Article content continued

“Frankly, I think the original reaction was that it was a joke not to be taken seriously because, on top of everything else, the CFL would never award us the big game.

“In those days, we were the poor Riders — one telethon away from the abyss — and the league bigwigs and rich private owners weren’t giving the Grey Cup to us under any circumstances.”

That was the mindset at the time, anyway.

Fast forward to Thurs., Feb. 21, 2019, when the focus is on 2020 foresight.

The CFL is poised to announce which city — Regina, Hamilton or Montreal — will stage the 2020 Grey Cup.

If Regina is not awarded the 2020 Grey Cup, bet on 2021.

Either way, the Queen City’s fourth Grey Cup game is a given.

And they said it couldn’t be done.

John Lipp was not among the naysayers.

In 1988, Lipp attended the Grey Cup in Ottawa and took note of how the capacity at Lansdowne Park had been increased to 50,000 by temporary seating.

Lipp, who succeeded Kershaw as president, also observed that Winnipeg had staged a successful Grey Cup in 1992. If the Manitoba weather was not an obstacle, why would there be climate-related issues in Regina?

The initial timetable, advanced by Kershaw, was modified over time. Instead of bidding for the 1993 event, the Roughriders took advantage of that year’s Grey Cup week to intensify their focus on 1995.

One conversation with Larry Smith, who was the CFL’s commissioner at the time, stands out.

“I told him, ‘Larry, we’re going to try to bid for a Grey Cup,’ and that we had been able to overcome the stadium thing,” Lipp recalled. “He said, ‘Sure! Why don’t you? Give it a shot.’ He was very encouraging.”