Steve Milton: Ticats vs. Argos: Ten years of Labour Day Classics
From various points in the stadium you can see just about everything which defines Hamilton: the mountain, the mills, the lake, the housing disparities, the one-way streets, the 1930 British Empire Games swimming pool.
And, on Monday afternoon, the return of the Labour Day Classic.
After a year's absence, Tim Hortons Field will play host to the annual civic strut-a-thon which features the Hamilton Tiger-Cats against the Toronto Argonauts for the 50th time since the old Tigers and Wildcat teams amalgamated into the Ticats in 1950.
It is a standalone game, divorced by history and symbolism from those before and after it.
It is also an identity game. Community identity: some of it based on outmoded stereotypes of hard hats and three-piece suits, full sentences and Argos Suck!" Attachment identity: the Ticats mean something because they speak to something in us and Labour Day is the lightning rod for that something. Personal identity: time surges on and Labour Day has become time's marker for at several generations of Hamilton individuals and families.
It's a little bit tough to put into words," says Ticat head coach Orlondo Steinauer, who has been involved in a quarter-century of Classics as a player and a coach for both teams. You have to feel it, you have to be part of it. Labour Day is special. It's a fun rivalry, a lot of history, there's a different buzz. It's covered differently by the media.
It's going to be special, playing in front of our home crowd again. They deserve this. Everyone in our organization deserves this, the people of this city deserve this."
With the pandemic killing the 2020 CFL season, this will be the Ticats first home game in 659 days. And while there have been other teams to play here on Labour Day (what were they thinking?) and even a year without a Hamilton home game (ditto!), this is always about Hamilton-Toronto, and in the majority of cases, about jubilantly humiliating the larger city. In the 49 previous Argo-Ticat Labour Days, there was one unsatisfying tie but otherwise Hamilton has won 35 times and lost just 13.
The Argos have won exactly zero of the six Labour Day Games at Tim Hortons Field, and won just once on Labour Day in the most recently completed decade. To kick off the 2020s, here is a recap of Labour Day in the 20-teens:
Sept. 2, 2019: Hamilton 38, Toronto 27
This chunk of local eye candy featured the largest differential in won-lost records in the history of Ticat-Argo Labour Days, but Toronto (1-8) jumped to a 24-3 lead over the Ticats who were 8-2. Then Dane Evans took over. Evans, who had replaced injured Jeremiah Masoli five weeks earlier, completed 19 straight passes in the second half, during which the Ticats outscored their stunned visitors 27-3. Evans went on to lead the Ticats into the Grey Cup with the best record (15-3) in franchise history. Just for fun, the Labour Day game started with a massive brawl, resulting in several player ejections.
Sept. 3, 2018: Hamilton 42, Toronto 28.
Lightning struck a light standard and a pre-game concert was cancelled but the skies had cleared by kickoff. The Ticats blew a 14-point lead and gave up a 100-yard touchdown run off a fumble by Hamilton's Alex Green. But Green eventually score twice himself, Brandon Speedy" Banks also had a couple of touchdowns and Jeremiah Masoli had his eighth game of the season with more than 300 passing yards. All-time Ticat Luke Tasker, the 2021 colour commentator on Hamilton's audio broadcasts, had a touchdown and 143 receiving yards, as the Ticats began to reclaim the home-field strength which had eluded it for nearly three years.
Sept. 4, 2017: Hamilton 24, Toronto 22
Lightning did affect this game, delaying the start by two hours and eight minutes, then striking the Argonauts right in the heart. C.J. Gable scored the one-yard winning touchdown with less than three minutes remaining on the clock and less than half an hour remaining in Sept. 4. Many of the faithful were long gone, but plenty remained to see the Ticats' only win of the season to that point. It was June Jones' first game as head coach, replacing Kent Austin who, as vice-president of football, remained as Jones's boss. Jones replaced quarterback Zach Collaros with Jeremiah Masoli and immediately promoted Speedy Banks to full-time receiver. Banks responded with a 64-yard touchdown pass reception and is now the CFL's reigning most outstanding player.
Sept. 5, 2016: Hamilton 49, Toronto 36
At one point, with the Argos' Ricky Ray and Ticats' Zach Collaros combining to throw for 700 yards and seven touchdowns, TSN play-by-play announcer Chris Cuthbert rhetorically asked, Do you think we can call it a classic?" Indeed it was. The Ticats wiped out a 20-point first-half deficit, picked off a Ray pass with the Argos on the Ticat two-yard line, and returned another interception for a touchdown. Both teams had trouble tackling and avoiding disastrous penalties, but it kept the place rocking all game.
Sept. 7, 2015: Hamilton 42, Toronto 12
This was only the second time in 43 years (the other was 1989) that first place in the CFL East was at stake in the Labour Day Classic. The Argos never had a chance against the Tiger-Cats who were still smarting from a big, messy loss in Montreal the previous week. Hamilton piled up 502 offensive yards, more than twice Toronto's total and Zach Collaros stuck it to his former team, throwing for 400 yards and four touchdowns on a blazingly hot afternoon.
Sept. 1, 2014: Hamilton 13, Toronto 12
The first event, ever, at Tim Hortons Field and in a symbolic gesture, Ticats' head coach Kent Austin dedicated the game ball to the patient Hamilton fans. The Tiger-Cats had played 32 straight games away from the city - including the 2013 Grey Cup in Regina and 10 home" games in Guelph - after Ivor Wynne Stadium was torn down and the new field built on the same spot. Construction delays postponed the debut until, oh-so-fittingly, Labour Day and final approval to play was received only hours. before Parts of the unfinished stadium remained closed with the crowd capped at 18,000. The Ticats won all eight of their 2014 games at Tim Hortons Field and narrowly lost the Grey Cup to Calgary.
Sept. 2, 2013. No Game.
Absolutely inexcusable. And inexplicably, everyone in the country still called this Labour Day. But with no Ticat home game, Hamiltonians didn't know whether to go to school or not the next day. Because limited dates at the Rogers Centre forced the Argos to play a home game on Tuesday, Sept. 3, the first Monday in September was sandwiched between the B.C. Lions visiting the Ticats at Guelph's Alumni Stadium on the Friday night and the Hamilton playing in Vancouver the eight days later. Just one more oddity from the Guelph Year."
Sept. 3, 2012: Toronto 33, Hamilton 30
It was the final Labour Day Game at Ivor Wynne Stadium, and the kind of close affair Toronto normally loses, rather than wins, against Hamilton in early September. It was just the third of 10 Argo-Ticat Labour Day Classics decided by three or fewer points which went Toronto's way. Swayze Waters' last-minute field goal was the difference. Their only Labour Day loss of the decade helped the Ticats miss the playoffs in what was supposed to be a glorious send-off season for the wrecking-ball-bound stadium.
Sept. 5, 2011: Hamilton 44, Montreal 21
Unless Toronto or Hamilton drops out of the league, this will never happen again. (Like the following year, Rogers Centre scheduling was the real culprit) A not-Argos team in here on Labour Day? We're not even going to count this one. But for the record - somebody else's - tough defence and Kevin Glenn's controlled 14-for-18 in completions pushed the Ticats to the victory over the Alouettes, who were quarterbacked by Hall of Famer, Anthony Calvillo.
Sept. 6, 2010: Hamilton 28, Toronto 13
In the opening year of the century's second decade, the Argos were a game ahead of the Ticats coming into the game, but not coming out of it. The Argonauts had the ball more often, racked up more first downs and offensive yardage, but this was Labour Day, so the Tiger-Cats forced more key turnovers, scored more points and the receiving corps was led by Dave Sticky" Stala, the graduate of Cathedral High School. A perfect spectacle for the 30,000-plus in attendance at aging Ivor Wynne.
Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com