Harrison native to keep streak alive of attending every Super Bowl

Harrison native Tom Henschel will make a short, 15-minute drive from his home to Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium on Sunday to continue a remarkably long streak.

Henschel, 79, has attended all 54 Super Bowl games. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, attendance at this year’s Super Bowl, the 55th, will be limited to 22,000 people. Henschel will be one of them.

“I have to go. I can’t break my string. I have to be there,” said Henschel, who has lived in the Tampa area for 40 years but makes annual trips back to the family cabin in Winfield, Butler County. “I’m slowing down, but I still love the game.”

Henschel forked out more money for his ticket this year than ever before.

“I’m paying $2,500 for a ticket this year,” he said.

On the NFL VIP ticket list for 29 years, Henschel said he buys two tickets at face value annually.

Henschel said he and his wife, Regina, live a modest lifestyle and are virtually debt-free, so the annual expenses incurred with Super Bowl trips are manageable.

Henschel, a former airline gate agent in Chicago, said back in the day, he could fly for free with airline perks, and tickets were much cheaper, so Super Bowl trips were more affordable.

“Tickets were so cheap back then,” Henschel said. “I received free tickets to the Super Bowls I, II, IV and V. I paid $12 for a ticket for Super Bowl III.”

Henschel’s streak has gained him entrance into the exclusive “Never Miss a Super Bowl Club.” He still receives residual checks from his appearance in a 2010 Visa credit card commercial with that title.

Henschel has developed close friendships with two other men who have been to every Super Bowl. He met Don Crisman, 84, of Kennebunk, Maine, at the 1983 Super Bowl and Gregory Eaton, 81, originally from Lansing, Mich., several years later.

Henschel, the youngest of the group, will meet them this weekend for a socially distanced, outdoor lunch and then sit several rows apart in the stadium, observing coronavirus restrictions.

Henschel, a lifelong Steelers fan, had hoped to see the Black & Gold in this year’s Super Bowl.

“I’m crying. They started out 11-0,” Henschel said. “Too many injuries this season.”

But the Black & Gold will be represented by Henschel.

“That’s my ritual: To wear something Steelers,” he said. “I’m a die-hard Black-and-Gold guy.”

Henschel grew up on Harrison’s Broadview Boulevard, the son of Vincent and Dorothy Henschel. He credits his dad for exposing him to football at a young age.

“Back then, growing up in the 1940s and ’50s, everyone in empty lots had guys playing football,” Henschel said. “My dad took us to all of the college football games. And if it wasn’t for my dad, who loved football, I don’t think this would have happened.”

Henschel served as the water boy and ball boy for the former Har-Brack High School’s football team when he was 5.

Regina Henschel said she’s lost count of the Super Bowls she’s attended with her husband, but she always offers emotional support after every Super Bowl.

“My wife says I go into a depression after the Super Bowl ends,” Henschel said. “I can’t talk almost until spring training begins.”