KANSAS CITY, Mo. — As Super Bowl LVII gets closer many Chiefs fans remember the first championship game ever played and three years later, the Chiefs first Super Bowl Championship.
Two fans have scored some decades old Super Bowl memorabilia over the years and kept it safe.
Gretchen Hamilton’s dad was the director of stadium operations for the Chiefs when Arrowhead was built. Before that, he was ticket stadium manager in Municipal Stadium.
She was 9-years-old when the Chiefs went to their first Super Bowl.
Hamilton has two rings, one from the first ever Super Bowl and Super Bowl IV when Coach Hank Stram led the Chiefs to their first Super Bowl win.
“The fourth one is much more decorative,” Hamilton said. “It had 10 diamonds around a big diamond in the middle.”
All the staff got a ring, including her father. Her mom even scored a bracelet with a charm that’s the top of a Super Bowl ring.
As the big game approaches, dad Bob Wachter has been on her mind. She recalls some of her favorite Chiefs memories and rivalries.
“I remember him saying on one cold day before a Raiders game, Hank Stram wanted him to turn off the blowers that warmed the players on the sideline on the Raiders side only and my dad wouldn’t do it,” Hamilton said. “But he really wanted it.”
Dennis Burkhalter teeters on enemy territory.
“Broncos fan, but root for the chiefs,” Burkhalter said.
He was a teen working as a bus boy in Denver when he scored the first ever AFL vs NFL Super Bowl Book.
“I thought it was going to cost a lot more than a dollar, really to be honest with you,” Burkhalter said.
He asked one of his regulars who was going to the game to bring one home.
Five decades later Burkhalter still has it in pretty good condition.
“Pretty cool, pretty special,” Burkhalter said. “I don’t think I could sell it.”
Hamilton’s parents also went to the game. She said tickets were about $35.
Quite the difference from a $5,000 ticket to Super Bowl LVII, which was about the cheapest you could find a couple weeks ago.
After all these years, Hamilton said she’s proud of the team the Chiefs organization has built.
“It would make my dad proud, it would made Stram proud, it would’ve made Jack Steadman proud,” Hamilton said. “I’m proud of them.”
Both are now hoping to add Super Bowl LVII memorabilia to their collections.
