Harris keyed up for Riders series

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This article was published 01/09/2016 (3326 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There have been plenty of firsts for running back Andrew Harris since his return home to Winnipeg.

For Harris — now nine games into his first season of a three-year dea with the Blue and Gold — a couple of moments stick out: cheers from the home crowd as he ran through the tunnel for the first time at Investors Group Field and his first 100-yard rushing performance in a win over the Edmonton Eskimos, a game in which he also scored his first touchdown as a Bomber.

He’ll add another first to the list Sunday when he takes the field at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, in what will be his inaugural Labour Day Classic game against the arch-rival Saskatchewan Roughriders.

“As I grew up, you watch it on TV, you hear about all your friends and their shenanigans for Banjo Bowl and Labour Day,” Harris said after practice Thursday. “It just makes the game all that more exciting and gives it that playoff mentality.”

Harris spent the first six seasons of his CFL career with the B.C. Lions, a team that was rarely hyped heading into the long weekend.

Often, the Lions would either play earlier in the week (Thursday) and against the likes of Montreal or, as was the case last season, Ottawa. The matchups lacked that geographical element seen in other, more spirited games such as Calgary and Edmonton, Hamilton and Toronto, or Winnipeg and Saskatchewan.

This year, he’ll not only see two teams that are close on the map, but also have a healthy dose of hatred between two of the league’s most dedicated fan bases.

“I do have a lot of friends in Regina (outside of football) and they do hate the Bombers,” said Harris. “At the end of the day it’s all for the fun of the game and it just makes it that much more fun to watch.

“You can get that much more excited about a game, you know there’s extra stakes on the line.”

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The Bombers (5-4) will take their four-game winning streak into enemy territory, against a Riders club that sits dead last in the CFL at 1-8. But if history has shown anything, it’s previous records don’t matter much on this day.

Sunday marks the 53rd time the Riders will host the Bombers on Labour Day, dating back to 1949. In recent history, it’s been Saskatchewan who has ended up on top, winning 13 of the last 16 games since 2000.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

Every piece of reporting Jeff produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.