Lombardi Trophy stops in Bloomington

Exactly one month ago Sunday, senior Max Brown watched his Indianapolis Colts defeat the Chicago Bears 29-17 to become Super Bowl XLI champions. \n“To be able to be a season ticket-holder with my dad and go to all these games and see them go from 3-13 to the Super Bowl, it’s incredible,” Brown said.\nBrown, along with hundreds of others in Bloomington and around Indiana, waited outside HH Gregg at 606 Gourley Pike on Sunday to get a chance to see the Vince Lombardi Trophy.\n“I was here at 9:30. I think that says enough as it is,” Brown said.\nThe doors to HH Gregg opened at 11 a.m. Sunday.\nThe trophy was in Bloomington as part of the 50-stop Indianapolis Colts World Championship Trophy Tour. According to the Colts’ Web site, the tour started Feb. 23 and goes through March 25, making stops throughout the state as well as a couple in Kentucky and one in Illinois.\n“It’s actually been overwhelming,” said Colts marketing assistant Joe Fonderoli, who has been traveling with the trophy. “We’ve had so many people out here, and at each stop we’re averaging at least 1,000 people. You can tell by the crowd here today that was sitting two hours before. There were probably 500 people sitting outside the door before we even opened.”\nFans lined up to see the trophy long before 11 a.m. Ellettsville resident Richard Campbell was one of the first people in line, arriving about 5:50 a.m. Sunday, he said. He said that this was something he had been waiting for ever since the Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984.\n“It’s a chance in a lifetime,” Campbell said. “I’ve always believed in the Colts. I can’t wait to see the trophy and be excited about it. I’m tongue-tied.”\nBy 10:30 a.m., the line to get in extended along the front of the store, all the way to the street.\nAt 10:40 a.m., a blue Colts van pulled into the HH Gregg parking lot, and 15 minutes later fans got a first glimpse of the trophy and cheered as they watched it carried into the store. At 11 a.m., the doors to HH Gregg opened and the fans walked in. \n“A new Facebook picture for sure,” Brown said about what he thought he would get out of the experience. “Just something I can look back on. Pictures, memories, stuff you’re never going to forget.”\nFans were allowed to take one picture with the trophy. Then they were asked to keep moving, so each fan who showed up would get a chance to see the trophy.\nFreshmen Shannon Blevins and Lisa Demuth got their chance at 11:30 a.m. Demuth said they had both arrived at 10 a.m. When asked if it was worth the wait, Demuth and Blevins answered in unison, “Oh yeah.”\n“It was really cool to get to stand right next to it,” Blevins said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, probably.”\nThe stop in Bloomington lasted until 1 p.m., when the trophy began its move to its next stop on the tour, a showing at 5 p.m. in Martinsville.\nNumbers-wise, Fonderoli said, Bloomington was one of the more popular stops on the tour.\n“You can just tell by the crowd that’s outside,” he said. “It’s all the way out to the road and down the street. I feel we’ll probably get a top five out of this.”