He's big, he's fun, he gives away BBQs

Road Tour veteran Big Fun Rick gives away a barbecue....

2008 road tour highlights

Some of this year's road tour highlights:

- Dirty Don, Robin and Adam go on the double bubble; train to Toronto, hitch a ride to Hamilton with Amor, ride back to TO, fly to Montreal, then drive back to Ottawa
- Amor ensures that fun is had by all in the 'Toe as Mulley joins the group at the Vanier where Laval wins big and the world's cheesiest marching band entertains fans
- Robin and Dirty get "urgently paged" to their flight but still make it
- The rest of the gang drives or trains to Montreal for the Grey Cup
- Kenny meets Itty Bitty Pinball at the Bar-B-Barn where the ribs are good eatin'
- Several attendees skip the Spirit of Edmonton instead going to the "Spirit of Paris". Other establishments attended include Winston's and Hurley's.
- Grey Cup village is big fun, featuring good tunes and lots of crazy fans including one Sask fan that was into the shooters and had his shirt off by 1pm.
- Kenny, Jerred and Towny drink the Grey Cup tent out of whiskey by 2pm
- Hotel Maritime is HQ right in the heart of the action downtown
- With a booking screw up, Kenny has a room to himself on Saturday night. As they insisted on charging him, Kenny slept in it solo just to smite them. He pushed the 2 beds together and slept sideways, then had a "ménage a un" and incurred an excessive waste charge
- The metro ride to the Big Owe for the game is a tad packed
- Our seats are in the 400s in Row U....and there ain't no Row V
- Kenny makes himself up a Rough Riders helmet for the big game - home made with black paint in his room the night before

Quebec City to host Vanier in 2009 and 2010

Laval to host Vanier Cup
The Canadian Press

December 11, 2008 at 6:20 PM EST

OTTAWA — The Laval Rouge et Or need two more Vanier Cup championships to become the winningest school in Canadian university football history.

And if all goes right, they might be able to accomplish the feat on their home field at PEPS Stadium in Quebec City.

Laval was awarded hosting rights to the 2009 and 2010 Vanier Cup games by Canadian Interuniversity Sport on Thursday, beating out a series of last-minute bids.

Next year's contest will mark first time the Vanier Cup is played in Quebec and just the second time it's played outside Ontario. Saskatoon hosted the 2006 game, when Laval beat Saskatchewan 13-8.

The CIS made its decision after spending an extra week and a half deliberating over where to take the game.

No party sent in a proposal ahead of the bidding deadline last month and the Rouge et Or submitted a plan during this year's Vanier Cup in Hamilton, when they won their fourth title in six years and fifth overall by hammering Western Ontario 44-21.

Only the Mustangs, with six, have won more championships.

Laval's offer led to a slew of last-minute bids ahead of last week's CIS board meetings and a decision was put off until Wednesday.

Ultimately, the body opted to bring the game to the country's university football attendance leader instead of going with bids from Saint Mary's (2009), Western Ontario (2010) and marketing company MRX, which presented several different plans.

"CIS is pleased to be taking the Vanier Cup on a road trip of sorts to a part of the country that is crazy about university football," said Marg McGregor, chief executive officer of the CIS.

"The outstanding spectator support for football, the tailgate parties, the intense media interest, the growth of football in the community and school system, and the unique linguistic and cultural elements of Quebec City are all assets Laval brings to the table."

Laval has by far enjoyed the country's best attendance for the past decade, boasting a total of 449,400 fans for 32 games over the past five years alone — an average of 14,044 per contest.

School officials say 10,000 seats for the Vanier Cup games will be sold automatically to Laval's season-ticket holders and that a sell-out will be a near certainty.

The school plans to add 3,000 temporary seats for the two finals.

That would be a boost after a poor crowd of 13,873 took in this year's game at Ivor Wynne Stadium.

Last year, Manitoba's 28-14 victory over Saint Mary's drew a crowd of 26,787 to the Rogers Centre, when the Vanier Cup was paired with the Grey Cup. It was the Vanier's largest audience since 29,178 took in Calgary's 54-24 win over Western in 1995 at what was then called the SkyDome in Toronto.

A sell-out of 12,567 watched the 2006 game at Saskatoon's Griffiths Stadium while Laurier's 24-23 win over Saskatchewan was watched by 16,827 at Ivor Wynne Stadium back in 2005.

2008 Rookie of the Year

Congrats to 2008 Rookie of the Year, Rob Townend. Rob was the only rookie, so I guess he won by default. But hey, as Terry Greer said in 2007, "A win is a win".

The honour roll of years gone by:

1999: Lincoln Jefferies
2000: Steve Sharp
2001: Spencer Grabe
2002: Brent Grieve
2003: "Cuzin'" Bill Latimer
2004: Donny "Bohonos" McMullen
2005: Keith Walthers
2006: NOT AWARDED - no rookie had the guts to come to Sask with us
2007: Andre Barrette

Pictures from the 2008 Tour

Send me your pictures! Here are a few:

J-Rock supports bringing back the Rough Riders.



IT Loney, Shawze and Smitty got tickets to the Maxim Party on Friday night, and have the pics to prove it.

2008 Celebrity Sightings

Well, the 2008 crop of Celebs on this year's tour was not quite as large as last year in Toronto, but we did manage to meet a few big wheels.

Dominique Dorsey: Argo's special team expert was in the Bar-B-Barn.

Michael "Itty Bitty Pinball" Clemons: Argo's executive, former player and head coach and all around great guy. He was in the Bar-B-Barn too. Kenny G got his picture taken with Pinball. Kenny: "You're the best, Pinball, I love you man." Pinball: "I love you too". I think this is the third time the Pinball has been on our celeb list.



Georges St-Pierre: IT Loney was lucky enough to be in an urinal next to GSP, ultimate fighter extraordinaire. Apparently IT challenged him to a loser leaves town match, but Georges declined.

Jeff Hunt: IT Loney also ran into Ottawa 67s owner and CFL hopeful owner Jeff Hunt. Bring back them Rough Riders!