At Super Bowl’s High Point, a Son Will Recall His Father

Rich Scobee stood next to his mother, eyes skyward, watching his father, Cmdr. Dick Scobee, at work: “The thing I remember--I was holding my mom’s arm,” he said.

It was a beautiful, cold, clear day, he recalled, when the space shuttle Challenger lifted off with six astronauts and teacher-in-space Christa McAuliffe. “Man, it is an awesome sight to see a liftoff; all that power put out by that rocket. I was taking pictures . . . the camera jammed . . . 73 seconds into the launch . . . ah, I knew . . . I looked at my mother and she looked at me and she knew. . . . It was devastating. . . . I had such a good understanding of aviation because I had been flying with my dad for five years by then and that made it even more difficult because I knew what was happening. Nothing was said, but I could see it in my mom’s eyes, and all around us for a few seconds no one else understood, but mom knew. I can’t tell you . . . I remember. . . . I’m sorry, it’s just too emotional. . . .”

Jan. 28, 1986: 73 seconds into the launch, the Challenger exploded, killing all aboard.

This Sunday--10 years from that tragic day--Dr. June Scobee will be looking skyward again. Along with 75,000 football fans attending Super Bowl XXX at Sun Devil Stadium here, she will be on her feet for the national anthem, which will culminate with a flyover by the 78th Fighter Squadron--led by her son, pilot Rich Scobee.

“I think Dick Scobee would be very, very proud of his son,” said June Scobee, who will be accompanied by daughter Kathie.

Dick Scobee, a test pilot, who lived with his family for seven years at Edwards Air Force Base, began his journey to space after responding to a want ad in the Los Angeles Times seeking shuttle pilots. His first mission on the Challenger as the shuttle’s all-but-anonymous pilot was a rousing success with the retrieval of a wayward satellite, but his second ride became a fiery moment in history to be replayed constantly on the evening news.

“I can’t tell you how hard it is to watch your father being killed over and over again,” said Scobee, a captain with 212 combat hours as a fighter pilot for the Air Force. “I see films of the Kennedy assassination and as I’m sitting there I can’t imagine the anguish Jackie Kennedy felt, but then I catch a CNN clip of the Challenger, and that’s my family, my father being killed, and it leaves this hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach.

“It has been hard recently with all the attention again on the Challenger. Have you ever lost anybody you loved? The only difference is, mine ended up being very public rather than private. And when it flashes on now, I always close my eyes. I did force myself once to watch it though; some demons you have to come to grips with. But once I had seen it . . . that part is very personal.”

Scobee, whose Top Gun-like call sign is “Scobes,” has educated himself on the problems that led to the Challenger disaster, but when he hears the word “Challenger,” he’s more concerned about its impact on his own 6-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter.

“I’m always on guard,” he said. “I don’t want my children to see their grandfather die.”

When he was first approached by the NFL to participate in a tribute to the crew of the 10th flight of the Challenger at Super Bowl XXX, Rich Scobee had reservations. “I just don’t miss my father in five- or 10-year increments,” he said. “I mean I think about him every day. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t miss him. Not to say Jan. 28th has no meaning, but I think all the time about him not seeing his grandchildren, not being there to talk to about things like football. . . .

“It’s funny, though, during my entire time in the Air Force--all but one year because of weather--I have been able to fly on the anniversary of his death. Last year I was on a combat mission in southern Iraq. I don’t know, being in the air I just feel closer to my father.”

Scobee spoke to his father for the last time two days before the ill-fated launch. “They were always concerned about germs and such,” he said, “so they were semi-isolated.

“We knew something could always happen; he had been in the test pilot business and had done things far more dangerous than this. . . . The memories I hang onto most are not that last meeting or the times we talked about the danger. It was playing baseball in the backyard with my dad. You know how your dad lets you think you’re good. Man, I was the best baseball player in the world, hitting all those home runs, him chasing the ball and me running around the bases. Those times are very dear to me.”

Scobee’s mother, who has remarried, has continued the Challenger legacy. Dr. June Scobee Rodgers, who appeared on “60 Minutes” this past week talking about the engineering controversy that has dogged NASA since the disaster, has established 25 Challenger Centers across the country, including one in Dominguez Hills, designed “to inspire youngsters to reach for the stars.”

“That’s why we’re going to the Super Bowl,” said Scobee Rodgers, who recently wrote a book about her Challenger experiences entitled “Silver Linings.”

“Yes, it’s a day on which we lost our loved ones, but it’s also a day to look ahead and continue the work of the Challenger crew and our beloved teacher-in-space, Christa McAuliffe. And personally, I can’t think of a better tribute than Rich Scobee flying on behalf of his father.”

When Scobee pays homage to the Challenger crew Sunday, he will have a keepsake from his father in his airplane.

“It’s something private--smaller than a stuffed elephant and bigger than a small doll. The thing is, I take a huge part of him with me every day in my heart. I love him to death, and I wish he wasn’t so well-known just because he died. I wish he was known for what he did when he was alive; my dad was a great American.”

Scobee said his cameo appearance high above the Super Bowl might very well be washed out nationally by a switch to TV commercials, but for the fans in the stands it will be one more reminder of all that is well in this country.

“I dig being an American,” Scobee said. “That’s something I got from my father, and my father was my hero. But of course there are so many American heroes out there that day-to-day go unnoticed. My dad is buried right next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. How many great people, whom we have never heard of, have contributed to this country?”

Scobee, who prefers a career as a fighter pilot to that of an astronaut, will be in one of the four F-16s that will buzz Sun Devil Stadium after taking off from nearby Luke Air Force Base. The airplane’s sophisticated instruments will allow Scobee to arrive at Sun Devil Stadium within a second of his appointed schedule: “We’ll be doing a lot of planning; you definitely don’t want to screw up on national TV,” he said.

Scobee and his crew will listen to local air traffic on their headsets rather than Vanessa Williams’ rendition of the national anthem. They will see Sun Devil Stadium about 10 miles before arriving, will slow down to a crawl--330 mph--but still will be going too fast to notice if Emmitt Smith is waving hello. And then, while everyone settles back to watch the game, the four aircraft will move on and conduct practice approaches at Williams Air Force Base.

“I remember when my dad and I started watching football together,” he said. “Minnesota was playing the Dolphins in the Super Bowl. It’s something we really enjoyed together. . . . We went to the Bluebonnet Bowl together . . . those were good years. . . . The Super Bowl . . . I couldn’t think of a better time to do a fly-by.

“It’s something that crosses my mind a lot: What would my dad think about this or that? I have a feeling my dad would be very happy to know I am doing this.”