Alouettes. They deserve to be there for that last game,” he said.

Montreal and Saskatchewan meet for the third time in the Gray Cup.

The Alouettes defeated the Riders in 2009 and 2010. Montreal last won the Gray 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.

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