THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 29, 1995 TAG: 9501280020
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
TIM MADSEN IS alone in his Portsmouth living room, but he has plenty of company in Hampton Roads.
``My wife and both my sons are 49ers fans,'' says Madsen from his Cradock home. ``My brother-in-law lives in San Francisco, and they got into them through him. I'm by myself in my own home.''
Madsen bleeds for the gold and blue. A San Diego native, he had Chargers season tickets for 16 years, and he still receives a weekly newsletter and monthly magazine about his beloved team that sports a lightning bolt on its helmets.
Through it all, he's waited, agonized and prayed for this day to come - Super Bowl Sunday with the Chargers on the bill. Kickoff is at 6:18 tonight.
Chargers fans have waited almost 30 years for a Super Bowl spot - they lost AFC Championship games in 1981 and 1982 - and they've only flirted with success in the past decade. This year, even after the best start in the NFL, few thought San Diego would be playing this late in January.
``On the Monday after they beat Pittsburgh, I went to Chesapeake Square Mall, the sports store there,'' says Madsen, who works at the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. ``Hanging in the window, they had 49ers, Dallas and Pittsburgh jackets. They didn't even have a Charger hat. I walked in and said, `Looks like your boss was wrong.' ''
Helen Hulse, a bank teller in Virginia Beach, keeps an old San Diego cap in the back window of her car. ``We're the Rodney Dangerfields of football fans,'' says Hulse, a Navy officer's wife. ``My biggest dream was that I wanted it to be a San Diego-Cowboy Super Bowl. My husband is a big Cowboy fan.''
Hulse has no question about a Chargers victory, despite the 19 1/2-point edge the Vegas oddsmakers are giving the Niners.
``I'm going to guarantee a win just like the Jets did,'' she said, referring to Joe Namath's legendary prediction that his Jets, a heavy underdog, would win the 1969 Super Bowl. They did.
But not all Chargers fans are so sure. Jeff Kidwell, an environmental protection specialist in Virginia Beach, recalls with a glow the Dan Fouts-Kellen Winslow-Charlie Joiner days of the early 1980s.
``If any Charger team was expected to go the Super Bowl, they were,'' he says. ``They don't have the depth, talent or skill they possessed then.''
Mike Daly, a juvenile protection officer from Chesapeake, remembers those days, too, but he has fonder memories dating back to 1961, the year the Chargers moved to San Diego from Los Angeles.
``I've suffered with my Chargers,'' says Daly, who played football at Cal State-Fullerton and became pals with former Chargers punter Paul Maguire.
``San Diego really had a strong team when they won the AFL title game against the Boston Patriots,'' he said of the 1963 team. ``They have a defense now that gives me heart failure.''
Still, he boasts, ``I haven't heard anything about how San Diego shut out the opponent in the second half of the last two games.''
Daly is throwing a Super Bowl party and inviting a friend who's a Buffalo Bill fan.
``He can sympathize with me if need be,'' Daly assures.
Chesapeake police detective Deb Taylor doesn't expect to be looking for sympathy today - she figures the Chargers will win.
``They've got Bobby Beathard, and he's working wonders,'' she says. ``All they need is a secondary. . . . They need to use their other two running backs other than Natrone (Means), and they need to concentrate on the Niners' other receivers, not just (Jerry) Rice.
Others local fans have their own game plans:
``Keep Steve Young in the pocket,'' Madsen suggests.
``They can't have a slow start,'' says George Amador, a senior at Kellam High in Virginia Beach.
``No turnovers,'' says Bill Butler, a clinical social worker in Norfolk, who keeps current on the Chargers by talking long-distance to his dad. The best Chargers team, he says, was the 1963 AFL champion led by Hall of Fame receiver Lance Alworth and quarterback and future senator Jack Kemp. ``In '63, the Dodgers won the World Series,'' he recalls. ``It was a great year for Southern California.''
Like the rest of the Chargers faithful, Butler yearns for the respect that a Super Bowl victory would bring. It's something the Buffalo Bills haven't found despite four consecutive trips to the big dance.
``I'll be watching it at home with my AFC championship shirt on,'' says Virginia Beach's Lance Smith, who works in the offices at Harbor Park. ``I'm figuring to get an AFC championship hat or, hopefully, a Super Bowl championship hat.'' ILLUSTRATION: DENIS FINLEY
[Virginia license plate OH 2BNSD]
by CNB