When he runs out with his football team in front of 35,000 fans at Commonwealth Stadium tomorrow night, Greg Marshall hopes he makes it to the bench without blowing a knee.

There have been hundreds of return-to-town stories over the years in the City of Champions, from Wayne Gretzky on down, but there's never been one quite like the return of Greg Marshall to Edmonton as the head coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

The guy didn't have a long and storied career. He had a short and storied career here. And, technically, his career wasn't here. It was in Calgary. He survived almost one quarter of football playing for the Eskimos on Labour Day.

PROJECTED TO BE NEXT NORMIE KWONG

Greg Marshall was projected by many to become the greatest Canadian-born running back since Normie Kwong. And he barely played a down.

He blew one knee out on the second day of his first training camp, came back to finally make it into a regular-season game on Labour Day the following year and blew the other knee out at the end of the first quarter. He spent the third year of his pro career enduring several surgeries for cartilage damage. Finally ready to return, he injured a knee in a pickup basketball game a month before training camp.

You'd think he'd come here with nothing but bad memories. But it's exactly the opposite for Marshall, who says if it hadn't happened this way, he wouldn't have seen this day.

Marshall is coming here as the only Canadian head coach in the history of the Tiger-Cats and the only coach in CFL history to go directly from Canadian college football to a head- coaching job.

"It's going to be really special,'' says the rookie head coach who broke into the league with a three-game winning streak.

"Other than all the surgery, I have a lot of good memories of Edmonton and all the friends I made with the team and in the city. And not just from my career, but in coming back following my brother's career when he was an Eskimo.''

LIVED HIS STOLEN LIFE VICARIOUSLY

Big brother admits he lived his stolen football career vicariously through the seven-year career of his kid brother Blake, who scored 65 touchdowns lugging the pigskin for the Esks.

"There were a lot of emotions for me watching Blake because we were a lot alike in the way we played and the intensity we brought to the game.

"It was because of the injuries and Blake I decided to get into coaching in the first place as an assistant at Western. It gave me a chance to watch Blake play. I hadn't been able to watch him in high school.

"It felt good when Blake went to Edmonton. The entire Eskimos organization had treated me so well. I remember he had a chance to be a free agent and go to another team and he told me 'I can't - I'm an Eskimo.' I was very proud of Blake as an Eskimo.

"Looking back, I know I'd never have been a coach. All I ever wanted to do was be a player, period. Coaching just happened.''

Marshall ended up coaching a high school team (practise 3:30 p.m.) and coaching with the college team (practise 5:30 p.m.) for several seasons until he was hired by McMaster University as a head coach.

He took over a team that had been winless the previous season (with a 14-game losing streak) and turned it into a team which went 7-1, 7-0-1, 8-0 and 8-0 in conference play the last four seasons.

Marshall actually believed he'd be able to get a CFL job straight out of Canadian college football, even though nobody had ever been able to do it before.

"Yeah, I did. But not at this age,'' said the 44-year-old, who was planning on staying put at McMaster for several more years while his children, aged 14, 13 and 10, finished their school years living in Hamilton.

"I wasn't prepared to pick them up and move them. I was hoping it was Hamilton. We're still living in the same house.''

"A lot of people said, 'Are you nuts?' '' said Marshall of taking over a 1-17 team.

"Then people told me all I had to do was win two or three games this year. Then we win three and they want you to win them all,'' he laughs.

Marshall certainly didn't expect to get out of the gate at 3-0.

"A little luck, some smoke, some mirrors ... we still have to get a lot better if we're going to be consistently competitive against the best teams,'' he said.

There was no lack of thrill just taking his team out before 22,347 fans for an exhibition game, 25,712 for the home opener and 27,664 for the game against the Argos last week in Ivor Wynne Stadium.

"I grew up in Guelph, a half-hour's drive from Hamilton. "It was very special to go out on that field as the Ticats head coach.

"And, honestly, it's going to be very special to go out on the field in Commonwealth Stadium as a head coach. There are a lot of guys I played with who will be watching. You want to do well in front of those guys.

"This game is going to be really special for me. I'm really looking forward to it.''

Just get out of this one healthy, huh?