Saturday, February 03, 2007

True-blue football fans
Cold doesn’t keep Colts, Bears fans from event
By Kathleen Quilligan
kquilligan@news-sentinel.com

Wearing a green sweat shirt and jeans, at first glance Fort Wayne resident Gabriel Parrish didn’t look much like a Colts fan.

Then he turned around.

Three hours before Friday’s Super Bowl rally at the City-County Building started downtown, Parrish called 20 barbershops until he found one that would agree to shave his head, leaving only a Colts symbol horseshoe of hair on the back of his head.

“It’s OK because the Colts are going to the Super Bowl,” Ashley Parrish, his wife, said. “But it’s not something that can happen all the time.”

The Parrishes were two of a few hundred people who turned out for Friday’s rally sponsored by the city and county, braving the wind and cold to support two Midwest teams in pro football’s biggest game.

While Colts fans outnumbered Bears fans at least three to one, fans of both teams shivered under their jerseys, wrapping themselves in blankets with their teams’ logos as they waved signs.

The Colts hat 5-year-old Kade Keele was wearing blew off his head but was saved by his father’s co-worker, Mike Johnson, who was decked out head to toe in Bears apparel.

“I can’t believe I saved a Colts hat,” he muttered, shaking his head.

Kevin Robie, vice president of sales for Excellent Adventure in Fort Wayne, brought two of his company’s charter buses to the rally to give fans a place to thaw and use the restroom. One bus was reserved for Colts fans and the other for Bears fans.

The separation might have been a good idea because out on the plaza of the City-County Building, Colts fans tried to drown out the cheers of Bears fans.

“I’m here to trash-talk. We’re going to stomp the Colts. I’ve got my stomping boots on,” said Bears fan Michael Banks, holding up one foot covered in a rubber boot with the Bears logo on it.

Banks laughed as his half brother Reggie Allen approached. Allen is a Colts fan and both have their own ideas about who will win Sunday.

“40-19, Colts,” Allen said.

“37-14, Bears,” Banks countered.

Mayor Graham Richard proclaimed Friday Colts Day in the city and then proclaimed it Bears Day. Allen County Commissioner Nelson Peters announced Fort Wayne as the honorary location of Super Bowl XLI.

The biggest question on fans’ minds, besides who will win Sunday, is whether Fort Wayne will host another rally for next year’s Super Bowl.

“If those two teams make it again next year, we’ll do it again,” said Denise Porter-Ross the Northeast area advocate in the mayor’s office and organizer of the rally.

Kickoff: Colts vs. Bears, 6 p.m. (approximate) Sunday in Miami

Radio: WOWO, 1190-AM; WKJG, 1380-AM

Labels:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home