Harrison native keeping up perfect Super Bowl attendance record with No. 56 on Sunday
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Harrison native Tom Henschel has perfect attendance in one of the world’s most exclusive clubs.
Henschel, 80, is a member of the Never Miss a Super Bowl Club. Henschel joins Gregory Eaton and Don Crisman as the only football fans on Earth to have attended all of the previous 55 Super Bowl games.
And on Sunday, the friends will be in Los Angeles for their 56th Super Bowl. (Detroit sportswriter Jerry Green, 93, has also attended every Super Bowl and will be there this year, too.)
The trio keep in touch throughout the year and routinely field numerous requests from the media about their rare sports-themed accomplishment.
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On the NFL VIP ticket list for more than 30 years, Henschel said he buys two tickets at face value annually.
This year, the two tickets came to $5,000. With airfare, hotel and meals, the outlay is about $8,000.
Henschel, retired after a career as an airline gate agent based in Chicago, said he can afford his pricey passion because he maintains an otherwise modest lifestyle and is virtually debt-free.
He lamented the sky-high cost of Super Bowl tickets fans encounter these days, noting he paid $12 for his ticket to Super Bowl III.
“The expense is way too much (for most). It’s not for the diehard fans anymore but for the rich and famous.”
Nevertheless, “I just enjoy the fact that I’m one of select few,” he said, over the phone from his home in Tampa, Fla. “I do it for my dad, knowing he loved football so much — that’s what keeps me going.”
Henschel grew up on Harrison’s Broadview Boulevard, the son of Dorothy and Vincent Henschel.
His father, who served on the former Har-Brack School Board, exposed his sons to football at a young age. Henschel recalls that, when he was 5, he was a ball boy and water boy for the Har-Brack High School Tigers.
“My father taught us how to play the game. This is my sport,” said Henschel, recalling annual trips to Steelers training camp at Saint Vincent College with his dad and two brothers. “I met some greats — Franco Harris, Jack Lambert, Rocky Bleier, Lynn Swann.”
Henschel played football at Har-Brack and graduated in 1960.
Since retirement, Henschel and his wife, Regina, have lived in a family cabin in Winfield, Butler County, from April to December and in Tampa the remainder of the year.
Henschel, a lifelong Pittsburgh Steelers fan, always dons a Steelers jersey for Super Bowl games. He said that can lead to interesting exchanges with random fans in the stands.
“People would say to me, ‘Hey, what are you Steelers fans doing here?’ And I tell them, ‘What do we have to do, give you a history lesson?’ ”
This Sunday, look for Henschel in his Hines Ward No. 86 jersey in the first row of the third level at SoFi Stadium.
“I’ll be wearing that one. I hope he gets into the Hall of Fame this year,” Henschel said.
Henschel’s favorite Super Bowls
He said his proudest Super Bowl memories have been games shared with relatives.
“This year, I’m flying out alone, but I’m most proud that I took my dad to five Super Bowls, my mom to two and everyone in my immediate family has gone to a Super Bowl with me,” Henschel said. This year, a friend is joining him for the game.
His late brother, Jim, attended 30 Super Bowls with Henschel. The brothers made their own halftime entertainment.
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“We would skip the halftime and go have a few toddies. I never look at the show, and I’ve never seen Super Bowl commercials, either,” Henschel said.
His wife has joined him for 13 of the games.
“She supports me big time and is a big helper,” Henschel said.
Regina recalled one of the first glimpses into the football-obsessed life she would share with her husband. On the day after they married in 1977, “we went to a Steelers game — right before our honeymoon,” she said. “It’s a passion for him.”
“Football has always been the fabric of my life,” Henschel said.
Leading up to the Super Bowl, his life is full of frenzied activities; media outlets from CNN to Inside Edition to the Los Angeles Times have come calling. The post-Super Bowl period is tough.
“I get depressed for about a month,” he said. “So I just go out to eat and listen to good music. I love the blues and the golden oldies from the ’50s and ’60s.”
After more than four decades years of marriage, Regina still supports her husband’s Super Bowl fever and quest.
But for Henshel, he does see an attendance end in sight.
“I’d like to make it to my 60th Super Bowl and then quit,” Henschel said. “Old age is setting in.”