Super Bowl Tickets
Lucky for me, we had a new Ford custom van. It was very sleepable and Dad told me to get it heated up real good before turning it off and sleeping. When I got there, there were a couple of other cars in the parking lot and I met a couple of college age guys and we talked and even rode around in the van in Highland Park (probably not a very smart move in hindsight). Anyway, we were to meet up the next morning and I got the van heated up and tried to sleep. (As it ended up, I had to warm up the van several times during the night – it was cold)
Monday morning saw a few more cars in the parking lot and it wasn’t long before we saw some people walking to the entrance of Moody to begin lining up. Season ticket holders were the only ones who would be allowed to purchase tickets, so I must have had some kind of document from Chuck to get the tickets. Each season ticket holder could purchase four tickets. Chuck said I had the first option on tickets 3 & 4 if I wanted them. We bundled up and walked to the building and stood on the steps behind just a few other people. Seemed like I was the eighth person in line.
More and more people showed up throughout the day and I remember leaving a couple of times to go to Jack-In-The-Box and 7-11 for supplies. My college buddies saved my place in line and I did for them too. But you know how lines are. Friends began showing up and meeting up with other friends in the line and it was no big deal because the line was relatively short and the Orange Bowl held 80,000 people. But we stood there in the cold January wind and pressed on.
Around noon or one, quite a line was forming. Me and my two compadres were guarding our premium position in the line that now had several hundred people in it. A couple of other guys in their 20’s approached us with an offer. Now remember, it’s really cold outside. The guys said that if we would let them in line with us, they had a tent and a heater and we could all share it. This was an offer that we just couldn’t pass up. So up goes a real nice tent and crank up the space heater inside. We did still have to keep watch and guard our place in line.
Back in the tent, we mostly played cards and talked about the losers outside who were cold. They were going to stay out there all night while we would be snug in our sleeping bags. Nightfall came and we played poker, blackjack, go fish and whatever else we could think of. One of the older guys had some stuff called “W.L. Wellers” and asked me if I wanted some in my Coke. “Sure, why not”. In about an hour, I was having a flashback to the cigar smoking incident a few years earlier. I kept burping this bad taste all night, it was awful.
At midnight, the coliseum opened to let us in so that we could sit in the arena seats. It was a very slow process, but soon we were inside trying to sleep upright in a loud brightly lit arena. They did a good job of keeping the line in order and seating us in order of our tickets so I sat in the first section of seats. All night long I watched the arena crew tear down the tennis court and set it up for basketball while trying not to burp. For several hours a steady stream of people filed in and occupied the seats all the way around the arena. I remember one of the tent dudes was reading a book called “Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance”. I asked him what it was about and he told me it’s about a guy who works on his motorcycle for awhile then meditates, then goes back to do more bike work. I didn’t get it.
Finally at 7am Tuesday morning, the ticket windows open and each row of fans was let out to go to the windows. I bought my four tickets (I don’t remember if they were great seats) and met up with all my co-line waiters outside. They were very excited because they were all going to the game and I was kind of iffy. We all gave each other the 70’s equivalent of a high-five (whatever that was) and said “See you at the game!” I went home dog tired and even made it to school that day. Mom said I didn’t have to go but I wanted to.
As it turned out, I couldn’t find anyone who wanted to go to Miami with me, so Chuck got all the tickets. He paid me something but I don’t remember how much.
The Cowboys lost to the Steelers 21 – 17 in the closest Super Bowl up to that time.