Kevin Graff Lena Mae and Paul Weekly hold up the tickets they were given by ESPN to see the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, where the Buckeyes defeated top-ranked Miami.

NEWARK -- Some people can only wish they had it so good. The sun was not only shining, but angels must also have been floating above the heads of one Newark couple at the Fiesta Bowl.

After a day scouring for tickets, Paul and Lena Mae Weekly resigned themselves to going back to their motel to watch the Ohio State-Miami national championship game.

But just before they were about to leave, someone walked up to them and offered them two free tickets.

Just like that.

"We had given up on going to the game," said Paul, 76. "We practically gave up on getting tickets from scalpers."

A woman approached the forlorn-looking couple in the stadium's back parking lot that Friday evening at 5:40 p.m. Mountain time -- 40 minutes before the game's start -- and asked if they had tickets. When the Weeklys said no, she motioned two men to come over. One man with an ESPN shirt handed them two free tickets and said, "They're yours, complimentary of ESPN."

"We just broke down and cried," said Paul, who hugged the woman.

The Weeklys are pretty certain that the woman and the other man also worked for ESPN, but between the crying and the jubilation, they didn't get the chance to ask. They plan to send the company a thank-you letter.

Their seats were at one goal-post line, way, way, way up -- just three rows from the top. Lena Mae, 71, has arthritis so they had to walk slowly up the flight of concrete stairs.

They were sitting next to four men who had gotten tickets via ESPN -- but definitely not last-minute nor in the same fashion as the Weeklys. As far as the Weeklys could tell, they might have been the only ones who were handed free tickets less than an hour before start time.

They made it into the stadium to see the pre-game ceremonies, which Paul described as "unbelievable." Five sky divers in blinking lights and gliding parachutes swooped down to the field, landing right on the 50-yard line. Each diver unfurled a flag, one representing The Ohio State University, another Miami, one for Tostitos, another for Subway (another game sponsor) and one with the American flag.

Then, an American flag the size of the entire football field was unfurled, then folded back up as "The Star Spangled Banner" was played.

A hearty Buckeyes fan, Paul said he was jumping and screaming throughout the game like the rest of the stadium, which he estimates to have been about 75 percent Ohio State fans.

"The adrenaline was just pumping all through the game," he said.

Celebratory noise and lights rocked the stadium. For every touchdown, there were fireworks. For each field goal, one rocket went up with a big boom.

"It's one of the top ones, a thrill of a lifetime, other than the birth of our children," said Paul, decked out in a red Buckeyes national championship T-shirt, while sitting in his living room. Lena Mae, likewise, had on a white Buckeyes championship T-shirt over a turtleneck.

Paul had started making arrangements to head to Tempe after Ohio State beat Michigan in November. He had everything but the tickets.

A season ticketholder for the past 50 years, Paul tried getting tickets through the season-ticketholder lottery system. But he found out Dec. 16 that he was "denied."

He also tried to get tickets from a friend who is a member of OSU's President's Club -- donors who give lots of money. However, that friend couldn't get tickets because he apparently wasn't a big-enough donor.

On game day, the couple started looking to buy tickets from scalpers at 9 a.m. They set a spending limit of $350 per ticket. Scalpers, however, were selling tickets for about $650-750 each, Paul said.

Paul's brother and three nephews were also at the game with other family members and friends. Some already had tickets; others scalped them. Throughout the day, they tailgated in the stadium parking lot.

Lena Mae really wanted her husband to watch the game in the stadium, even if it had to be without her. "I wanted him to buy one ticket and go spend $750 and go. It wasn't as big a deal for me to get to go," she said.

Paul replied: "I'm not going to go without you. We both got to go."

In the end, sticking together proved as special as Ohio State's 31-24 win over Miami in double overtime.

Originally published Wednesday, January 15, 2003