Rider pride from Down Under: Fans celebrate 20-year long-distance friendship

It started with a "thinly veiled plea for CFL" in 1994. More than 20 years later, that plea has led to a friendship built on a love for the Saskatchewan Roughriders that literally spans the globe.

• LISTEN: From Australia to Saskatchewan: Rider fans and pen pals finally meet

Wessley McGrath from Australia loves the Roughriders. That started in 1988 when he went to Edmonton and Winnipeg to visit relatives. After seeing some CFL games, he fell in love with the game and wanted to adopt a favourite team.

"Australians root for the underdog and at that point the Riders hadn't been in the playoffs for 11 years, so they were the underdog to go for," McGrath told CBC Radio's Morning Edition guest host Stefani Langenegger.

"And how about my luck? The next year they won the Grey Cup."

I phoned Australia, talked to a few operators and found his number.- Joe Buchko

However, there was a downside to cheering for a CFL team Down Under.

"All I could do was read about it," McGrath said. "I was reading Canadian newspapers in the local library, and they're a week old at that to begin with, and by '94 I wanted to see some football."

So in an effort to actually watch some games, McGrath wrote a letter to the Regina Leader-Post.

"They published it and I got swamped with tapes," he said.

Three years later, McGrath also appeared on The Morning Edition with Sheila Coles.

A friendship is born

Back in Saskatchewan, Joe Buchko read McGrath's plea and wanted to help a fellow Riders fan. 

Without an email address or Facebook account back in 1994, Buchko did what he had to do to find someone he didn't know across the world: he picked up a phone.

"I phoned Australia, talked to a few operators and found his number," Buchko said. "I talked to his wife — she had no idea who I was or why I was calling from Canada. So Wess had to explain to her when he got home, like, 'Why are these people from Canada calling?'"

The two immediately hit it off and Buchko sent VHS tapes of Rider games to Australia. In the years to come, they also shipped Christmas gifts and books for each other's kids.

"Australian things would come this way and Canadian things would go that way," McGrath said.

On Friday, McGrath and Buchko met for the first time in person at CBC Saskatchewan before talking about their journey on The Morning Edition.

"It just seemed natural," McGrath said, as they both laughed. "We've known each other for years."

The Great Australian CFL Tour

McGrath's shirt — which proudly proclaims "The Great Australian CFL Tour 2017" — shows his love for not only the Roughriders, but the entire CFL. He's currently on a mission to see every West Division team play. But his trip didn't necessarily start that way.

"It's officially just a family holiday in Canada," he said, laughing.

"We started planning, you know, 'Where will we go? We'll go to Vancouver.' And then I had a little sneaky look at the [CFL] schedule and we were originally going to come in September and I was maybe going to get two games, and neither of them was the Riders. So that was no good."

McGrath tweaked their holiday plans, which was perfectly fine for his son, who is also "madly" into the Riders.

They have already seen games in Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary. They'll finish the tour in Winnipeg, but the dream game is on Saturday at Mosaic Stadium to see the Roughriders.

So how does an Australian fall in love with the Riders and the CFL? McGrath said he likes the fast-paced game and the sense of community, which is something he experienced the same night he arrived in Regina.

"We were in the street last night walking back from getting some late supper and [Riders quarterback] Kevin Glenn was standing next to us at the crossing. And my son and I were, like, 'Really?'"

Despite his passion for the team, McGrath didn't talk to Glenn.

"He was there with his family and I just didn't wanna ... well I did want to, but my family pulled me away," he said, laughing.

"But to me that was incredible."