'Never missed a Super Bowl' member dies at age 79
In this Jan. 12, 2011 photo, Bob Cook displays some of his Super Bowl ticket stubs in Brown Deer, Wis. Cook, one of the men featured in a Visa credit card television ad for having never missed a Super Bowl has died at age 79....
....One of the men featured in a Visa credit card television commercial for having never missed a Super Bowl has died. He was 79.
Bob Cook had been to 44 straight Super Bowls but couldn't make to Texas to watch his beloved Green Bay Packers defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Feb. 6. Instead, Cook viewed the game from his hospital bed with his wife, who decorated his room with green and gold lights.
Cook, whose obituary ends with "GO PACK GO," died last week after a blood infection and other chronic issues, including congestive heart failure, his wife, Sarah Cook, said Monday.
She said they had their bags packed and were ready to go, but Bob Cook told his wife three days before the game that he was too ill to travel to the game.
"I'm just a die-hard Packer fan," he told The Associated Press before the Packers win over the Bears in the NFC championship game on Jan. 23. "I'd rather watch football than any other sport."
The Brown Deer, Wis., man and the three other members of the "Never Missed a Super Bowl" club — Thomas Henschel, of Tampa, Fla., Larry Jacobson, of San Francisco and Don Crisman, Kennebunk, Maine — were the stars of the Visa ad leading up to the Super Bowl.
Tom Henschel, 69, said Cook was the last to join the group, during the 36th Super Bowl. Henschel had met Crisman and another man who also had been to every Super Bowl around the 17th Super Bowl.
...Cook was the former owner of Bob Cook's Vagabond Travel Service and started going to Super Bowls while working there. When asked in January why he goes to every Super Bowl he said: "I don't like the season to end."
"When football's over I wait for the preseason," he said. "No, I wait for the draft. Then the preseason. Then the season. Then the post-season. I worked hard not to let it end."
That is a fan!
...As for how much money he spent on going to each game — Cook said he doesn't know.
"I probably could have bought a better house or put a couple new cars in the garage" he said in January. "It's all worth it and I'm very happy with my household and the way it is."
Cook has said the 31st Super Bowl was his favorite, when the Packers beat the Patriots in New Orleans. And he had hoped he would make it to the 50th Super Bowl.
Sarah Cook, 60, said her husband of 28 years enjoyed the doing the commercial this summer and all the attention since then.
"He had so much fun with this," she said. "The last couple months of his life were truly enjoyable."
That is the point, to enjoy your life. And he spent his money enjoying what he loved, the Packers...and we all know he is up there with Vince Lombari and having a grand old time...
When I post on an Officer Down I end it with "Rest in Peace Bro...We'll Continue the Watch." All I can is "Rest in Peace Bob...We'll Contine to Watch."
The data suggest that a chronic infection may underlie the process of atherosclerosis, an infection that can be initiated by the systemic dissemination of bacteria though different “gates” in the vascular wall
ReplyDeleteYour knowledge of medicine is much more than mine...I just wish he could have seen his last Packer Super Bowl at the game...but one Super Bowl is a once in a lifetime event...to see 44 of them blows the mine....
ReplyDeleteHe lived good