The Streak

His streak began in 1926, nine years before I was born. The story of his zeal appeared in the Wall Street Journal on October 16, 1997. By that date, he had attended, both at home and away, 780 consecutive games of the University of Southern California Trojans. Further, at that time, the ninety year-old Giles Pellerin was hoping to reach a milestone of 800 straight games before his ninety-second birthday.

How far has Pellerin had to travel to compile his present record? Only the equivalent of twenty-six times around the earth!

Hasn’t he ever been ill? Oh, yes! In 1993, after a USC loss at Penn State, he suffered a heart aneurysm. But after signing a release which acknowledged he was acting against his physician’s advice, he was in his regular seat at the next weekend’s game.

Surely some other things must have been more important on some weekends! Evidently not. He even postponed his own honeymoon for nine months to make it coincide with a Trojan game in Hawaii.

Has Pellerin ever been late for a game? Never! In fact, on all the road games he actually meets the players as they embark from the bus at the stadium.

What would we have if we transferred this zeal from that of never wanting to miss the wonders of a game to that of purposing to be present in the worship of God? Probably the living example of this admonition:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Deuteronomy 6:5).

You would no longer have a "fan," but only what people call a "fanatic."

Marlin Connelly