PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — It was the late evening of Feb. 4, 2018. The Philadelphia Eagles had just won the Super Bowl. It was already a momentous night for longtime fan Chuck Swanson of Audubon.
He said his little family room was crammed with about 11 people, including his adult son Rob – one of four whom he and his wife raised.
“I think we were literally speechless,” Chuck said. “That doesn’t happen very often in our household. We’re all good talkers.”
“I think my dad said something like, ‘It doesn’t get any better than this,’” said Rob.
It quickly got a whole lot better.
Rob said when the tears of joy subsided and everyone in the room settled down, he and his wife Jess broke the kind of news Rob admits they probably wouldn’t have immediately shared if the Eagles lost to the New England Patriots.
They were expecting their first child. Chuck’s first grandson.
“Imagine winning the Super Bowl, and then a couple minutes later finding out you’re going to have another grandchild?” said Chuck.
“It was just one of those family moments that you look back on and go, ‘Oh my word, are we blessed.’”
Those final six words spell out Chuck’s story of the link between family and Philly sports.
A longtime Philadelphia sports fan and a third-generation Phillies fanatic, Chuck has carried on what his grandmother Jane started almost a century ago, and handed it down to generations that followed him.
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Chuck, 66, said he doesn’t remember much of the first season he started following the Phillies, but he does know, “It didn’t end well.”
His first season involved the infamous 1964 Phillies. They owned what appeared at the time to be a comfortable September lead in the National League, with a trip to the World Series on the horizon.
They proceeded to lose 10 games in a row from September 21-30, started by a 1-0 loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Connie Mack Stadium. Reds third baseman Chico Ruiz stole home for the only run of that game.
The Phillies snapped that 10-game losing streak by winning the last two games of the season for a 92-70 record, but it didn’t matter.
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The St. Louis Cardinals finished one game better than the Phils to win the pennant and take the World Series in seven games over the New York Yankees.
“I do remember my dad yelling about [manager] Gene Mauch and how much he didn’t ‘appreciate’ him,” Chuck said with a laugh. “Different word than that.”
How in the world did a young fan who was introduced to one of the biggest choke jobs in Philadelphia sports history stay such a passionate and loyal supporter of the franchise for another half century and counting?
As Chuck put it, “When you’re a kid, you’re always optimistic, and I stay optimistic to this day.”
A third-generation fan with a lifetime of stories
Chuck isn’t sure if his grandmother’s parents started the Swanson family’s Phillies love, but he’s well aware that she became a fan about a century ago – hence him becoming the third generation.
With the upbringing he received in Philadelphia sports, Chuck has a lot of stories to tell.
He started telling those stories to his grandmother, filling her in on what happened with her Phils the previous evening after she fell asleep while listening to Richie Ashburn, Bill Campbell or By Saam call the game over her transistor radio.
He gathered even more stories while sitting in the obstructed view seats of Connie Mack Stadium. Then there’s that story of having his mother shush him so he wouldn’t jinx Jim Bunning’s perfect game in 1964 over the now-loathed New York Mets.
Chuck, a CEO of a faith-based organization that consults women on pregnancies, could probably write a memoir about growing up as a Phillies fan.
But there’s also how he contributed to the fandom of others, such as his Colorado-born wife and his children.
Bethany Mitros, one of Chuck’s daughters, remembers when she was very young in the early 1990s and Chuck told her that they were going to the mall.
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While Bethany was young, she realized it she wasn't heading to the Cherry Hill Mall. It was Veterans Stadium for her first Phillies game in person.
Then, there was the time he surprised his wife with a signed Steve Carlton baseball, because “Lefty” is his wife’s favorite.
And he couldn’t forget about the time the Phillies surprised his other daughter, Caitlin – who served with the Army in Iraq – with a big box of 50 different Phils items after Chuck called the team to ask if they could hook her up.
Chuck and his wife had four children: Bethany, Caitlin, Rob and Dave.
Why is it important for him to have these moments in his family coincide with Philadelphia sports?
“It’s a lot of fun,” Chuck said.
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“We’ve really bonded together over sports. When I look back at all the different things that we’ve done, different family activities, I think has been the thing that has drawn us the closest.”
Part of what keeps them so close is the consistent group text the Swansons have about their beloved teams – especially the Phillies.
“Every game, we’re texting,” Chuck said. “Like, ‘Ah, Schwarber way to go!’ That sort of thing.”
“It’s kind of what keeps us all connected regularly,” Bethany said. “There’s always new things about the Phillies, or the Flyers and the Eagles. There’s always something going on. And it’s really nice. It’s a really great way to kind of keep in touch with everybody.”
“It’s kind of just like watching the game with them even though we’re all kind of apart, especially during the pandemic and early on not knowing what was going on. That was close to when the [2020] season was supposed to start. We kind of share fun moments with each other,” explained Rob.
The fifth generation
The plan is for those moments to continue with another line in the family.
Rob is raising his very young sons as Phillies fans. Bethany is doing the same with her daughters. She said they love the Flyers mascot, Gritty.
When asked what was more exciting, the Eagles winning the Super Bowl or finding out Rob was going to have his first kid, Chuck answered the latter.
“For the sake of family unity, my grandson … both pretty big, but the grandson thing was very, very exciting.”
“Fifth-generation Phillies fans,” said Rob.
Good answer, Chuck.