Local barber has Super Bowl adventure

By Rod Rowe

Goshen barber and longtime Indianapolis Colts fan Doug Shaffer is walking on clouds this week after being able to attend his second Super Bowl in four years last weekend.

Shaffer said his family decided two weeks ago they could not afford the expense of another trip to the Super Bowl, as they are concentrating on sending their daughter, Lauren, to college this year.

“Three years ago the tickets were $1,750 each,” Shaffer explained. He estimated it would cost thousands of dollars to fly his whole family to the game. A Colts season ticket holder for 13 years, he was not in the lottery for Super Bowl tickets this year.

“I said I’m not going unless God intervenes,” Shaffer said. He was resigned to watch the big game at a local Super Bowl party or at home, until a miracle happened last week.

But then his “ticket lady” called him to say someone turned in tickets and Doug could buy them for $500. He jumped at the chance.

“I had to make the split-second decision,” Shaffer said. “I got (the tickets). Then I asked, ‘Who is going?’”

Shaffer said he bought the tickets with the intention of allowing his daughter and 16-year-old son, Austin, to go to the big game. He and his oldest son followed the Colts to the Super Bowl three years ago, he said.

Although Lauren had to practice for the basketball sectional that is being played this week, his family wanted to go to Miami.

“I’m in a pickle,” he recalled. “My family wants to go. I’m flying them down and going with them. I’m not buying a (game) ticket for myself,”

The plan was for Shaffer to escort the teenagers to Miami. Shaffer’s wife, Tina, stayed home.

The three Shaffers flew out of South Bend at 6:25 a.m. Saturday and stopped at Detroit. There were many Colts fans at the Detroit airport, as they flew from Indianapolis on Northwest Airlines before connecting to Miami.

At Detroit, Shaffer struck up a conversation with a man from Indianapoplis who was involved in designing Super Bowl rings for the Colts. Shaffer told the man he was taking his children to the Super Bowl, but he did not have a ticket for himself.

Shaffer’s new friend went to work on the situation. He first said another jewelry designer headed to the game might not be able to get out of Rhode Island, and Shaffer might be able to have that ticket.

Shaffer kept in touch by cell phone with his new friend, who called him at 11 a.m. Sunday to say he had located a ticket for him. The man told Shaffer that “the family” provided it, which Shaffer took to mean the Irse family in Indianapolis, who own the Colts.

In addition to receiving this ticket to the big game, Shaffer said, he was handed an envelope that read “Tailgate” on the outside. It contained credentials for admission to a huge tailgate party going on before the football game. Shaffer said “American Idol” star Chris Daughtry was performing at the event.

“It was nuts,” the Goshen barber noted. “About 75 percent of the people were in suits and ties. The other 25 percent were real fans.”

After the afternoon party, the Shaffers headed into the stadium, where they continued to watch the stars. Shaffer made a list of 17 people they spoke to, had photos taken with and from whom they received souveniers, including a player’s glove. The celebrities include Condelezza Rice, members of The Who (halftime performers), Queen Latifah, Emmet Smith and Archie Manning.

Shaffer even traded tickets with a Saints fan sitting behind his children and watched the game with them, rather than in another section.

And after the game, Shaffer was able to tear down a section of a Super Bowl banner, which is hanging this week in his Sports Cut barber shop along Elkhart Road.

While walking back to their motel, Shaffer said, his children called the adventure “the greatest weekend of their lives. I have never been thanked so much.”

“It was a priceless, priceless time,” Shaffer said of the weekend with his family. “The kids had an absolute blast.”

Other than the final outcome of the game, the weekend was a dream come true.

They flew home Monday morning in time for Lauren to get to school and basketball practice after classes.

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