By Stampeders.com Staff

The Stampeders’ July 13 home game against the Toronto Argonauts — being on a Monday and all — may seem like an oddity but there’s historical precedent for the start-of-the-work-week scheduling.

The first regular-season game in Calgary franchise history was played on a Monday — a Sept. 2, 1946 home date with the Regina Roughriders.

That was a Labour Day — a pre-cursor to many more holiday Monday contests at both Mewata Stadium and McMahon Stadium — but the 1946 Stamps, a full 24 years before ABC’s Monday Night Football and Howard Cosell and that famous theme song, actually played four of the eight contests during their inaugural season on a Monday.

For the most recent Monday contest played at McMahon — excluding Labour Day and Thanksgiving — you have to go back to some very special circumstances in 2001.

The game between the Stamps and Saskatchewan Roughriders had been scheduled for Friday the 14th but the matchup was postponed in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

There was a very unique atmosphere at McMahon when the rescheduled game was played on Monday, Sept. 17. There was lingering shock and somber reflection about the horrifying events from the previous week. There was also a feeling of solidarity among everyone present that night as, in the face of great sadness, an attempt was made to make a small step towards a return to normalcy in defiance of actions that were an affront to humanity in general and Americans in particular.

Many stars-and-stripes flags were waved in the McMahon Stadium stands that night and the pre-game portion included the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner and the introduction of the American players, along with their hometowns, on both teams.

On the surface, it was only a football game but in reality it meant so much more.

“It was real hard at first,” Stampeders running back Kelvin Anderson, a South Bend, Ind., native, admitted after the game. “I got real emotional when they played our national anthem.”

“It was very emotional at the time,” agreed Calgary quarterback and Chicagoan Ben Sankey, “but it was good we all got together and got back into a routine.”

The Stamps won the game 21-14, but Red and White head coach Wally Buono was impressed with his team for more reasons than just the victory.

“Life is so much more than football,” said Buono. “Football is an emotional game, so to be able to get yourself up to play when you don’t feel like it is a real tribute to these guys.”

Stamps alumnus Will Johnson, then and still a member of the Calgary Police Service, held an American flag on the field during the pre-game ceremonies.

“Proud,’” Johnson said afterwards. “I was proud to be there, to do that. When I was asked, I didn’t hesitate. It was emotional for me, sure.

“I live here. I work here. I’m comfortable here. But I’m an American, born in Louisiana. I’m a patriot. I still have my U.S. citizenship. I have family in the States, near Atlanta.

“If you don’t hurt when you see something like this happen, you’re nothing more than a robot.”