It’s only fitting that Darian Durant and Roy Shivers are being inducted into the 2024 Saskatchewan Roughriders Plaza of Honour together.
After all it was Roy Shivers who brought Darian Durant to Saskatchewan back in 2006, in a trade that also saw 2007 Grey Cup champion Kerry Joseph come to the Riders.
Durant, a 2013 Grey champion himself, reflected on the week at hand, which includes the Riders Plaza of Honour dinner tonight, and the official induction ceremony on Saturday at halftime of the team’s contest against the BC Lions.
“You realize what this weekend and this week is about and of course going in with the man who brought me here to Saskatchewan, you do a lot of reflecting and it just brings back a ton of memories,” said Durant.
But, as mentioned none of Durant’s tenure and accomplishments in the green and white would be possible without Roy Shivers who oversaw the team as general manager from 1999-2006.
Shivers said Durant first caught his eye when he saw the QB’s arm talent on display at a camp at Georgia Tech.
“He had a cannon arm, and you know you never think about North Carolina putting out football players, it’s a basketball school. And we say him down at Georgia Tech, he was throwing the ball all over the field and everything, I’m like hey he’s got a live arm,” said Shivers.
Durant was also a part of last year’s induction ceremony, as the 2013 Grey Cup championship team was enshrined.
He said moments like that one, where he signed dozens, if not hundreds of autographs, while the Riders were in the midst of a game, has made the former QB realize just how meant his time here meant to Rider Nation.
“I had no idea, and now that I’m retired and years away and when you come back, you really get to feel how important the era that I had with my teammates but the era we put together and the success that we had,” said Durant.
The Riders will hold a ceremony to enshrine Durant and Shivers into the Plaza of Honour during halftime of Saturday’s home against the BC Lions.