Calgary’s Govind Achyuthan has made the 750-kilometre drive to Regina for almost every Roughriders home game since 2006.
Now, he’s being recognized for his commitment to the CFL team.
The Saskatchewan-born superfan has won the Roughriders’ 13th Fan Award, handed out every year to a supporter who embodies “what it means to be a member of Rider Nation,” according to the team.
“Sometimes logistics will get in the way, especially the midweek games …But I would say I average seven to eight games a year,” said Archyuthan.
“I consider myself just a rider fan, but as it turns out, I guess I’m maybe slightly over the top.”
Since moving to Calgary in 1994, Achyuthan has been organizing group trips to McMahon Stadium when the Roughriders travel west to play the Stampeders.
He also runs an online message board for supporters of the team.
“The reaction is [always] ‘you’re nuts’ or ‘wow,'” he said. “It’s one of those things that’s in your blood.”
Achyuthan grew up in Holdfast, Sask., a village northwest of Regina that’s home to about 173 people, according to the latest census data.
He first travelled to a Roughriders game as a ten-year-old with his dad in 1978.
“I can actually picture plays in my head,” he said. “If somebody asked me, ‘What was the score in that first game?’ Or for some details, I could still rip off five, ten facts about that game.”
Achyuthan was recognized on-field at halftime during the Roughriders’ last home game – a 27 to 12 blowout loss to the Calgary Stampeders.
He was also invited to watch the game from a private suite and appeared on the Roughriders’ live pregame show, Rider Radio.
“You get all this attention that comes at you,” he said. “All I had to do was be me … I didn’t have to do anything out of the ordinary for this to happen, which kind of blows my mind.”
Plenty of rider fans in Stampeders country, says Calgary pub
Achyuthan is far from the only passionate Roughriders fan living in Cowtown, according to Pazzer’s Saskatchewan Pub in Northwest Calgary.
The pub has hosted fans on game days for 20 years, and its walls are covered in Roughriders jerseys and merchandise.
“We often see our fans … coming in wearing green, sometimes wearing the watermelon helmets, and they treat every game like it’s a community event,” said Stephen Yan, marketing manager.
Yan is originally from Kamsack, Sask., about 225 kilometres northeast of Regina. He remembers watching Roughrider games in his house growing up.
“It was always something that was kind of ingrained to me, and [the pub] helped me keep that passion alive when I came here,” he said.
The Roughriders will open the CFL playoffs at home against the B.C. Lions in the western semi-final game on Saturday.
Achyuthan will be there, in the same seat where he’s watched almost every home game for years.