What 2 Ticat superfans have to say about what the team means to Hamilton

How much do you love the city's number one sports team? Would you decide where to live your life in the city based on how close you could get to the stadium?

Kathy Miller did.

She bought her house, she says, 20 years ago because it was right beside Ivor Wynne stadium. 

The Ticats play in the East Division Final on Sunday against Edmonton at Tim Hortons Field starting at 1:00 p.m. Despite losing all-star quarterback Jeremiah Masoli for the remainder of the season, back in July, after he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, the team finished with 15 wins and three losses, the best record in the CFL. 

"A lot of people would not want to live that close to the stadium. I did," she says. "I've been a Ticat fan all my life, even in the 20 years I lived in British Columbia. Win or lose, I'm a Ticat fan."

She says the house was perfect. "The tipping off selling point was that I could spit on Ivor Wynne Stadium (the team's old stadium in the same location) if I wanted to."

Not everybody likes the location, she says. "There are so many people that say to me, 'why do you live there?'"

Here's her answer: "Why wouldn't I live here? For me, this is perfect."

Miller has a game day routine. It starts with letting fans park cars on her front lawn— $20 a car. Her husband does that for special games. Then they'll people watch as the crowd fills in. They stay outside until kickoff because they "set off fireworks now because the kids (her grand kids) like to watch that."

After that, if she doesn't have tickets, she'll listen for the roar of the crowd and the referee's whistle, which can be heard from her front yard.

"I'm very excited," she says about the game on Sunday. "It reminds me of 1999 when they won the Grey Cup. That was the first year we had moved back here from British Columbia."

"They make me proud."

Dave Millar says he's one of the biggest Ticat fans in the city. He says that, back in the 50s, one of the first phrases he ever learned as a kid was 'lookie, lookie, lookie, here comes Cookie!' 

That was how fans showed their love, decades ago, for Ticat star Chester (Cookie) Gilchrist, one of the greatest players in team history.

He says that even back then the team was a reflection of the city. "Hamilton is blue collar. I worked in the breweries and, I mean, it's blue collar. And it's tough. And yet it's passionate and that's what Hamilton is, and that's what the Ticats are. If you can't support the Ticats you don't belong in Hamilton. You belong in Edmonton!"

Millar predicts a win on Sunday for the home team and says his basement is filled with autographs. The players are always generous with their time. He says, "this team cannot be stopped. It just cannot be stopped."