Strangely, at the end of a Canadian Football League season in which anonymity could have been the dominant theme, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats have rarely been so widely noticed.

Until the last couple of weeks, the 21 {+s} t century had not been very kind to the Tiger-Cats, nor they to it. A four-year playoff drought, no Grey Cup appearances in 14 years, one playoff victory in more than a decade, a bitter, polarizing bankruptcy in 2003, an even-more polarizing 2011 debate around the Pan Am stadium location, a parade of failure from once marquee quarterbacks who could not make a dent here, three different head coaches and three different general managers in the past three years, the prospect of an entirely homeless, identityless 2013 as the Cats couldn't land McMaster's stadium for home games during stadium construction and were, it appeared at the time, simply banished to Guelph.

After four years of CFL insiders anticipating a Tiger-Cat breakout into the upper echelons of the league, the insiders finally gave up anticipating. Three seasons where they lost as many as they won, followed by a 2012 in which they finished last, and the dawning of a 2013 where they wouldn't practise where they played and wouldn't play or shower, where they practised was quite enough.

The analysts, and many Hamilton fans, said roughly the same thing: Good luck, Cats, we'll check back in next year, when you are in the same place every day, when you aren't starting with a brand new coaching staff, when you aren't trying to break in an entire new defence and when you are, in all likelihood, coming off another undistinguished season.

And, to top, or bottom, it all off this spring, Chris Williams, the most riveting player to wear black and gold in years, staged a wildcat strike. He wanted out of his contract and into the National Football League. The Cats fought his action and eventually won on one principle, then lost on another, but, in either case, the result was the same. Their best player had become an ex-Ticat.

So the season began draped with worry beads and went downhill in the first month. The business side of the franchise had done a marvellous job, adding 10,000 seats to Guelph's Alumni Stadium, professionalizing the situation while still maintaining local ambience, but weather intruded and kept intruding most of the season.

The very first game was an indescribable environmental horror with torrential rains flooding the surrounding grounds, choking visibility and leaving fans memorably drenched with nowhere to seek shelter, and unable to appreciate the pastoral pleasures of Alumni, which the young off-field staff had worked so desperately hard to create.

The Tiger-Cats were also defeated in their home opener, as they were a lot the opening month. They had but a single victory after five games, were laced with serial injury and performance issues that eventually gave their roster the largest single-season turnover in CFL history, and the young defence was being exposed — as in torched — game after game. Popular linebacker Markeith Knowlton, the league's best defensive player only three years ago, was cut, incensing the fans who had stayed with them to Guelph.

Quarterback Henry Burris got off to a brilliant start as did receiver Andy Fantuz and a couple of new offensive stars, C.J. Gable and Craig Ellingson, were emerging. However, by Game 2, Fantuz was injured and sidelined for five games. And the pressure on the offence was stultifying: If they couldn't score 30 points, the Ticats could not win.

And then, in early August, things began to change. Slowly and, in some critical areas, imperceptibly.

Team president Scott Mitchell had been a lonely voice as he insisted throughout the early summer there was a public misperception about the severity of the obstacles the Cats were facing. He said that new coach and general manager Kent Austin was crafting a team culture that would make Guelph a true "home" field, that other CFL teams (such as Montreal and Toronto) don't practise where they play and that the team's downtown offices, with the large basement converted to a football locker-room and gym, would unify the team.

And Mitchell was right.

Austin would not let injuries nor unusual practice/game arrangements become an excuse. He scorned the "circle the wagons" approach used by so many teams for motivation in the face of trying circumstances, as a safety-net-seeking weakness. He and his staff stressed accountability and encouraged togetherness.

It was Austin's idea to create the downtown locker-room and no decision — other than the one to hire Austin — had a greater impact on this team this season. The daily, but short, bus rides to Mac galvanized a team with dozens of new faces and players began looking forward to them. That, in turn, made the game-day bus rides to Guelph less of a minor-league echo than an extension of the daily group hug.

On the field, things began to change on the Friday night of the Civic Holiday weekend, when the Cats went into Edmonton and withstood a furious Eskimos rally to win just their second game of the season. It was closer than it should have been, as so many games to come would be, but the Cats did not capitulate and lose. Quietly, they were learning how to win.

That was the first game of their current 11-4 run and also introduced the running package of Dan LeFevour as a staple of the rejigged offence. Opposing teams now had to plan against two completely different offensive systems.

The Ticats won three in a row but two were against Winnipeg and one against Edmonton, two teams going exactly nowhere, so they didn't get much acclaim for their little burst of victories. But that was the first step in reaching the highest level: separating themselves from the lowest one. And, without attracting attention, the defence was gradually whittling away their points against.

Austin began explaining that true improvement is rarely a linear progression. There are quick steps forward, then backward, and quite a few sideways. The Cats would follow an uplifting win with a depressing loss where some improvements of the previous week would be nowhere to be seen.

The inconsistency on the scoreboard, though, was masking a growing consistency in lineup and mental attitude. As some injured players returned, and new defensive co-ordinator Orlondo Steinauer got better reads on his personnel, the defensive line and secondary were whittled to a predictable group of starters, plus a couple of reliable backups. Injuries still played a role, but not the defining one.

And the forced time together at 1 Jarvis and on the bus was sculpting a useful team-first motif, best exemplified by Burris not complaining about reduced playing time.

It all jelled in October. The Ticats, still two games below .500, swept the defending champion Toronto Argonauts in a home-and-home series, then, after being annihilated in Montreal, came right back to beat the Montreal Alouettes, amid gusting winds at Guelph, clinching a home playoff spot.

After they won that playoff in overtime over Montreal, the 2013 Ticats were no longer unknown and remote. They were a STORY, everyone's darlings, the nomads taking root, and 2,000 tickets to the East final were sold right after their win over Montreal.

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Although conventional CFL wisdom dictates it's hard to beat any team three times in the same season, Burris's second-half domination last Sunday to give the Ticats an unanticipated berth in the Grey Cup, was their third victory of the year over the Argos. They also beat Montreal three times and Winnipeg four. Around the Ticats, this was not a year for conventional wisdom, of any kind.

And now that the Cats are under the probing Grey Cup spotlight, what they've endured and defeated since those undistinguished beginnings will be illuminated nationally.

As it should be.