Predicting the 2024 Saskatchewan Roughriders Plaza of Honour Class
Published: Thursday, Oct 5th 2023, 12:10pm
By Alex Dormuth (@RealAlexD)
In July, the Saskatchewan Roughriders announced the 2023 inductees into the team’s Plaza of Honour, the 2013 Grey Cup Championship Team & Wendy Kelly, where they will be enshrined forever as part of the team’s greats. While they’ll all get their deserved accolades in a few days at the Plaza of Honour Ceremony and Legends Night, it’s not too early for me to look at who should be inducted into the next class of the Plaza.
First, I’m going to omit the obvious with Darian Durant and Rob Bagg. Those two absolutely should be in the Plaza of Honour and I don’t think that should come as a surprise to anyone that I would want them in. I don’t buy this whole inducting a team thing like we will see in a few days… it’s a cop out. Both of these individuals should be in individually, no debate. Not lumped in with others like Tino Sunseri and Hilee Taylor...
Instead, I’ll start with Roy Shivers and Danny Barrett. Love them or hate them, they took an AWFUL franchise in 2000 and turned them around into contenders. I know their regular season record was very average, but come on, look at the team’s history. It’s not like there’s a longstanding tradition of being very good consistently. Roy for sure has to get in. I added Danny in there because I feel they should go in as a tandem. They took a laughing stock of a franchise and laid the foundation for what was going to be a Grey Cup winner a year after their dismissal. The Riders wouldn’t be what they are now without Roy and Danny. Fact. It’s time for them to get their rightful spot in the Plaza.
Going in with Roy and Danny should be one of the mainstays during that era of Rider Football, the great Omarr Morgan. From my understanding, they’ve tried to get him in the Plaza already, but there have been holdups in getting Omarr back to Regina. Hopefully, all can work out and one of my favourite Riders from the 2000s can come back one more time. In the CFL, you don’t often see shutdown cornerbacks, but Morgan was as close as you get. It’s just a shame he left for Edmonton in 2007 and didn’t get a Grey Cup with the Riders. I’ll never forget when he blocked a potential game winning field goal by Edmonton at Taylor Field. My season ticket buddy (ironically, his first name is Morgan) looked at me (worried that the Riders were going to lose) and said dead seriously “I’m going to block it.” Well, sure enough, Morgan was right and Morgan (Omarr) did just that, blocking the kick and securing the victory for the Riders.
Now this one, I’m not sure if they’ll do while he is a team employee, but General Manager Jeremy O’Day deserves to be in the Plaza of Honour as well. He was one of the best O-Linemen on a very solid O-Line for many years here in Saskatchewan. They don’t win the Grey Cup in 2007 without JO. He’s got the All-Star appearances and has 2 Grey Cup wins with the Riders. There aren’t many more deserving of the Plaza of Honour than Jeremy O’Day. For his sake, though, I hope that he doesn’t get in for a long time, because that would mean he is still with the team in some capacity, which would in turn mean success on the field for the Riders. I think he’d much rather have that right now, but when the day comes, JO definitely needs to get into the Plaza.
Honourable Mentions (who should get in sometime soon): Jackie Mitchell, Marcus Adams, Kenton Keith
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