No doubt there will be heartfelt arguments issued from the fan bases in Edmonton and Calgary, Toronto and Hamilton.

But to many who follow the Canadian Football League no rivalry comes close to matching the annual Prairie showdowns between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders.

And that rivalry reaches its regular season zenith during the weeks of the Labour Day Classic and the Banjo Bowl – the back-to-back showdowns between the Bombers and Riders in Regina, then Winnipeg, in early September.

These two weeks are must-see events on the CFL calendar and that’s what makes the cancellation of the 2020 season so particularly painful.

That won’t stop us from reminiscing all week, as we re-live some of the great moments in the history of the Labour Day Classic.

Today: Reliving the 1993 Labour Day Classic

BLUE BOMBERS 25 ROUGHRIDERS 24

Date: September 5, 1993

Attendance: 30,216

The matchup: Blue Bombers (6-3) vs. Roughriders (6-3)

The story: The Bombers, first in the East Division, met the Riders – tied for second in the West – in a dandy Labour Day Classic. Saskatchewan had won five straight.

Winnipeg jumped out to a 10-0 lead courtesy a Loyd Lewis fumble-recovery TD and a Troy Westwood field goal.

But the Riders led 24-15 late in the game as Warren Jones scored on a QB sneak and Kent Austin hit Don Narcisse for a TD. the Bombers rallied in dramatic fashion, scoring 10 points in the final 70 seconds for the victory.

First, Matt Dunigan hit Alfred Jackson for a 19-yard TD and, after getting the ball back, Westwood connected from 37 yards with four seconds remaining for the victory.

Notable: Just a few weeks later, on October 15^th in a win over the Sacramento Gold Miners, Dunigan ruptured his Achilles tendon and was lost for the season. The Bombers would still finish first in the East with a 14-4 record, but really missed Dunigan in the 1993 Grey Cup, as Sam Garza and the club struggled in a 33-23 loss to Edmonton.