EDMONTON — Lance Hakiewicz loves his Saskatchewan Roughriders — and he's got the dried-out, completely inedible piece of 75-year-old history to prove it.
This is a loaf of bread from 1951.
It sits among other treasured mementos in wall-to-wall glass cases next to old and new Roughrider jerseys, helmets, newspaper clippings, posters and footballs in Hackiewicz's son's old bedroom in Regina.
When the son moved out in 2019, Rider Pride moved in, along with bread to commemorate the 1951 year the Riders made it to the 39th Gray Cup. They ended up losing to the Ottawa Rough Riders.
“(It) looks like a big toast now,” Hakiewicz said of the bread in an interview known as “The Rider Room” on social media.
Don't worry, it's genuine.
“It’s still in the box I put it in. It has a label on it that says what it is.”
Hakevich is among a number of Canadian Football League superfans planning their rituals, stadium trips and game menus ahead of Sunday's Gray Cup battle between the Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes.
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He said the atmosphere in Saskatchewan has been tense since his team defeated the BC Lions in the West Division final to earn a berth in the championship game.
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Hakiewicz said he plans to leave Friday morning with his son, now 33, for the five-hour drive to Manitoba's capital.
“There's going to be a big, long line coming into Winnipeg over the next couple of days,” he said.
“We've had hotels booked for probably three months now. We don't have tickets for the game, but we'll find them. I'm not worried about that.”
Watching the game with my son is a tradition. “When my son came along, it was important for me to take him to games and strengthen the bond between us,” he said.
In Saskatoon, Rider super fan Arlene Mongovius says watching Gray Cup games with her family has been a tradition for nearly a century.
She said her love for the team came from her 94-year-old mother, who bled Ryder Green and threw extravagant parties before championship games in the 1960s.
She said her family has gathered to watch games in person for the past 30 years.
“We have family in Ontario who are also big Roughrider fans, and we’ve met many times at the Gray Cup,” Mongovius said. That's why she said she was upset that she couldn't go this year because her husband was sick.
But they agreed to another party in their living room.
She said she's been seeing green and white everywhere these days.
“We don’t have any other professional sports teams like the NHL teams, so you can consider the Saskatchewan Roughriders our primary professional sports team,” she said.
Not everyone is fanatical about the Greens.
In Mirabel, Quebec, Denis Genereux, a Montreal Alouettes superfan, says he plans to practice his rituals before sitting down and watching 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 traveled to Winnipeg to watch the game, but his daughter had a volleyball match scheduled that same day that he couldn't miss.
But, as always, he will root for his team.
“I support my players. I love my Alouettes. They deserve to be here for this final game,” he said.
Montreal and Saskatchewan meet for the third time in the Gray Cup.
The Alouettes defeated the Raiders 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.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
