Well, this certainly wasn't in the plan, and the plan has certainly changed.

Labour Day on the horizon and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats go into the defining day of Hamilton football at, read 'em and weep, 0-and-8.

John Chick is gone and others may follow, and there is plenty of call-in and cyberspace braying for head coach Kent Austin's job.

There are points to be made on both sides of that discussion but, for now, let's look at what the Ticats have done about their coaches during, and after, other seasons in which they limped into Labour Day about as hopelessly as this one.

Be aware, though, that outside of 12 years ago, the actions and reactions were by different ownership groups. And while current owner Bob Young was on the scene in 2005, his main man Scott Mitchell was not.

2005: (5-13 overall record)

The Ticats lost their first eight games of the season and came into Labour Day at 1-9 before clobbering the Argos, but went on to miss the playoffs. GM Ron Lancaster had been shifted to running football operations and was replaced by Rob Katz after six games, but Greg Marshall was retained as head coach. However, he was on a short leash and was replaced by Lancaster after four games in 2006 when the team went 4-14.

2003: (1-17)

Big-time Bizzaro World. The team won just a single game, and that was in overtime, and went bankrupt partway through the year, so the CFL ran the Tiger-Cats on a shoestring, which was one lace more than owners David McDonald and David Grant had been running it on. They came into Labour Day at 0-10, were edged by the Argos on Mad Monday and finished 1-17, the worst mark in modern CFL history. Lancaster kept his job for the season - there was no money for a replacement - but his successful six-year run as head coach ended afterward. Bob Young bought the team, named Marshall as coach at Christmas and Hamilton finished 9-8-1 in 2004.

1997: (2-16)

The second-worst record in Ticats history. They came into Labour Day 1-8 after having fired head coach Don Sutherin three weeks earlier and replacing him with Urban Bowman. They were hammered by the Cup-bound Argos on the first Monday in September. Lancaster, Danny McManus and Darren Flutie arrived as saviours for the next season (12-5-1) and, because the defence was relatively commendable in 1997, Sutherin returned as defensive co-ordinator.

1991 (3-15)

Two days before Labour Day, the Ticats fired the forgettable David Beckman. Like this year, they were 0-8 going in. They hammered the Argos 48-24 under new coach John Gregory. But then they reverted to form and lost five in a row. It was the first time in Tiger-Cat history that the team had missed the playoff two years in a row, but the next season Gregory and the 'Cats went 11-7 and reached the conference final.

1985 (8-8)

This is the result the Ticats probably thought, until recently, that they could repeat this year. The Ticats were only 1-6 heading into Labour Day but beat Montreal (the CFL was dumber about Labour Day then), went 7-2 the rest of the way and made it to the Grey Cup, but lost to B.C. Head coach Al Bruno was retained and, in 1986 (9-8-1), won the Grey Cup.

1978 (5-10-1)

Hamilton came to Labour Day, when they beat the Argos, at 1-5-1 after new owner Harold Ballard had fired brand new head coach Tom Dimitroff Sr. (father of the Atlanta Falcons' GM) after just five games. John Payne handled the club after mid-August and spent two more years at the helm. The Ticats lost in the first round of the playoffs, and in 1979 improved by one point to 6-10.

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1960 (4-10)

The season started much later, so the Cats were only 0-4 coming into Labour Day and missed the playoffs for the first time since the Tigers united with the Wildcats in 1950. Jim Trimble kept his job as head coach, and went to 10-4 the following season.

1949 (Wildcats 0-12)

OK, so this was before the pre-Labour Day football and also before the Tiger-Cats, but it's the season that engendered them. The Wildcats' Big Four schedule started on Labour Day with a loss to the Argos and never got any better. That convinced football operators in this town that there was room for only one pro-senior team, so the Wildcats merged with the Tigers who were 10-2, replacing the Wildcats in the old (amateur) ORFU. Neither the Wildcats' Frank Gnup nor the Tigers' Murray Griffin was invited to coach the inaugural Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1950. Oklahoman Carl Voyles took the Ticats to a 7-5 record and an Eastern final loss to the Argos.