Byline: Pat Rooney, Special to the Rocky
Enter the home of Stan Whitaker, and guests would not immediately get the sense they have invaded the lair of an incurable sports fanatic.
Step into the back parlor, though, or descend into the remarkably organized clutter of the basement, and those same guests will discover a sports fan's paradise.
Downstairs, boxes of baseball and football cards line entire walls and consume the empty spaces below tables. Detailed note sheets in binders help Whitaker keep track of the unfathomable collection.
'Just so I know where everything is,' Whitaker says.
Another wall features a bookshelf crammed with more binders, these detailing almost every box score and play-by-play of Rockies games since the club arrived in Denver. Pieces of an extensive autograph collection are everywhere - in binders and boxes and on photographs.
Back upstairs, sports books and films line the parlor, and on this day, the Whitakers' guest is offered a bowl of M&M's featuring only two colors - Broncos orange and blue, of course.
This mind-boggling collection and ambience notwithstanding, binders and ball cards are not what separate the 86-year-old Whitaker from the typical sports junkie.
Whitaker, a Denver native who still lives on the city's southeast side, is one of five men who have attended every Super Bowl.
On Sunday, one of Whitaker's four daughters will drive him to Arizona, where he will make his annual weeklong vacation in the hope that the New England Patriots-New York Giants game on Feb. 3 will not be his final Super Bowl pilgrimage.
Age and health issues have conspired to make Whitaker's streak a year-to-year proposition.
'You never know. I thought last year might be it,' said Whitaker's only son, Stan Jr. 'When he was younger and more active, those parties all week were the highlights. He would always come home with gifts and souvenirs to give to the grandkids. Last year, I know it was tough for him because it rained the whole game. This year, having it in a warm, dry place like Arizona will be much nicer.'
Inauspicious beginnings
As most football fanatics know, the Super Bowl wasn't even called the Super Bowl when the NFL champion Green Bay Packers squared off against the Kansas City Chiefs, champions of the American Football League, on Jan. 15, 1967, at the Coliseum in Los Angeles.
Whitaker worked in real estate with his friend, Don Cris- man, and the two scored four tickets for the 'World Championship' game through a local radio station. Whitaker and Crisman flew out for the game, which didn't sell out, and during the week, they had the good fortune to visit a basketball practice at nearby UCLA, where they met Lew Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
And so began Whitaker's annual odyssey.
'We wanted to go from then on,' Whitaker said. 'The next two were at the Orange Bowl, and I was able to buy tickets straight from the Orange Bowl.'
Though Crisman moved to Maine shortly thereafter, the two remained friends, and Crisman is another of the five who has attended every Super Bowl.
Crisman had media contacts in Maine that hooked Crisman and Whitaker up with media passes for many of the early Super Bowls, allowing them into the events and parties where they met the biggest names in the business.
Whitaker dined several times with former Chiefs owner and AFL founder Lamar Hunt. Barry Sanders once went out of his way to give Whitaker an autograph in a hotel after they had missed connections earlier in the day.
A picture shows Whitaker beside the beaming, gap-toothed smile of former Chicago Bears lineman William 'The Refrigerator' Perry. Whitaker says he almost could slide two fingers through Perry's gigantic Super Bowl ring.
An autograph leaps off one of Whitaker's pages, reading: 'Peace to you, O.J. Simpson.'
'The NFL has taken us a lot of places to meet people,' Whitaker said. 'When it was in Minneapolis (Super Bowl XXVI in 1992), they took us to the hockey game to meet Wayne Gretzky. They take us a lot of places.'
Anniversary LXIII
'Can you believe what he gave me for our anniversary?' asks Whitaker's wife, Eunice.
She points out a necklace of Broncos beads. It is a fitting tribute to a partnership in which the devotion to attend the big game has allowed the Whitakers to see the country and hobnob with sports royalty.
The couple will celebrate their 63rd anniversary in Arizona on Friday. Eunice Whitaker estimates that she has been to about 30 of the games but has made the trip every year, getting a week away from the Colorado winters in locales such as Florida, Southern California and New Orleans.
Most of the time, the memories of the experience have outlasted the memories of the game.
There was the year in Detroit when subzero temperature and a winter storm forced people to park on the side of nearby highways and trudge to the game.
One early year, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans, organizers spread seashells over the muddy tracks leading to the stadium.
'You cut up your shoes,' Eunice Whitaker said, 'but you didn't get muddy.'
There have been a handful of near misses that could have ended Whitaker's amazing streak. Several times, Whitaker and Crisman arrived at the Super Bowl sites without tickets. One year, in New Orleans, Whitaker and Crisman were forced to buy two tickets at $1,000 apiece from a nervous scalper the night before the game.
'I gave her $2,000, but she kind of wanted to hide the fact that she was selling tickets,'
Whitaker said. 'She said, 'I shouldn't be doing this. I'm an attorney in San Francisco.' So she took us to a phone booth, and I look over and there is a big picture window where everyone is watching us.'
That's not a problem anymore.
Since Super Bowl XXXIII, when the Broncos won their second consecutive title, the NFL has provided access to tickets directly to Whitaker, Crisman and the other three men who form their unique club. Whitaker buys the tickets, this year at $700 apiece, then disperses them among the fraternity.
'Being on a fixed income, that has made it harder every year, too,' Stan Whitaker Jr. said. 'It's nice the NFL has helped them buy tickets, because it seems like there are fewer and fewer available to fans every year.'
End of the line?
Whitaker will not commit to saying this is his last Super Bowl sojourn. He missed two Broncos games this year after missing only one in 44 years. Yet, if his health and stamina allow, Whitaker will rejoin his crew next year at Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa, Fla.
If not, the game will lose a small but remarkable piece of its history.
'I think one of the better games was III, when Joe Namath guaranteed on Thursday that (the Jets) would win. And they were underdogs by, like, 19 points,' Whitaker said. 'A few years later, I think at XII when the Broncos were first in it, I met Joe Namath and I told him he's responsible for getting us the merger and getting the Broncos in the NFL.
'There have been a lot of great trips we've had. Hopefully, we'll make it to another one.'
INFOBOX 1
Super fans
The five individuals recognized by the NFL as having attended every Super Bowl:
* Stan Whitaker, Denver
* Don Crisman, Kennebunk, Maine
* Bob Cook, Milwaukee
* Tom Henschel, Tampa, Fla.
* Larry Jacobson, San Francisco
INFOBOX 2
Giants backer
Stan Whitaker probably knows better than anyone that anything can happen in a Super Bowl. But when asked for his prediction for Super Bowl XLII, Whitaker was less interested in taking sides than making sure his friend and fellow annual Super Bowl attendee, Patriots fan Don Crisman of Maine, wouldn't have more reason to crow a few months after the Boston Red Sox's victory against the Rockies in the World Series.
'I was hoping Green Bay would be in it,' Whitaker said. 'I don't personally really care if New England wins. It would keep the guy from Maine quiet, but I think they will win.'
INFOBOX 3
Sticker shock
Attending every Super Bowl has taxed Stan Whitaker's bank account a little more each year, with tickets reaching a new peak this year, at $700. The face value of each Super Bowl ticket in Whitaker's collection:
Super Bowl Price
I-III $12
IV-VIII$15
IX-XI $20
XII-XIV $30
XV-XVII $40
XVIII-XIX $60
XX-XXI $75
XXII-XXIII $100
XXIV $125
XXV-XXVI $150
XXVII-XXVIII $175
XXIX-XXX $200
XXXI-XXXII $275
XXXIII-XXXV $325
XXXVI-XXXVII $400
XXXVIII-XXXIX $500
XL-XLI $600
XLII $700
CAPTION(S):
Photo (5)
Stan Whitaker's pal, Don Crisman, a fan of the Red Sox, who beat the Rockies in the World Series, above, also has been to every Super Bowl. KEN PAPALEO / THE ROCKY CAPTION: The cost to watch the Green Bay Packers and coach Vince Lombardi in Super Bowl II was $12. ASSOCIATED PRESS / 1968 CAPTION: For $100, you could have seen John Elway and the Broncos lose to the Redskins in Super Bowl XXII. THE ROCKY FILE / 1988 CAPTION: Tickets to see Tom Brady and Michael Strahan square off in Super Bowl XLII cost $700. AL BELLO / GETTY IMAGESCAPTION: Stan Whitaker holds the signature and photo of Green Bay's Brett Favre. Whitaker is one of five men who has attended every Super Bowl. DENNIS SCHROEDER / THE ROCKY
