Colorado spring game begins with kick from 98-year-old fan
Colorado‘s famous 98-year-old fan Peggy Coppom has formed a special bond with new head coach Deion Sanders. The latest moment in their burgeoning friendship came Saturday during the team’s spring game when she opened the affair with an honorary opening kick.
Sanders helped Coppom with the kick. They walked together towards the football placed on a tee. With snow coming down in the cold Boulder, Colo., air and a year pom-pom in her left hand, Coppom swung her right foot back and kicked the ball forward to applause from the crowd.
Sanders than gave her a hug and then members of the team surrounded her and started jumping up and down.
“Peggy balled. Peggy was the MVP of the game,” Sanders said. “She was quick. The first step was unbelievable. She was very physical when she grabbed me and made sure I held her arm.”
Earlier in the year, Sanders stopped by Coppom’s house to look through old Colorado scrapbooks with her and talk about her famous fandom in the Buffaloes program.
The kick was just the latest bonding moment between Sanders and Coppum
“She was thankful and appreciative,” Sanders said. “She really was. She’s hilarious. I mean, the little quick comments that she may have, that (were) out there, (were) unbelievable. I’m pretty sure they caught it in my mic. But she’s fun, man. She’s good. I wish to God — I just want to make it that far and have the same smile and energy and love, just for life, as she does.”
Peggy Coppom, along with her late sister Betty, are considered two of the biggest Colorado fans in the history of the athletic department.
Before Betty passed away, the two — known as the Twins — attended over 3,000 Buffaloes events together.
The school has also done multiple things over the years to show how much they are about the two sisters. The athletic department inducted them into the school’s legacy wing last year. The year prior to that, two trees on campus were planted together in honor of the Twins.
Now, Coppom has unofficially kicked off the Sanders era with her kick Saturday.
“I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that Betty and Peggy are the definition of Forever Buffs,” University of Colorado chancellor Philip DiStefano said at the dedication. “These trees are a living reminder of Betty and Peggy’s dedication to CU Boulder and they will grow and blossom in the same way that the twins’ relationship did with our school over the decades.”