Alabama Fan Dies, Will Miss First Crimson Tide Game Since 1945

Dick Coffee's streak would have been longer, but he put off college to serve in WWII. Then, in 1946, the Alabama freshman attended the season opener against Furman. He'd go to every single Crimson Tide game played—including road games and bowl—right up through January's national title. That's 781 straight.

Coffee died Friday at the age of 91, but had been in failing health for some time. Only death could have stopped him, though: “He was in a wheelchair and couldn’t hear, but he was at all of them.”

Amazingly, Coffee fell short of the record for most consecutive college football games attended.

“I thought he had the all-time record, and I sent it to the Guinness Book of World Records when he got up to about 700,” Melton said. “They wrote back and said no, he was second.”

The record was set by Giles Pellerin, who attended 797 consecutive USC games, beginning in 1926. He died in the Rose Bowl parking lot in 1998 during the second half of the USC-UCLA game.

[ AL.com]