Born: October 3, 1969
College: Iowa
Years with the Riders: 1992-94; 1997-99
Cards acquired: Through Ebay 2010
The second of my Plaza of Honour posts is a little late, but better late than never.
Mike Saunders joined the Riders late in 1992 after being cut by the Pittsburgh Steelers. He got his feet wet on his way to bigger and better things. In 1994, Mike was named a CFL West All-Star after rushing for 1,205 yards and catching 55 passes for 613 yards. Mike would leave following that season and bounced around four teams before being traded back in 1997 for the team's Grey Cup game run that ended against Toronto. In all Mike played six seasons for the 'Riders and retired with the second highest rushing totals in team history in both attempts (372) and rushing yards (4,396). He was only 2,571 attempts and 11,720 yards behind the top rusher, George Reed.
As a kid, Mike was one of my favourite Riders from that post-89 Grey Cup period. You could pretty much always count on him to get the yards you needed and would make guys miss. Given his success with the team, it was only a matter of time before he was added. Probably the only real question is why it took 12 years from when he retired to be named. Congrats Mike.
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