Wins, losses and atmosphere all play a part in the Labour Day Classic clash

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On Labor Day you know you’ve succeeded.

The other has yet to achieve victory in the big match.

Now, as a Calgary Stampeders teammate, Reggie Begelton hopes to help Adam Konar experience the right side of the annual Labour Day Classic.

“I’m excited,” said Konar, whose LDC resume consists only of losses — six total — during two tours of duty with the northern team in Edmonton. “It’s always an exciting game to play. But it’ll be fun to be on the home side for the first time — get a little different feeling.

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“And I’m looking forward to playing against those guys, seeing old friends on the field and competing against them.”

Konar hopes Monday’s battle between the home team Stampeders (4-6) and the Edmonton Elks (3-8) at McMahon Stadium (4 p.m., TSN, QR Calgary) will mark his first LDC victory.

The veteran CFL linebacker signed with the Red and White during the offseason.

“I’ve had Konar play in a lot of games when he was in Edmonton and I was here,” said receiver Begelton, also a CFL veteran but on the winning side for five of the six Labour Day games since arriving in Calgary. “And it’s good to have Adam on our team now. He’s a baller. We’re going to help him get to the other side of the winning column.”

This is certainly the case with the stamps in the LDC.

Since 2012, they have won 10 of the last 11 Labour Day meetings with their Alberta rivals.

In total, the teams have played each other 58 times on Labor Day since 1959, and the Stamps top the series at 31-26-1.

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Konar, who returns to the starting line-up after being sidelined in the previous match with a hamstring injury, will want to be on the right side of that success…

Finally.

“Calgary has always been a tough place to come to and get a win, especially on Labour Day when there’s so much more at stake,” said Konar, whose time with Edmonton was interrupted by two years with the BC Lions, which saw the Green and Gold win the LDC in 2021.

“I wouldn’t say I’ve been unlucky,” Konar continued with a laugh. “I would say Calgary has done a good job of keeping it home. I just want to keep it that way.”

That also goes for Begelton, who still remembers his first Labor Day Classic well, even though he couldn’t dress for it in his debut year in 2017.

“I always wanted to wear that black jersey in my first real Labor Day game,” Begelton said. “I didn’t get to do that. But later in the year I got to wear the black jersey in the last home game. But it’s not the same. It’s not quite the same.

“But standing on that sideline, with the jets flying overhead and everything, standing there for the first time, the adrenaline and the excitement was still there. Just standing on that sideline and being on this team in that atmosphere is a blessing.”

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Since 1982 and all but two seasons since 1969, the Stampeders have played their provincial rivals in McMahon on the first Monday in September.

It was in 1949 that the now famous Calgary-Edmonton Labour Day matchup was born, when the Alberta teams played in Edmonton for five consecutive years before the series was briefly suspended. The rivalry then resumed in 1959 with Calgary as host. And with a few exceptions, it is in this form that the tradition continues.

But sometimes that tradition – as has been the case for Konar so far – is commemorated for the wrong reasons.

“It’s funny — I always remember the losses better than the wins,” Stamps GM/head coach Dave Dickenson said. “My biggest memory was a hot, hot day — we had the old turf field, and it was hot. And we went into overtime, and we were down on third-and-1 when we were down by three. We put Mike McCoy in for the sneak, and he got in the end zone.

“But somehow they claimed they called a timeout right before the play. So we do it again and lose. That one jumps out to me.”

That was in 1999, with a 33-30 OT victory for the team from the north.

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And that was back in the days – “crazy” times, Dickenson said – when the teams turned around and played a rematch in the Labour Day Replay in Edmonton with only three days rest.

There are now four days between games, with the replay scheduled for Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium (5 p.m., TSN, QR Calgary).

“Those stories are funny,” Begelton said, when asked about the tales of the incredible three-day break between races in the annual series. “But I just look at the tasks ahead of me and I’m not worried.

“It’s a different day, but this year it’s so tight in the West Division that every game from here on out — especially against guys out West — matters. You want to win the series. We play Edmonton three times and this is the start of winning that series. We need win number one.

“So priority number one is winning,” Begelton continued. “You don’t want to go to Edmonton and try to bounce back and try to win after a loss. You want to win both, and the West is on the line. And Monday is the beginning of capturing that blessing.”

Only one win separates the arch-rivals, and only two wins separate the top and bottom teams in the West standings, further fueling the fire.

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“It’s that time of year where the CFL gets a little more intense,” Konar said. “You kind of get into that playoff spirit.”

Hopefully the fans will cooperate with this as well.

The Stamps are asking fans to fill McMahon in black, matching the players’ uniforms of course, as part of the Stampeders’ Labor Day Blackout event.

“I know we’re going to have a good crowd,” added Dickenson, whose own regular-season success against Edmonton is 14-of-18 — as sideline boss, going back to 2016 — and 32-of-40 — as Stamps coach going back to 2009. “I’m reading that sections are selling out, and I’m excited about that. I felt like Labour Day in the ’90s, you knew it was going to sell out, you knew the Jets were coming, you knew you were going to have a fight …

“And then you throw in that black Labor Day shirt, which I love, and it’s honestly a great football day.”

SHORT DISTANCE

A moment of silence and pregame salute are planned to remember Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau before Monday’s game at McMahon … OL Bryce Bell (calf) is a game-time decision for the Stampeders … Another key player joining Konar in his return to the lineup after missing the loss to the Ottawa Redblacks is offensive lineman Sean McEwen (hand). Also returning are WR Tyson Middlemost (hamstring), OL Eric Smith, DB Bailey Devine-Scott, DL Kail Dava and DL Charles Wiley … The Stamps coming out of the lineup are RB Ron Tiavaasue, WR Rysen John, OL D’Antne Demery (hand), DL George Idoko, DL Elliot Graham, DL Kwadwo Boahen (back) and DB Kenyon Reed.

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