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HAMILTON — There is a sign above the home locker-room entrance at Commonwealth Stadium that reads: Once an Eskimo, Always an Eskimo.

And Calvin McCarty seems to be taking it literally.

The Edmonton Eskimos fullback and longest-serving member of said locker-room, where he has spent all 13 of his seasons in the Canadian Football League, is playing in his 200th game Friday against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (5 p.m., TSN, 630 CHED).

“Two hundred, it’s a lot obviously,” said the elder statesman of the Eskimos roster. “In a young-man’s game, it means a lot. Its not something you think about when you first come in, but to get there and be up there with some of those names on the list, and see those names up there on the ring of honour and through the Eskimos hallways, it means a lot.”

Not many players ever reach the 200-game mark of their careers. And barely a fraction of those who do are running backs.

But McCarty has beaten the odds, after arriving on scene as a tailback out of Western Washington, via Biose State.