On This Day In Roughrider History: What Happens In Vegas

Welcome back to our continuing series of notable moments in Roughrider history.

For today's installment we take you back to 1994. The CFL was in the midst of its US expansion. Four American teams competed that season including Sacramento, Shreveport, Baltimore and Las Vegas.

With the exception of Baltimore, successful was not a term often used to describe the American franchises. But the Las Vegas Posse were in a league all to their own when it came to failure. Losing record, poor attendance, poor facilities, you name it. To their credit, they do hold one CFL record to this day... the lowest recorded attendance in CFL history (to be fair, they were hosting the Blue Bombers that game so that may have been more to blame than anything the Posse did).

It was on this day back in 1994 though that one of the most infamous moments in the brief Posse history occurred. The Riders traveled to Las Vegas to play the Posse in their home opener. While the game itself was quite forgettable (mainly because we lost), what happened before the game was quite memorable. Given that it was the Posse's home opener, nerves ran high. Especially for a local lounge singer by the name of Dennis KC Parks, who was to sing the national anthems to open the game. Though he had never heard the Canadian anthem before, Parks remained confident, after all he was a seasoned lounge singer. What's the worst that could happen?



Honestly, I think the only way Parks could have embarrassed himself anymore is if he would have intermittently tossed in "Try the veal" and "I'll be here all week".

Being associated with embarrassing moments in football... a proud part of our Roughrider heritage.