Friday’s training-camp schedule for the Calgary Stampeders featured back-to-back morning practices at McMahon Stadium.

Black Betty returns

For a 24th consecutive season, the sounds of Black Betty were heard at McMahon over and over and over again during a training-camp day.

It was back in 1993 that equipment manager George Hopkins, annoyed by the players’ choice of music in the locker-room, found a CD with three versions of Black Betty — the song made famous by Ram Jam in 1977 — and hit the “repeat” button.

The tradition eventually developed into an all-day affair on a designated training camp day and there are now more than a dozen versions of the song, but Hopkins went back to the classic three-version mix on Friday. Not only was the song played on a loop in the locker room, it could heard on the stadium sound system throughout both morning practices.

Quotable

Receiver Rory Kohlert on being embraced by his new teammates after coming over from Winnipeg during free agency: “I feel like it’s easy to fit in. It’s such a great group of guys and the receivers are all good. They’re trying to always help me out if I have questions. They’ve made it easier for me, for sure.”

Tomorrow’s schedule

There are two more practice on Saturday. The players will be on the field from 9:05 a.m. to 11 a.m. and again from 4:20 p.m. to 6 p.m. ENG cameras will be permitted to shoot from approximately 9:05 to 9:40 a.m. during the morning session and 4:20 to 4:40 p.m. during the afternoon