Legacy of Yooperman: Why super fan's daughter brought dad's ashes to Lions playoff win

Yooperman’s ashes were placed in a small urn the size of a baseball.

“It’s Honolulu Blue and gold — no silver,” Megan Stefanski, his daughter, said. “That’s the closest we could get (to Lions colors).”

Last Sunday evening, before the Detroit Lions' first playoff win in 32 years, Megan carried that urn through security, past scores of fans jam-packed in the concourse — “Let's go, Lions!” they chanted — and down the steps of Ford Field; then she set up a memorial honoring her father, Donnie Stefanski — best known as "Yooperman" — who died in 2019.

She draped her father’s No. 44 Lions jersey over his longtime seat on the aisle, 13 rows from the field, next to the tunnel; and she placed the urn on the seat next to his old hunting hat with a Lions logo on the front.

“All he wanted was to see something like this,” Megan said. “I felt like he still deserved to be here for it.”

Her eyes glazed with tears as the Lions warmed up to play the Los Angeles Rams — the organization’s first home playoff game in three decades.

PAST STORIES: For this Yooper family, Detroit Lions devotion runs deep

Word was getting around about the memorial — about this makeshift tribute to one of the Lions' most famous fans — and people kept coming up to her, taking pictures of the empty seat, taking pictures of her.

“People I didn’t even know,” she said.

It’s impossible to describe what the Lions mean to all their fans.

For some, it’s a weekend diversion — nothing but light entertainment.

For others, like Megan, the Lions have turned into the central fabric of their lives. The Lions represent Megan’s childhood — her father had season tickets since 1994.

“Our family vacations weren't Disney World,” she said. “They were to Detroit for Tigers games or Lions games.”

Her father had one rule: No matter the score, no matter how bad the season was going, they could never leave early.

“We'd always laugh at people leaving early who live in metro Detroit,” she said. “We're from 5 hours away.”

When her father died of a heart attack at 61, the Lions reached out to her and honored his memory at a game.

LIONS VS. BUCS: Dave Birkett's scouting report, prediction

“Mrs. Ford sent my mom a handwritten letter when my dad died,” she said. “They're really great to us.”

But this fandom is more than the past. The Lions are central to Megan’s current life. She has several close friends she met by going to Lions games, and she tailgates with many of them at Eastern Market. These superfans are like magnets to metal — they are drawn to each other and stick together.

In a lot of ways, Megan represents what many Lions fans have lived through, enduring countless heartbreaks, countless disappointments, and the suffering and frustration that has been passed from one generation to the next.

Until Sunday against the Rams, when the Lions won, 24-23.

“A dream come true,” Megan said after the Lions' victory, her voice still hoarse from all the screaming.

“It was the best night in my life.”

Superfan gets a super season

Before the Lions played the Rams on a bitterly cold night in Detroit, a brisk wind blew through the open Ford Field doors and down the steps toward the field.

“Is it always this cold in here?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “We’ve never played this time of year.”

She has been to every Lions game this season — both home and away. Sometimes, at away games, she stays with superfans she has met in other NFL cities. Like magnets — even from opposing teams.

“Most people are like, ‘What are you, rich?’” she said. “I’m like, 'No, I have two jobs, I live in the U.P. and I have no life.'”

Megan works full-time as a school librarian. She has written a children’s book, “Yooperman’s Pride: Football is Family.” And during the summer, she picks up as many shifts as possible at Yooperman’s Bar and Grill, her family’s bar in Goetzville in the Upper Peninsula.

“In the summertime, I have no life,” she said. “I work an additional 40 to 50 hours every weekend. I am grinding, and it's tourist season. I'm bartending and serving every weekend, so that's pretty much bonus money.”

She uses the “bonus” money to buy flights and tickets to all the away games.

For years, some mocked her for supporting a losing team.

“For years, I was crazy; I was stupid,” she said. “It was, ‘Why are you spending your time and money on this?’

“And now all of a sudden, they think it's cool.”

Every game this season, every trip, carries a distinct memory.

CARLOS MONARREZ: Really, Aaron Glenn: Lions got lucky with no-call on Cam Sutton pass interference

“What I remember about New Orleans is that it was Ford Field South,” she said. “It was crazy. Their players were ticked because there were so many of us, but Green Bay was the same way and even Kansas City. I mean, it wasn't half and half, but that was a lot of Honolulu Blue.”

On Christmas Eve, she went to the Vikings' white-out game in Minneapolis, and somebody took a picture of her that went on social media. “I'm right in the middle of a sea of white holding up a sign that says, ‘I believe in Jared Goff.’

“It just turned out perfect.”

At the start of this season, she started taking a portrait after each game, holding up fingers to represent the Lions’ number of wins.

“You're used to winning only three or four games a year,” she said.

But this year?

She ran out of fingers weeks ago.

“I had people ask, ‘What are you going to do? Take off your socks?’”

Happy tears for Lions fans

Late Sunday night, as the Lions nursed a slim lead, the Rams were driving for what could have been the winning touchdown. Former Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford got the Rams to the 44 — her father’s favorite number — and she took it as a sign.

“I'm like, ‘You guys, the ball's on the 44,’” she said. "They were like, ‘Oh my gosh, it's meant to be.’”

Stafford threw an incomplete pass deep pass, which was the Rams' last chance on offense.

And the Lions eventually ran out the clock.

Yes, it was meant to be.

After the game, she broke into tears — just like darn near everybody else around her.

“Grown men were crying — everybody’s crying — I was crying my eyes out,” she said. “It's just like 30 years of waiting. A guy I didn't even know came down to me bawling his eyes out when the game was over and was kissing my dad’s jersey. I was just like, 'Hi! I don't know who you are. But come on.' It was great.”

She stayed in the stands for more than an hour. Nobody wanted to leave. Nobody wanted to let go of this feeling.

“We did that all year on the road, especially when we'd win and they're trying to clean up, they're kicking us out of the stadiums,” she said. “But nobody at Ford Field tried to kick anybody out. If anything, the staff was all like, ‘Oh, you want me to take the photo?’”

'THIS IS JUST THE START': Lions not satisfied with one cathartic playoff win

Change nothing

When the Lions play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday in the NFC divisional round, Megan will return to Ford Field.

Yes, of course, she will bring that urn.

“He’s gonna have a seat again,” she said.

Change nothing — that’s the golden rule of sports fandom.

Leave nothing to chance.

Same seats as the last win.

Same underwear, if you must. Same food.

MORE SEIDEL: Meet 4 Detroit Lions fans who have had a front-row view of organization's rebuild

Same urn in the same seat.

“What happens if it the urn gets knocked over and breaks and the ashes spill out,” somebody asked her.

“Then this is where he was meant to be,” she said.

Contact Jeff Seidel: jseidel@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @seideljeff.

To read his recent columns, go to freep.com/sports/jeff-seidel.

Next up: Buccaneers

Matchup: Lions (13-5) vs. Tampa Bay (10-8), NFL divisional-round playoffs.

Kickoff: 3 p.m. Sunday; Ford Field, Detroit.

TV/radio: NBC; WXYT-FM (97.1).

Line: Lions by 6½.

At stake: Sunday’s winner will face the winner of Saturday’s game between the 49ers and Packers in the NFC championship game on Jan. 28.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: How do you honor Detroit Lions super fan? Bring his ashes to playoff win