LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – As the hours tick down until kickoff at Super Bowl LVIII, FOX5 caught up with San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs fans getting ready for the big game, including a couple who’s seen more football games than most people alive today.
“We purchased our season tickets in 1956,” Jimmie Toliver said proudly next to his wife Louise.
Since meeting each other in San Francisco back in 1951, the Tolivers have seen almost every 49ers game, mostly in person.
“We both started liking the team at the same time,” Louise reminisced. “So I said, ‘So let’s get tickets so we can go to every game.’”
The Tolivers have lived in Las Vegas for 20 years and are now suddenly surrounded by lots of other 49ers fans.
“I’m what you call an invader,” a 49ers fan who goes by “El Charro” told FOX5 outside Splash, a 49ers bar on the west side of the Valley. “I like to go to away games.”
Chiefs fans were also out in force across the area, including at Jackpot Bar and Grill, which is set to host a big Super Bowl party Sunday.
“This is everything to me,” Josh “Squishy” Cowart said about the upcoming game. “This is my team. The team I grew up loving.”
Cowart has a unique origin story for his Chiefs fandom, especially considering he grew up in California.
“As a kid, I collected playing cards,” he explained. “I used to collect Joe Montana. And as he got traded to the Chiefs, so did I. It was the best trade ever.”
Now, Cowart and the other Chiefs fans who live here who have been lucky enough to see their team come to town once a year — could witness something even greater.
“During the past four years, we’ve had them play here, but this is a whole different ballgame,” Cowart said.
“The fact that it’s the very first Super Bowl here and the Chiefs are in it, it makes it that much more extraordinary,” Jackpot Bar and Grill co-owner Jeff Frederick added.
That feeling will be a bit soured, though, if the 49ers fans get their way.
“I’ve said all year long – the football gods are smiling down on the 49ers,” El Charro exclaimed. “This is our year.”
“The 49ers are going to win,” Jimmie Toliver predicted. “And Deebo Samuel is going to be the MVP.”
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