Family celebrates memory of loved one at Labour Day Classic

This year’s Labour Day Classic was a thrilling game, but it also holds a special place in the hearts of the Klassen family.

Darren Klassen and his brothers grew up in Saskatchewan, but now all of them live in different places across the country.

For about a decade, Darren and his brothers Reg, Laurel and Doug would make an annual trip to Regina for the Labour Day Classic — the CFL game between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders at Mosaic Stadium.

However, this year’s trip was bittersweet, as Darren lost his brother Laurel to a brain tumour in February. He was 65.

“It was very sudden,” Darren said.

Doug Klassen (left), Reg Klassen (middle) and Darren Klassen (right) pose at the statue George Reed in honour of their late brother who always wore a George Reed jersey. (Submitted/Darren Klassen)

Laurel had been living in Niverville, Man. Darren said the first signs of Laurel’s condition were noticed only four months before his death.

“It was all a bit of a shock that he died as quickly as he did,” Darren said.

“Coming back to Saskatchewan is a bit of a homecoming for us and (is) always exciting. We look forward to the trip as we did again this year, but also it was pretty sad.

“It felt different to not have him there, so that part of it was hard.”

Darren said Laurel always wore No. 34 in honour of his favourite player, Roughriders legend George Reed.

This year, Darren and his brothers honoured Laurel by posing with his George Reed jersey by Reed’s monument outside of Mosaic.

“We had some alone time the day before the game at the stadium and took some pictures with (Laurel’s) George Reed jersey,” Darren said.

In a typical year, Darren would meet up with his brothers in Winnipeg and they’d drive from there to Regina.

“That always gave us a lot of time to tell jokes and reminisce about life growing up on the farm north of Saskatoon as kids,” he said.

Darren didn’t have time to make the drive this year so he flew directly to Regina.

“We certainly made up for it with the time that we did have together specifically in Regina,” he said.

In celebration, the brothers and many of their cousins gathered around the Reed statue after the Riders’ 32-30 overtime victory.

Darren said Laurel’s name was added to the monument at the northeast corner of the stadium alongside the names of the team’s other shareholders.

Even with the loss of his brother, Darren said he would like to keep the tradition going for as long as possible.

“It has become a bit of an annual tradition and it has grown and it’s something we mark on our calendar and I think we’ll continue to do it for quite a while,” Darren said.