Two Penn State fans buy tickets on a whim
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He walked down the steps, not knowing exactly where his seats in the Rose Bowl were located. When Shawn Shimko, 37, of Tampa, Fla., stopped at his seats, his jaw dropped in astonishment.
Seat No. 110 is in the second row, directly facing the 50-yard line. Shimko’s friend Ernie Rehnke, of St. Petersburg, bought the tickets for $395 for the Rose Bowl game between USC and Penn State without telling him where the seats were located.
‘I don’t know how I can repay him and thank him enough,’ Shimko said.
Rehnke, whom Shimko nicknamed ‘Santa Claus,’ should thank his friend, Thomas Coelho, for the seats. Rehnke said Coelho works for an online ticketing company and two often attend Tampa Bay Rays games together.
‘My goal was always between the 20-yard lines,’ Rehnke said. ‘Usually I can get them.”
Shimko and Rehnke are both Penn State fans and know each other because Shimko’s wife works as a nurse with Rehnke, a doctor, at Palms of Pasadena Hospital.
Shimko booked flights and told Coelho he wanted tickets about three weeks ago. But he didn’t want them processed until this morning in hopes he could find cheaper prices.
They flew from Tampa International Airport at 7 this morning, arrived at LAX at 9:30, and hit the road by 10:30. They arrived at the Rose Bowl at 11 a.m., and at a Stub Hub tent outside the stadium, two tickets awaited them.
‘Bottom line, God is good,’ Rehnke said. ‘Somehow or another, he always takes good care of me.’
-- Mark Medina