Customer makes good on 18-year promise, sends Wichita bartender to see Chiefs in Super Bowl
It was 18 years ago, and Daron Adelgren was a bartender at Mort’s.
He had a regular customer he used to talk to about his deep and lifelong love of Kansas City sports, which at the time was represented by a Kansas City Royals license plate on his truck.
The Royals were terrible at the time, though, and one day, another customer came in and demanded to meet the sucker who would drive a truck with a Royals license plate.
Adelgren and the bar regular started talking then about the Royals and the Chiefs and how Adelgren was the kind of fan who would never stop rooting for his teams, no matter the odds.
“And he said, ‘If the Royals ever go to the World Series or if the Chiefs ever go to the Super Bowl, I’m buying you a ticket,’” Adelgren said.
Adelgren, who now is the general manager at Wichita’s Pumphouse, spoke Monday morning from his hotel room in Miami, and he was still a little bit unable to process the events of the preceding hours.
That customer —who does not want to be publicly identified — kept his promise and not only bought a $5,200 Super Bowl ticket for Adelgren but also donated $1,000 toward a ticket for Adelgren’s friend and boss at the Pumphouse, Cory Ross.
On Sunday, Adelgren watched his beloved Chiefs win the Super Bowl in Miami from a seat in the 26th row, and he was so moved by the experience, he collapsed into his seat and covered his head with his hands when he realized his team was going to win.
“I really don’t know how to thank him,” Adelgren said of the customer. “He’s got the biggest hug he’s ever had coming. He’s just an absolute great guy.”
He didn’t forget
The customer, who also is a fan of Kansas City sports, became a regular at the Pumphouse when Adelgren moved there 12 years ago. They remained friendly for years, but the conversation about the World Series and Super Bowl tickets had long been forgotten by Adelgren.
The customer didn’t forget.
When the Royals earned a spot in the 2015 World Series, he came to the bar and asked Adelgren to find out how much a World Series ticket cost. Adelgren told him that he certainly didn’t expect him to follow through with the promise he’d made so long ago.
“But his whole thing was, ‘A deal’s a deal,’” Adelgren said. “He was insistent.”
The customer sent Adelgren to the World Series, but he didn’t want to go along. Though he also loves Kansas City sports, he said, the customer doesn’t love crowds.
Adelgren brought back for the customer the only thing he’d asked for — a World Series program and a box of CrackerJax.
Fast forward to 2018, and before the NFL season even started, the customer was asking Adelgren, “Is this going to be the year we send you to the Super Bowl?”
It almost was, as Chiefs fans well remember, but then came 2019.
“This year it was the same thing,” he said. “Before the season even starts, he’s coming in and talking to me about it every time he sees me.”
The Tuesday after the Chiefs won the AFC Championship, Adelgren says, he lucked into some Super Bowl tickets. Someone he knew had four and wanted to sell two. That’s when the benefactor offered to pay $1,000 toward Ross’ ticket, too.
Adelgren said he received a text during the game from the customer. He said he was living vicariously through Adelgren and that he was sitting in his living room crying.
The only thing he asked, again this time, was that Adelgren bring him a program.
“I really believe that he is just one of those guys that enjoys making other people happy,” Adelgren said. “I just hope that maybe there will come a time when I can return the favor and pay it forward to somebody else.”
This story was originally published February 3, 2020 at 10:56 AM.
.jpg)