Is Calgary’s football team in first place?

The answer is yes, yes and yes.

The Calgary Colts are at the top of junior football’s Prairie conference with an unblemished 5-0 record.

The University of Calgary Dinos are the only unbeaten team in Canada West at 3-0.

And the Calgary Stampeders are owners of a couple of long streaks — nine straight wins; unbeaten in 11 — and sit atop the CFL with a 10-1-1 record.

Add it all up and it’s one single loss — and that was all the way back in June — for Calgary’s three football clubs in 20 games.

“It’s awesome,” said rookie Stamps quarterback Andrew Buckley, a Calgary native who won two Hec Crighton trophies as the man under centre for the Dinos. “The whole city is doing well. Calgary is kind of a hotbed for football right now in Canada and it’s cool to see my alma mater doing well in the Dinos. And the Colts, too – I have a lot of friends on that team. Altogether, there’s a lot of success going on.”

“It’s very cool,” nodded Stamps offensive lineman Spencer Wilson, who was a three-time all-star for the Colts before joining his hometown CFL team. “Calgary as a whole is obviously having a good season and no one likes to play here.

“Maybe,” he added, “it’s the altitude.”

Or maybe winning is contagious, spreading from one Calgary locker room to the other.

“You don’t want to be the team in the city that’s suffering,” said Buckley, “so you always want to keep up with the guys ahead of you. We managed to do that pretty well with the Dinos, but we could have finished with a (national) championship or two. But for the most part, I thought we did pretty well.”

Buckley obviously knows the Dinos well — he led U of C to an 8-0 record a year ago — but he’s pretty familiar with the Colts, too.

“I played with some of them on the Dinos and also through high school,” explained the Rundle College alum. “A lot of them are good friends and a lot of those guys go to U of C, too.

“There’s a good Calgary football community surrounding the Dinos and the Colts and the Stampeders now, so it’s awesome.”

If the local teams can maintain the momentum, there are plenty of exciting moments in store for Calgary football fans later this fall. The Colts are on track to host a playoff game in October and the Dinos and Stamps are bidding to throw post-season parties at McMahon Stadium in November.

It’s been a great ride so far for the local gridiron heroes and let’s hope it keeps going right until the ultimate destination for each team. Buckle up, Calgary!

Calgary city skyline behind McMahon Stadium (Photo by Damian Blunt)