To fully appreciate the playoff history between the Stampeders and the Eskimos, at least from a Calgary fan’s perspective, you have to know about the period between 1978 and 1990.

As a Stampeders supporter, if you lived through that unlucky 13-year stretch, you need no reminders about how painful it was and how easy it was to become convinced that the “EE” on the northern Albertans’ helmets stood for “Evil Empire.”

Let’s start in 1978.

After six consecutive losing seasons under five different coaches, the 1978 Stamps executed a major turnaround. Coming off a 4-12 finish in 1977 and after going 4-4-3 — yep, that’s right, three ties — in their first 11 games in 1978, the Jack Gotta-coached Stamps won their final five regular-season contests.

Then they trounced the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 38-4 in the West semifinal.

The end of the line, however, came the following week at Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium as the Stamps fell 26-13 to the Eskimos.

The following season, the Stamps took another step forward as they won a dozen games for the first time since 1967. Once again, the Red and White made short work of a semifinal opponent as this time they whipped BC 37-2. Once again, it all came to a crashing halt up north as the Stamps lost the West final to the Eskimos 19-7.

With the benefit of hindsight, the Stamps franchise’s revitalization simply had the lousy luck of coinciding with the emergence of the greatest dynasty in CFL history as the Hugh Campbell-guided, talent-laden Eskimos won five straight championships from 1978-82.

By the time the Eskimos finally relinquished their steely grasp of the Grey Cup, the Stamps were in another down cycle as Calgary had three losing seasons between 1981 and 1985 and failed to win a playoff game.

Following an especially ugly 3-13 mark in 1985, Bob Vespaziani coached the Stamps to an 11-7 record in 1986. By now, you know the story. The Stamps went up to Edmonton and saw their season come to an end with a loss to the Eskimos.

Same script in 1987.

In 1990, with a rookie head coach named Wally Buono at the Calgary controls, the Stamps finished 11-6-1 and actually got to host a playoff game against Edmonton instead of having to make the trip north to Commonwealth.

Alas, the location of the contest made no difference to the bottom line as the Eskimos eliminated the Stampeders. Again.

By 1991, when the Stamps again won 11 games and then beat BC in the West semi to earn a berth into the West final against, gulp, the Eskimos, emotionally scarred Stamps fans hoped for the best but feared the worst.

When Calgary fell behind 33-18 after three quarters, that pessimism seemed justified. But then something funny happened. The Stamps decided enough was enough and tore up the Calgary-Edmonton script that had become as predictable as a Coyote-Roadrunner cartoon.

The Stamps mounted a furious comeback that was capped with 1:02 left to play by Danny Barrett’s 67-yard touchdown pass to Pee Wee Smith, who memorably ran through the end-zone after the score and into a Commonwealth Stadium hallway leading to the locker-rooms.

Star Stampeders receiver Allen Pitts spoke for many Red and White supporters when he declared: “It’s a great feeling. The people from Calgary? They’ve got to feel something, too. For all of us to pull it together and win it the way we did, it just says a whole lot about this team. The myth is gone from here. This field, that we can’t we win? That’s gone.”

“It just seems that since I’ve been here, we’ve always been fighting for credibility,” said defensive lineman Kent Warnock. “Fans always said, ‘They can’t beat Edmonton.’ The rap was always there. Now it’s history. We beat them here with everything on the line, no excuses.”

“The Stampeders organization has taken a lot of abuse,” remarked Buono. “Partly their fault, partly that’s just the way it is. This is a different team because the attitude is different. I believe in attitude and then you go from there.”

Though the Stamps would lose to Toronto in the 1991 Grey Cup, the 1991 West final in Edmonton was nevertheless a springboard to a memorable decade. Starting with a championship in 1992, the Stamps made five trips to the Grey Cup game in 10 years and won three titles.

The run included wins against the Eskimos in 1992, 1995, 1998, 1999 and 2001. The victories in 1992, 1998 and 2001 all eventually led to a Grey Cup championship for the Red and White.

In the decade after that 2001 game — the Stamps won 34-16 as Marcus Crandell passed for 323 yards and four touchdowns — the Alberta rivals met just three times in the playoffs, with each of those three meetings taking place in the semifinal round.

In 2005, Stamps fans experienced nasty deja-vu as a dramatic improvement in the standings — from 4-14 the previous season to 11-7 — was spoiled by a playoff loss to Edmonton.

In 2009, Arjei Franklin and Romby Bryant had touchdown catches as the Stamps downed the Eskimos 24-21 at McMahon Stadium. Two years later at Commonwealth, it was the Eskimos downing the Stampeders 33-19.

Hostilities were renewed in 2014 as the Stamps thumped Edmonton 43-18 in the division final at McMahon on the way to a Grey Cup championship. Bo Levi Mitchell threw for four touchdown passes including a spectacular 78-yard catch-and-run connection with Jon Cornish.

The following year, the venue for the game was Edmonton and, this time, the Esks prevailed 45-31.

That last result gave the Eskimos a slim 12-11 lead in the all-time playoff series between the teams, so the Stamps will be looking to even the score in Sunday’s Western Final.

An interesting note is that while the Eskimos-Stampeders rivalry was born in 1949 with the debut of the Edmonton franchise, there was only one playoff meeting in the first 11 years of the football Battle of Alberta, a 1952 Eskimos victory in a two-game, total-point semifinal.

Calgary and Edmonton met three times in the 1960s (Calgary had a 2-1 edge), three times in the 1970s (2-1 advantage for Edmonton) and twice in the 1980s (both Edmonton victories).

Incredibly, the Alberta foes squared off eight times in the 1990s with the Stamps winning five of those meetings. That was part of a 16-year stretch that saw 11 Battles of Alberta in the playoffs.

Calgary-Edmonton playoff facts

First meeting: 1952 (Edmonton semifinal win)

First Calgary win: 1960 West semifinal

Total meetings: 23

West Division final meetings: 11

North Division final meetings: 1 (1995 during the U.S. expansion era)

Most consecutive years meeting in the playoffs: 4 (1990-93)

Longest period without meeting in playoffs: 7 years (1953-59 and 1971-77)

Longest Calgary win streak: 3 (1998, 1999, 2001)