Description

Saskatchewan is the home to Rider Nation, the rowdiest and most passionate football fans in Canada–and hey, what other sports fans wear hollowed-out watermelons on their heads? Featuring exclusive interviews with legendary players and coaches, Graham Kelly provides fresh insight into the defining moments in Roughrider history:

– In 1948, the team switched colours from red and black to green and white after a club executive bought two sets of football sweaters on sale in Chicago for a price he couldn’t pass up!

– The Banjo Bowl, the annual grudge match with Winnipeg, got its name in 2004 after Blue Bomber Troy Westwood called Saskatchewanians “a bunch of banjo-pickin’ inbreds”; the two teams now play for a $10,000 charity prize

– In 16 years with the Riders, quarterback Ron Lancaster held more than 20 CFL records and played a key role in the team’s first-ever Grey Cup win in 1966

– Relive the agony and the ecstasy of each Rider Grey Cup victory and the disastrous mistakes that cost them four championships, including the infamous 2009 13th man boondoggle

– Even when times are tough, they’re never dull. Who else began a playoff game before a half-empty stadium, only to finish with a full house? Or lost a game because of a thunderstorm? Or lost fan support because the general manager wouldn’t take his hat off?

Sometimes being a Rider fan hurts…even with a watermelon on your head!