PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Does longtime Eagles fan Gary Polin know anyone who has had season tickets for nearly 70 years?
“I do not,” he said.
Except for himself, that is.
“It’s passing on down a heritage.”
“It’s interesting,” says Gary’s son Michael. “When I go to the games, they always honor a season ticket member on the jumbotron at The Linc and they always say so and so has had season tickets since 1983. So and so has had season tickets since 1992. My wife and I always look at each other and say, ‘Wow! That’s not even close to what my dad has had them for.”
Gary, 78, and his family are entering their 65th year as season ticket holders at Eagles games.
It’s something that was started by his father, Joseph Polin, in 1958, especially with sports being an important topic of discussion at breakfast, lunch and dinner tables.
Gary said back in the day, the Eagles had a promotion when they were moving from Connie Mack Stadium to Franklin Field. He says if you bought an adult ticket, you got a student ticket for free. So according to Gary – who has a younger brother, Lenard – his dad bought five tickets, resulting in a total of 10.
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“And it was very inexpensive at the time,” Gary remembers.
Of course, that’s not the case now. Season tickets are a pretty penny. But the Polin family has kept them, going from the closed end of the upper deck at Franklin Field, to section 642 at Veterans Stadium, to section 223, row 14 at Lincoln Financial Field, where they currently have two seats.
He could not have imagined having seats for this long in his family.
“We learned to love football.”
Gary has seen the good and the bad, but it’s the great that he remembers fondly.
He was 16 years old when in attendance at the 1960 NFL Championship Game at Franklin Field when Chuck Bednarik and the Eagles defeated Vince Lombardi’s Packers. He and Michael remember being at the 1980-81 NFC Championship Game against the rival Cowboys, and how bitter cold it was that day at The Vet. It was so cold, that Michael’s hot chocolate froze in his thermos. Michael said the greatest memories he has had, aside from personal family moments, were time spent with family at Eagles games.
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“We are Philadelphia sports fans through and through, not just Eagles,” Michael said. “We’ve had Eagles season tickets for 65 years, but my grandfather was also a charger member for the Philadelphia Flyers. He was one of the first fans to buy Flyers season tickets in their first year 1967-68 … At one time, we had Eagles, Flyers and Sixers season tickets all at one time.”
And the Polins also get proof every day that Philadelphia football is different from other cities. Gary and Michael relocated their families to Florida a little over two decades ago. Gary, a retired salesman who grew up in the Northeast and moved to Willingboro, lives in Tampa and said fans jumped off the ship as soon as Tom Brady retired.
“Philly, that doesn’t happen,” said Gary. “Good, bad or indifferent. There’ve been plenty of lousy seasons that Michael and I sat through, but year after you renew the tickets and you continue to go because hope springs eternal.”
Even though Gary and Michael are based in Florida today, they say there is always Polin family representation in their seats. Michael and his family will head north to a couple of games a year, or they’ll have family from the Philadelphia area go to the game. Gary hasn’t been to a home game for a few seasons, but he and Michael still talk and text each other on game day. About five or 10 minutes before each game, they’ll call one another and say, “Let’s Go Get ‘Em.’” It’s a phrase Gary’s dad used to say.
This is a bond that football and Philadelphia sports help mold together. Their family history is embedded on the grounds of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex by Lincoln Financial Field with a brick that signifies the Polins have had season tickets since 1958.
“At one time, we had four generations watching Eagles football,” said Michael.
And for Gary – a father of two and a grandfather of four – who has seen the entire tenure of this season ticket plan – the tickets are staying where they belong.
“They’re going to stay in the family forever. They’re not going anywhere – right, dad?” Michael said.
“That is correct,” Gary responded.
CORRECTION: A photograph caption misidentified Gary Polin at an Eagles-Jaguars game at Wembley Stadium in London. The caption has been edited to reflect the correction.