Banjo Bowl Memories
Published: Thursday, Sep 7th 2023, 6:09pm
By Alex Dormuth (@RealAlexD)
Saturday afternoon is one of my favourite games on the annual CFL schedule, the Banjo Bowl. I used to think the name of it was stupid and wore out it’s welcome, but I’ve fully embraced it! I can do without the buck teeth/overall outfit that I see in Winnipeg every year, but it gets people fired up and into the game, so why not? Let’s have some fun!
Lately, it’s been tough for the Riders to win this one with the Bombers winning 6 of the last 7, but historically overall, it’s pretty close with the Bombers leading the all-time Banjo Bowl 11-7 (dating back to 2004 when the game was first named Banjo Bowl). I wasn’t able to make it to the first one, but I was able to get to the second one in 2005 and quite a few since then. Here’s some of my favourite Banjo Bowl moments from the history of the game (in no particular order):
– I’ll start with that 2005 game. I was on the Riderville.com bus trip to Winnipeg at old Canad Inns Stadium. The game was nothing to write home about, but I’ll never forget Mr. MTV, Karsten Bailey scoring the game winning touchdown for the Riders
– I’ll also never forget 2008. We were in the upper deck and getting chirped at HARD all game long from Bomber fans… until Michael Bishop decided to throw insane touchdown passes to Vincent Marshall, Gerran Walker and Weston Dressler to lead the Riders from down big to a huge victory. Those Bomber fans got awfully quiet and hit the exits pretty quickly after that…
– How about 2012 when Sandro DeAngelis kicked the game winning field goal for the Riders as time expired… How many of you FORGOT DeAngelis was on the Riders? *raises hand*
– 2011 was crazy as well. Everyone will remember the HUGE hit Craig Butler laid on Buck Pierce when the Riders crushed the Bombers 45-23!
– I also loved 2009 when Jason Armstead threw a 34 yard touchdown to Andy Fantuz (he was in! *wink*) when the Riders won 55-10!
– But my favourite might be 2018. The Riders defense scored a few times that day with TDs from Willie Jefferson and Sam Eguavoen, but that was our first Piffles Podcast Banjo Bowl Bus Trip. What a great time that was and thanks to the great Bomber fans for having us and setting us up with them to tailgate before the game!
We shared some of our favourite Banjo Bowl moments this week on The Piffles Podcast (Subscribe on YouTube!) and we want to know what are your favourite memories from the Banjo Bowl? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook or X(Twitter)!
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