The Canadian Football League has long sought to recruit fans from a younger demographic, but they’ve successfully landed a new supporter from an older generation this year — and all it took was a million dollars.
“My knowledge of the CFL is very limited. I have been to a game, probably 30 years ago with some friends. I’m just more of a baseball, Blue Jays fan,” Roy Lyster told 3DownNation in an interview this week, still coming to grips with winning the grand prize of Save-On-Foods’ Million Dollar Touchdown to Win contest.
“I’ll be watching football more now. Obviously, I’ve got a new appreciation for it.”
The 77-year-old retiree didn’t even know a game was being played when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats visited the Toronto Argonauts on July 4. He was outside doing some yardwork when Janarion Grant and Isaiah Wooden took back a pair of kickoffs for touchdowns, landing him the grocery chain’s first major payout.
“I came in and my wife said, ‘Somebody just phoned and said you won a million bucks.’ We’re both like, ‘Yeah, right.’ We’re not gonna believe that,” he recalled. “Then the next morning, we get a call from the Save-On representative. It, in fact, was very real. I was just in shock. We all were.”
“I’ve shopped at Save-On for going on 20 years. I knew there was a contest out there, and, of course, you never ever think that you’re going to win. It was just a total shock to me.”
Lyster, who has called New Westminster, B.C., home since 1975, had to answer a basic skill testing question to claim the prize, which he called so easy it would have been embarrassing if he didn’t get it correct. In so doing, he became the contest’s first millionaire since Save-On-Foods took up the Touchdown to Win mantle in September 2019.
The only other grand prize winner came back in 1999, when Safeway was still the presenting sponsor of the contest. For CFL fans who lived through the infamous #WhatAboutKaren incident of 2017 and have waited 25 years to see the name flashed across their television screens pre-game actually claim big bucks, that made Lyster an instant icon.
“I’m sure the odds of me winning the lottery aren’t good at all, but they’re better than winning this,” he remarked. “Because of the amount of time since there has been a winner and the amount of people that have their name in the pot, I feel pretty lucky.”
Lyster accepted his giant novelty cheque at an event at his local Save-On-Foods last week and says that he has only just begun to calm down from the excitement of the whole experience.
He’ll receive the money in annual installments of $50,000 spread out over the next 20 years, and is focused on using the windfall to help his entire family. That includes his wife of 50 years, two adult children, and four grandchildren.
“I want to share it with family, with the kids and grandkids. We both do. Help them with their endeavours and help with the education and sporting activities that they’re in,” he said.
“They were just over the top over the whole thing. Just an incredible feeling. Who would ever think that would happen to them?”
There will also be a few dollars set aside for his own enjoyment, though he insists it will be “nothing extravagant.”
“I might get a good set of golf clubs; who knows?” Lyster chuckled. “We’re still in discussion with it, still early in the game. It’s nice to have the choices now.”
Lyster and his family will be guests of honour when the B.C. Lions host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Sunday, July 27, marking his first CFL game in three decades. He’s excited for the experience and hopes he’ll have a chance to give an in-person thank you to Wooden, the Ticat returner who changed his life with an 86-yard run two weeks ago.
“I saw a clip of him congratulating me, and he said, ‘If you ever need anything carried, give me a call,’ meaning the money. Seems like an incredible guy,” Lyster laughed. “I want to know how he does that front flip after he scored the touchdown.”
With Save-On-Foods electing to continue their contest and opening up the possibility of a second million-dollar winner, fans and grocery shoppers across Western Canada hope that he’ll give another demonstration.
J.C. Abbott is a University of British Columbia graduate and high school football coach. He covers the CFL, B.C. Lions, CFL Draft and the three-down league's Global initiative.
