EDMONTON – Do it for Larry.
When the Elks lineup against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday night in front of roughly 30,000 fans in Commonwealth Stadium, it will be exactly as Elks owner Larry Thompson would have wanted.
“Larry loved football. Larry loved crowds at Commonwealth,” Elks President and CEO Chris Morris said. “Larry was devastated when his first couple of games here, when he saw the crowds and what had happened to them. His desire to bring entertainment to the fans here was unparalleled.”
“The amount of money he wanted to put in here to have fireworks and to have footballs going into the stands and to make sure that every kid left here with a football and to make sure that every kid had a great experience, he’d talk about those things all the time. He wanted the best for this community.”
The passionate owner of the Green and Gold passed away on Thursday, but he leaves behind the foundation of a team trending in the right direction. Despite the team’s record, they have been competitive in every game outside of an early season matchup against the BC Lions. They are doing it with the youngest team in the CFL, and will dress a roster against Saskatchewan where 13 of their 22 offensive and defensive starters are in their first or second year of CFL football.
It’s tough to say with a little luck (and a few less last second field goals) the Elks could easily be a playoff team right now. However, the Elks can’t concern themselves with the hypotheticals. Edmonton enters the contest against the Roughriders with their backs against the wall, essentially needing to run the table if they hope to extend their season into November.
Motivation will certainly not be in short supply, so who is to say they can’t do it?
“What we just talked about as a football team is the best way that we can honour Larry is by representing the Green and Gold and the Double E the right way in everything that we do,” Elks Head Coach Mark Kilam said about the motivation. “That’s what we plan on doing.”
The journey starts tomorrow. Behind the team on Saturday will be a raucous crowd at Play Alberta Field, marking back-to-back games where Edmonton has packed the stands for the Green and Gold.
The hope is the Elks give the fans something to get loud about. It could be the scrappy veteran guile shown by quarterback Cody Fajardo – who is currently on pace to be just the third CFL player to complete more than 75 per cent of his passes in a single season. Maybe it’s the explosive ability of running back Justin Rankin who has racked up the most big plays in the CFL this season, along with his nearly 1,400 total yards and 10 touchdowns.
Whoever it ends up being, it was the players that wore the Green and Gold that made Larry love his local team. His favourite player wasn’t the superstar Warren Moon, or the electric Gizmo Williams (although he certainly did love them) — it was the type of player a blue-collar guy can’t help but appreciate in the hard-nosed linebacker Dan Kepley.
With 30,000 fans in the stands, maybe the Elks can put on a performance on Saturday that makes someone fall in love with the team in the same way that Larry did.
“Larry’s dream was to have this place become a special part of Edmonton again,” Morris said. “He wanted to revive this franchise to be everything it ever has been in the past to everybody in this community.”