Bound for the Big Game: Granite City Woman Wins Super Bowl Tickets and Her Bears-Crazed Brother is Going Along
By David Wilhelm, Belleville News-Democrat, Ill.
Feb. 4–COLLINSVILLE — Bonnie MacTaggart sensed something good had happened when a co-worker encouraged her to read her e-mails Monday.
Four days earlier, on Jan. 25, MacTaggart spent $20 on two raffle tickets, with the grand prize being a pair of tickets to the Super Bowl at 5:25 p.m. today at Dolphins Stadium in Miami, where the Chicago Bears will face the Indianapolis Colts.
The raffle and a silent auction were organized by U.S. Cellular for its employees. The tickets –two for the winner of the raffle and two for the winner of the silent auction –were donated by the St. Louis Rams to U.S. Cellular, the Rams’ cellular provider.
MacTaggart, a wireless business consultant, estimated that thousands of employees in U.S. Cellular’s West Region participated in the raffle, whose proceeds were given to local United Way charities. The West Region is from St. Louis to all points west.
“I didn’t have the money for the auction,” said MacTaggart, 54, a native of Collinsville who lives in Granite City. “I had $20, so I thought, ‘I’ll buy two chances.’ I didn’t even fathom I might win. “I didn’t think any more about it. Then Monday afternoon, one of the guys in the store said, ‘Did you check your e-mails today?’ I said, ‘No.’ He said, ‘I think you need to open your e-mail right now.’ Then I found out they pulled my ticket out.”
MacTaggart could hardly wait to share the wonderful news with her brother, Ted “Sarge” Jackson, 53, of Collinsville, a lifelong Bears fan.
“I called Ted and said, ‘What are you doing Sunday, brother?’” MacTaggart said. “He said, ‘I’m going to be having a Super Bowl party. Are you and Jim (Ribley, MacTaggart’s boyfriend) coming over?’ I said, ‘Actually, we’re not. I think you’re going to miss your party.’
“He, of course, at that time went into a tangent about how he would never, ever miss that game. It took me about five minutes to get him calm enough to say, ‘You’re not going to miss the game. I’m taking you to the game because I won tickets.’”
Jackson and MacTaggart will be sitting in Section 150 of Dolphins Stadium. No, these aren’t nosebleed seats. They’re located on the 10-yard line, nine rows deep and on the same side of the field as the Bears.
“To have a sister who can love you this much to give you a gift like this, wow,” Jackson said.
The two, who left Saturday and return Monday, are staying at Don Shula’s Hotel & Golf Club in Miami Lakes, 7.7 miles from Dolphins Stadium. Their room costs $300 per night.
Jackson, who regularly attends Bears games in Chicago, had tried in vain to land tickets to the Super Bowl.
“I’ve been trying everything I could do to get a ticket,” said Jackson, an administrative assistant to the CEO for Baily International in National City.
“I thought I had a little (pull) with a couple of our higher-up guys, but they couldn’t connect, ” he said. “They said, ‘Sarge, they’re saying the mayor’s office (in Miami) is having problems getting tickets.’ I said, ‘I don’t care about the mayor. I care about me. I need to be at this game.”
Jackson told MacTaggart that similar tickets were available on eBay for $24,000.
“I said, ‘You’re talking about a lot of money, sis, and if you want to buy a car for one of your (two) kids or something, you should consider that,’” Jackson said.
MacTaggart never considered it an option.
“No amount of money could replace this,” she said. “I wouldn’t have sold these tickets for $1 million, because the chance to take him far outweighed anything.”
MacTaggart acknowledged $24,000 is “a lot of money.”
“But as you get older,” she said, “what you realize is money can’t buy family, friends, laughter or love. It just can’t. I wouldn’t have traded this week for anything.”
MacTaggart is an avid Dallas Cowboys fan who attended four games in Dallas this season. But today she will cheer for the Bears with her brother.
Fans in Section 150 will have no doubt about Jackson’s allegiance. His No. 54 Brian Urlacher jersey and booming voice will be dead giveaways.
“We have Urlacher and they don’t. That makes our chances better than theirs,” Jackson said. “I would much rather have Urlacher than Peyton Manning. I think my guy is going to have more control of that game.
“My boys are there, my man is there. We’re going to win. There’s nothing like Bears football.”
Not to mention an older sister like MacTaggart.
Contact reporter David Wilhelm at dwilhelm@bnd.com or 345-7822, ext. 22.
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Copyright (c) 2007, Belleville News-Democrat, Ill.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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