Tiger-Cats roar past 100 wins post Ivor Wynne era, set sights on win 101 in Vancouver against Lions
One hundred and counting.
But for now they are only counting to one: the one they’re playing at B.C. Place Sunday night, when they hope to elongate their winning stretch to five straight games.
When the Tiger-Cats moved that streak to four straight—sweeping the East over a stunning five-week period—with a narrow 23-20 victory in Ottawa last Sunday night, it was the 100th regular-season win for the franchise since the “new era” of Ticat football began after the 2012 demolition of venerable but crumbling Ivor Wynne Stadium; the franchise’s nesting place for over 80 years.
A landmark like 100 wins—in a relatively short time. It took 14½ seasons to mount the 100 wins before this one, and 13 ½ to get the 100 before that—does not exist in a vacuum. And when you reach it, it’s a good chance to reiterate that it can’t be done without a number of contributing and interconnected factors, on and off the field.
As the Ticats, to a player, continue to praise the organization’s internal culture as a significant base to overcoming yet another 0-2 start and surge to a 4-2 mark and a chance to move back into first place in the CFL East with a win Sunday night in B.C. it’s important to understand a couple of things:
First, they’ve won four straight before—as recently as last year when No. 4 came in an electric comeback win over these Lions, right in Vancouver. More than half of their seasons (seven) since the historic Ivor Wynne era ended included a four-win stretch, and in the magnificent 2019 year when they were 15-3 in the regular season and won the East Final, they had a four-gamer and a seven-game winning streak heading into the Grey Cup. Only five times since Ivor Wynne closed have they not had a four-in-a-row streak.
Second, the positive culture within the organization and in the locker room was already here, has been evolving for years and has been deliberately constructed both from above and by clubhouse leaders.
Even in last year’s disappointing 7-11 season there was positivity and belief-in-the-franchise credo that should not have existed after an 0-5 start. And after a 7-11 season the Ticats should not have attracted, and also retained, more top free agents than they lost…but they did. The players’ fraternity is tight, and word gets around that this is a healthy and encouraging place to do your CFL business, although the demands from management, and particularly the coaching staff, are high.
Throughout Hamilton Stadium, where the entire franchise operations for both the Ticats and Forge are now centralized, this recent surge is the kind of thing that has been expected, not just hoped for, and is nurtured by every arm of the operation. It isn’t restricted to the football side, as President and COO of business Matt Afinec, the Hamilton native and 15-year Cat exec who has guided the Cats into arguably the model CFL franchise, explains.
“I think it all starts with our business culture, which prioritizes our fans and our partners above all else,” Afinec says. “So when we make decisions relative to business, what comes first is, ‘What’s going to be best for our fans and what is going to be best for our partners, including the city?’ That has never changed over the 10-plus years we’ve been in Hamilton Stadium.
“That is part of our core mission statement, for sure. How we develop that is having a singular focus around creating the best live viewing experience for the fans which then inherently creates a dynamic and very real home field advantage for the players and coaches.”
Even as the Ticats played in Guelph in 2013—one of the most under-appreciated seasons in the history of Canadian sport—they were creating the philosophy of trying to divorce game-day experience from the often tumultuous win-loss fluctuations that afflict every team from year to year. For sure, winning enhances that outing, but creative fan initiatives and a positive in-stadium experience can insulate a team from the vagaries of a CFL where anything can happen on the field. Although, as you’ll read, the Ticats have generally had pretty good seasons in recent years.
One of the first concepts the Ticats embraced was to let their new stadium find itself. They left some empty spaces for things to grow naturally, found the capital to invest when they landed on a new idea and listened to their fans (thousands answer detailed post-game surveys, and their likes and dislikes are given serious weight in strategic planning). And even before the stadium was built they were planning to follow the emerging U.S. trend of “the travelling fans” who don’t watch the entire game from their seats, but visit friends in open spaces, or at the numerous concession stands.
Fans who are happy with the day tend to be happier with and feel more connected to the team on the field, and that can help foster stronger home field advantage. Although the Cats uncharacteristically didn’t do well at home in 2023 and ’24, remember that they were undefeated in their own stadium in its inaugural season of 2014 and again in 2019 and are 2-1—it could have been 3-0—this season.
“At the end of the day we’re not in the football business or the soccer business,” Afinec says. “We’re in the live-entertainment business. Creating an environment where there’s a diverse way for people to enjoy more than the product on the field. That is what the facility creates for us. Examples of that: areas for people to socialize; areas for people to stand; areas for kids and families, from playgrounds to coming down on to the field post-game.
“The evolution of the experience has changed over the 10-plus years since we’ve been here. But that consistency to prioritizing—that it’s the best live experience we can deliver—has not changed.
“You can only do that authentically by seeing how people interact with the facility; how they choose to enjoy their experience when they come here. And, again, things have evolved. Hosting the Grey Cup (2023) created new opportunities for us to put new investments into it from a capital perspective around the social areas in both the north and south end zones. And we work with our partners who don’t get enough credit for their willingness for a shared commitment to invest in the experience to make it better for our fans.
“One of the more recent innovations is what we’ve done in the south end zone with music pre-game and half-time. There are thousands of people just hanging out at the half, enjoying the music. In 2014 when we were moving into this place it wasn’t at all on our radar. It evolved and happened organically.”
There is a symbiotic relationship between off-field and on-field and it’s reflected in the 100 wins—108 when you count post-season—the club has amassed since leaving Ivor Wynne.
Short of the one missing piece—and yes it is a big one, winning a Grey Cup—in the post-Ivor Wynne era, the Ticats have dominated the East in most categories. And it’s absolutely fair to only deal with the East because those are the real comparables: Toronto, Montréal, Ottawa, Hamilton. The Big Four have all faced the same historical challenges of decades of other entertainment alternatives in their urban settings, serious competition that really hasn’t existed most other places in the country. And their route to the Grey Cup goes through the rest of the East.
In the East, the Ticats have had the most Grey Cup appearances (four) from 2013 to 2024, with the Redblacks and Argos managing three and the Als one. They and the Argos have each reached the Eastern final six times in those years, tops in the division. The Ticats have the most playoff appearances with nine, two more than any other eastern team; and their seven home playoff games are not only important to the financial situation, they’re one more than anyone else in the conference. And in those 11-plus seasons the Ticats have won 108 games, 100 in the regular season and eight in the playoffs; Only the Argos are also over 100, with 104, but only 98 of those have been in the regular season. And remember, that Ticat number would likely be much higher given the quality of the Hamilton roster which didn’t get to play that pandemic-cancelled 2020 year, coming off a 15-3 season.
And the only team with more Grey Cup experience than the Cats’ four, are the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who’ve been to five in a row, twice beating the Ticats. Sadly.
“Last year we had seven wins and ultimately every year you want to compete for a championship, whatever that looks like, and if you don’t make the playoffs you’re not competing for a championship,” says Hall of Famer Orlondo Steinauer, President of Football Operations, and former Ticat playing star, defensive coordinator and head coach. “Those are jagged pills to swallow. The expectation is always to go 18-0 but show me who’s done it. In the past 10 years or so we haven’t really had rebuilds, two-or-three win seasons, or disasters. But nobody is settled, nobody’s ever satisfied and of course there’s this funny thing in football called injuries and that plays a role.
“You can’t win the Grey Cup in June, July, or the pre-season; you have to be able to adapt in-season and I think that’ s something this organization has done a good job of since we moved. We don’t usually start well, except in 2019, yet we respond.”
As they have this year so far.
Steinauer says the positive culture has existed here since he returned from playing with and coaching the Argos, and it’s deliberately fostered by ownership, management, coaching staffs and clubhouse leaders.
“I always deem the locker room as a place for the players and a place of pride and tradition,” he says. “And one of the things it says in there is we stand on the shoulders of those who come before us. When we moved to the new building we tried to keep the history and the pride and tradition together.
“The emphasis is that Hamilton Stadium now is its own thing. We remember the past, but we’re not looking in the rearview window, we’re looking out the front windshield. There is a sense of pride and tradition: respect the past and pride and tradition and I think we do a good job of recognizing that externally with things like the Wall of Honour but we also do it internally.”
He says Ticat players are expected to understand what and who came before them and how they exemplified the franchise’s targeted spirit, so they can create and sustain their own legacies as individuals and as a group.
And Steinauer practices what he preaches: in his office, his white wall board of important reminders is topped by the date Nov. 6, 2021, the day Angelo Mosca died, and behind his desk are two framed pictures: one of Bernie Custis in 1951, when he became the Ticats’ and the CFL’s first black starting quarterback; the other of Hamilton and CFL legend Ron Lancaster, who coached Steinauer and the last Cat team to win a Grey Cup.
None of that will be front of mind for the current Cats Sunday night against a challenging but slightly enigmatic BC Lions team as Hamilton tries to win five straight for just the third time since 1998. But it is a major component of the overall atmosphere that surrounds the Cats, and the positive culture which has contributed to the momentum of this determined climb up the CFL standings.
Cats Clauses: Sunday night’s game at BC Place features the two FG kickers who haven’t missed this year, or for quite a while. BC’s Shawn Whyte has been successful on his last 26, Hamilton’s Marc Liegghio is now up to 30 in a row, tied for fifth on the CFL’s all-time list … Cat WR Kenny Lawler is on pace for 24 TD receptions. Milt Stegall holds the record at 23, set in 2002. The Ticat record is Tony Champion’s 15 set in 1989. Lawler is 2nd in the league in second-down conversion catches and 11 of his 33 catches have been for 20 yards or longer, eight of those for 30 yards or more … Ticats’ DB Destin Talbert has a pass knockdown in each of the past five games and leads the CFL with 7 … Ticats RB Johnny Augustine will play his 100th game. He says that’s appropriate because it’s the 27th of the month, his number is 27, and his mother was 27 when he was born … missing for the Cats through injury will be short-yardage quarterback and special teams ace Ante Litre, who scored the winning touchdown in Vancouver last September as the Cats overcame a 16-point halftime deficit to win their fourth straight game, in overtime as Mitchell completed 29 of his final 30 passes. Also out of the lineup injured are DL TyJuan Garbutt and LT Jordan Murray … RB Greg Bell returns from injury … Brendan Bordner returns to start at LT after two games off … DT Rookie DE Phillip Ossai, out of North Alabama, and Canadian LB Daniel Kwamou, recently released by the Argos, make their Hamilton game debuts … the Cats have allowed the fewest passing TDs (five) and have held opposing quarterbacks to the lowest efficiency rating … the Ticats lead the league in turnover ratio at plus-8 …Bo Levi Mitchell is 12-7 vs BC and Lions QB Nathan Rourke of Oakville is 1-1 vs. the Ticats and has 300-plus yards passing in four of his five starts this year … Ticat legend Grover Covington will be a guest of the Cats at the game while watching his son DL Christian Covington play for the Lions … BC leads the league in passing offence at 310.6 yards per game while Hamilton is second at 303.8 … former Ticat James Butler leads the CFL with 504 rushing yards … the Cats will have to watch for Keon Hatcher Sr., who is 2nd in receiving with 574 yards but first in yards gained after catch … BC linebacker Isaiah Messam, now in his 7th Lions season is a Hamilton native who played for Sir Allan MacNab, then Wilfrid Laurier … popular longtime Ticat Jeremiah Masoli is B.C.’s backup quarterback … DeWayne Hendrix, a Ticat last season, starts at DT for B.C. He has 3 sacks …. The Ticats signed DL Phillip Webb who played at Jackson State and LSU, and was signed and released by Winnipeg earlier this year … the CFL Honour Roll this week included Cats’ Destin Talbert leading defensive players, with 6 tackles, two interceptions and two knockdowns and a 92.9 PPF grade on 37 coverage snaps … the all-CFL Honour Roll for last weekend included Ticats Talbert and Brandon Revenberg who had to switch from LG to LT mid-game after Jordan Murray was injured … DE Julian Howsare graded out fourth highest in the league, while shutdown CB Jamal Peters was ranked fifth.
See below the Ticats depth chart for the game:
