Riders' newest Plaza members, Durant and Shivers reflect on time spent in Sask.

Darian Durant and Roy Shivers will headline the 2024 Saskatchewan Roughriders’ Plaza of Honour class and will be honoured with a special ceremony at halftime during Saturday’s matchup versus the BC Lions.

The two honorary members spoke to media ahead of this weekend’s festivities to reflect on their time with the team and in the province.

“Nothing’s changed. People are still nice. When I go somewhere people [still say], ‘Hey Roy!’ so it’s no different,” Shivers chuckled about his return to Saskatchewan.

“It’s always good to be back but to be back in this capacity and realize what this weekend and this week is about, with the man who brought me to Saskatchewan, you do a lot of reflecting. It’s brought back a ton of memories, so I look forward to all of the festivities,” Durant added.

The original 2024 class included Steve Molnar (posthumous), but his induction has been deferred to 2025 due to a family matter.

Last year, Durant was a part of the 2023 class when the 2013 Grey Cup Championship team was inducted but this year he will see his individual name on the wall at Mosaic Stadium.

“I think coming back last year really showed me the impact I had. I had no idea. And now that I’m retired and years out, when you come back, I of course was with my teammates but that era we put together, the success we had, it brought Saskatchewan football back to a level that was pretty much unheard of,” Durant said.

He was lost for words when asked what it is like to be inducted on a personal level this year compared to last year’s championship team.

“I think I’ll be able to answer that after,” he chuckled. “It’s a totally different feeling going in with your teammates but to be able to do it alone with the guy that brought you in, it’s a different feeling.”

“He had a cannon on him. We were down at Georgia Tech, we had a workout down there. You never think about North Carolina putting out football players, at a basketball school. He was throwing the ball all over the field. I was like, ‘Hey he’s got a live arm!’,” Shivers reflected on why he chose to trade for Durant who ended up on Hamilton’s negotiation list.

Durant then reflected on what Shivers did for his career.

“My first meeting he said, ‘If someone jumps on one of your teammates out in the street, the enter team better jump on him!’ I’m coming from an organization in college where you don’t even hear anything like that. So when you come to a professional level and your GM is talking about that you realize how important it is to be a team not only on the field but off the field,” he shared.

“That stuck with me forever because in a place like Saskatchewan, after practice there’s really not much to do so you’re going to be around your teammates all the time, so you better have their backs.”

Durant is remembered for the iconic 2013 championship run where it was noted that he ‘Carried the team on his back’ especially during the west semi-final that year. He was also part of the 2007 championship team and spent 10 seasons with the green and white.

He was part of the two teams that fell short in the Grey Cup in ’09-’10. Durant is the Riders’ all-time leader in rushing yards by a quarterback with 2,922 and scored the final touchdown at old Mosaic Stadium on Oct. 22, 2016 against the Montreal Alouettes.

“To be a part of four Grey Cups in my career, just the ups and downs, the injuries, everything that came with it, you reflect and I’m just so thankful. I’m lost for words, but I love that I received from Saskatchewan,” Durant said.

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Shivers was hired by the Riders in December of 1999 to be the head coach and was alongside General Manager, Danny Barrett. That formed the first Black GM/head coach due in professional sports history. In 2022, Shivers was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame as a builder. That included the role he played not just with the Riders but the Calgary Stampeders and B.C. Lions.

“The only thing I knew about Saskatchewan was what I got from [former CFL head coach] Don Matthews. It was like purgatory for him because every time he cut somebody, he threatened to send him to Saskatchewan,” Shivers laughed.

“I never could figure it out but then I thought about it and it’s just like Green Bay. The town centres around the football team. Green Bay is the same way.”

Matthews eventually made his way to Saskatchewan as a head coach from ’91-’93.

“He did the best job he could and let the chips fall. [When I got here] there were a lot of people walking around with black eyes, teeth knocked out, but I didn’t have a problem with it. I had a great time here, I met great people, and I’d do it again.”

Shivers brought 2007 Grey Cup Champion quarterback, Kerry Joseph to Saskatchewan and brought Durant to the team as well via a trade in April of 2006.

Although Shivers left before the ’07 championship, he still played a pivotal role in building that team.

“I kept telling our guys, ‘You’re right on the cusp.’ I knew we were. We had the best team we’d ever had. Kenton Keith was the best running back I’d ever seen in this league. I thought we had a better team than BC. We shouldn’t have lost [in the west semi-final] that year,” Shivers said.

However, he did share his favourite day on the job to end it off.

“The first year we made playoffs because they hadn’t been in the playoffs in ‘X’ numbers of years. And my thing was, ‘You have to make the playoffs before you make the Grey Cup’ and people didn’t understand that it was step by step,” he said.