His streak of never missing a Super Bowl has reached 58 seasons and might just keep going as long as he’s able, but Don Crisman is giving up some of the mementos he’s accumulated since 1967.
The 88-year-old retired salesman from Kennebunk, ME has consigned a complete run of high-grade tickets to every game, programs and press guides, pennants and other items to Heritage Auctions’ Platinum Night, where they’ll find new homes this weekend.
There are autographed items, Super Bowl pins and buttons and even a 1970 letter from Kansas City Chiefs founder Lamar Hunt, who wrote to Crisman about the merger of the NFL and AFL.
Crisman is one of three fans who can claim they’ve attended every Super Bowl game since the first one in Los Angeles when Vince Lombardi’s Packers defeated the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10. He was just 30 years old then and living in Denver. Making friends with employees of a local bank, he began a streak that just kept going.
Free tickets from the bank made it easy but in recent years, he’s become more dependent on the generosity of family and others to score ticket, transportation and lodging to the site of game.
His run of tickets is the key lot in the auction, with 56 of the 58 graded by PSA and several rating 8-10 in quality.
According to Heritage, Crisman saw the first 42 Super Bowl games with one of his bank friends, Stan Whitaker, who dubbed them the Never Miss a Super Bowl Club. Eventually, two other members—Tom Henschel and Gregory Eaton—emerged. Crisman found Henschel in line with him to watch a taping of NBC’s Tonight Show during the week of Super Bowl XVII.
In 2010, the trio were part of a 2010 TV commercial for a VISA Super Bowl ticket sweepstakes, narrated by Morgan Freeman. Their streak had become national news.
“The commercial was fun to do and certainly increased our popularity,” Crisman told Heritage. “It got us a few other gigs. So that was a good thing because this hobby is pretty expensive.”
The sale of his Super Bowl items on Sunday night will help pay for some home repairs and Crisman knows his streak will probably end before long.
“It was a major decision for me to put the goods up for auction,” he says. “But I think it’s the right thing to do.”
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