The Edmonton Elks have tied an all-time North American professional sports record with their 20th consecutive home loss.
The team fell to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Thursday night by a score of 37-26, matching the mark of 20 straight home losses set by Major League Baseball’s St. Louis Browns in 1953. That team was sold and relocated to Baltimore that offseason, becoming the modern-day Orioles.
Edmonton already set the professional football record for the longest consecutive home losing streak in October 2022, passing the 1987-88 Ottawa Rough Riders, 1988-89 Dallas Cowboys, and 2008-10 St. Louis Rams at 14 games apiece. The team has since lost five more home games to surpass record holders from the NHL (2003-04 Pittsburgh Penguins, 14) and NBA (1993-94 Dallas Mavericks, 19).
Edmonton took a 6-0 lead to begin the game before Hamilton got going in the second quarter with a field-flipping throw from Matthew Shiltz to Tim White, setting up a James Butler touchdown.
After going into halftime down 10-6, the Elks retook the lead with a 54-yard catch-and-run from Kyran Moore. Hamilton answered right back with a touchdown run from Shiltz, before Edmonton quarterback Taylor Cornelius tossed a desperate scrambling interception with his left hand to Ticats’ safety Stavros Katsantonis that was returned for a touchdown.
Shiltz was forced to exit the game with a lower-body injury late in the third quarter, but Hamilton backup Taylor Powell threw a touchdown pass to Tim White on his second play. Cornelius was benched in favour of Jarret Doege, who led two touchdown drives of his own in the fourth quarter but could not overcome the deficit.
Edmonton’s last victory at Commonwealth came on October 12, 2019 — 1,371 days ago — against the B.C. Lions. The intervening years have included an organizational name change, a global pandemic and four separate head coaches — Jason Maas, Scott Milanovich (who never coached a game), Jaime Elizondo, and now Chris Jones. None have been able to deliver a win for the hometown crowd.
Along with matching the embarrassing record, Edmonton fell to 0-6 to start a season for the first time since 1938 — before the current franchise was founded in 1949. The Elks visit the 4-1 Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Week 7, before hosting the 4-1 B.C. Lions on Saturday, July 29.
