ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
BARREL-LESS, BRONCOS’ NO. 1 FAN BACK IN GAME
Date: Tuesday, November 4, 2003
Section: City Desk/Local
Page: 25A
Source: By Owen S. Good
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
Memo: Related photo p.4A
Edition: Final
Instead of the orange cylinder from his armpits to his knees, and his
birthday suit underneath, Tim McKernan wore a void of black fleece
that seemed to acknowledge what was not there.
But people still recognized him as the Denver Broncos’ No. 1 fan.
People still called him Barrel Man.
“Barrel Man!” said a patron in Section 321. “Good to have you back!”
Monday night, McKernan, 63, returned for his first Broncos game since
an abdominal aneurysm laid him up before the season started. He had
never missed a game since his debut in 1978; the costume was worn
through the best and worst of the team and the weather.
“This is a little unusual,” McKernan said in the parking lot before
the game. “I feel comfortable right now.”
The barrel will not be back until next year. Even bundled up, McKernan
and his wife, Becky, were not sure how long he would be able to stay
at the game. McKernan has battled pneumonia in his recovery and
carries an oxygen tank.
But he still wore the white beard, black Stetson, and orange bowling
shoes that complete the Barrel Man look.
“You see the hat and the shoes,” said fellow superfan Stormin’
Norman Silva, and “the stuff in between don’t count.”
Ticket-takers and event staff shook McKernan’s hand. Passers-by
snapped pictures. On his way to his seat, he paused outside the
Broncos’ locker room. Quarterback Danny Kanell welcomed Barrel Man
back, by name, en route to the field.
“He is a staple of the Broncos organization, that’s all there is to
it,” said Jim Craighead, 41, of Littleton. “I remember a game
against Pittsburgh (in 1984), when it was 18 degrees, with wind chill,
and there Barrel Man was.”
“He’s a part of the Broncos as much as John Elway,” agreed fan
Jordan Winn, who asked McKernan for his autograph.
And yet there have been even more touching tributes since McKernan got sick.
“There was a sixth-grade class from Fruita that wrote me get-well
cards,” McKernan said, eyes watering. “Thirty-eight kids.”
But nothing like what was in store five minutes before the game.
Miles, the Broncos’ foam-headed mascot, was celebrating his birthday
and invited Barrel Man to be an announced guest. Other costumed
mascots were part of the party, and were introduced individually. The
crowd offered polite, indifferent applause.
But then the P.A. announced that Barrel Man was back, and his image
covered the JumboTron screen. And this cannot be overstated: The
Invesco Field crowd gave Barrel Man an ovation that lingered like a
Big Red chewing-gum kiss. McKernan took out his oxygen tube and stood.
Section 321 roared. People put down their beer to clap. It was that
kind of moment.
They cheered for him because he was one of them. Because the
vicariousness is what dies the hardest in a sports fan. You can take a
man, give him a mortgage and two kids and a 40-pound beer gut and he
still will have days when, apropos of nothing, he gets caught in a
far-off stare, believing that the time will come when he gets to
charge onto the field, under that waterfall of glory, under all those
cheers, all for him.
That’s what Barrel Man heard Monday.
All content herein is (c) 2003 ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS
Storytelling Through Sports 