{"id":757193,"date":"2026-02-17T01:36:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T01:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/757193\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T01:36:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T01:36:27","slug":"family-honors-army-veteran-seahawks-fan-who-died-days-before-super-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/757193\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Honors Army Veteran Seahawks Fan Who Died Days Before Super Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SEATTLE – He defied doctor’s expectations, rooting for the Seattle Seahawks from his hospital bed. He’d hoped to see the Seahawks win Super Bowl LX<\/a>. Now, the family of Army veteran Randy Santiago Cruz<\/a>, is raising money to take him back to Puerto Rico to be laid to rest.<\/p>\n

Cruz, 72, died two days before the Super Bowl, according to his family.<\/p>\n

We talked with his son, Zachariah Santiago, at the Seahawks World Champions Parade<\/a> following the team’s win.<\/p>\n

\"Seahawks <\/p>\n

Army vet Randy Santiago Cruz, alongside his son Zachariah Santiago. <\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“He fought a long time. You know? Almost made it there. But he had the best seat in the house, so, I couldn’t wish for anything better than that,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n

Santiago told FOX 13 News his father had struggled with health issues. When we first talked with them, his family said he’d been in the VA Hospital in Portland since November, given just days to live.<\/p>\n

Cruz continued to defy the expectations and cheer for his Seahawks from his bed.<\/p>\n

\"Army <\/p>\n

He was eventually moved to hospice in Vancouver, according to family.<\/p>\n

During an interview in January, Santiago said, “He’s originally from Puerto Rico. He started watching football in the late 70s, early 80s, because he was stationed at Fort Lewis. That’s where he met my mom. My uncle, Conrad, who is his best friend, has been a life-long Seahawks fan, so it started in the late 70s, early 80s.”<\/p>\n

Santiago said his father created three generations of 12s, including his son, Karson, who turned 12 recently. He said Cruz described his grandson as a good luck charm.<\/p>\n

“Usually you don’t get to have, like, two Super Bowls in the span of 12 years. The first time we won the Super Bowl, I was two weeks old. Now, I’m 12 years old and we won this year. It just means a lot because my grandpa’s been routing for the Seahawks,” his grandson said.<\/p>\n

The family was elated to see the Seahawks win Super Bowl LX. They were also proud to see Puerto Rico, “on a national level that night” as Bad Bunny performed<\/a> during the halftime show.<\/p>\n

Now, they are hoping to take Cruz back to Puerto Rico where they said his final wish is to be laid to rest with his father, mother, and brothers.<\/p>\n

“It just means a lot to us to get him there and to make sure that he rests easy and to send him off right for sure,” Santiago said.<\/p>\n

What you can do:<\/p>\n

They have launched a GoFundMe page<\/a>\u00a0to help with the expenses.<\/p>\n

MORE NEWS ON FOX 13 SEATTLE <\/p>\n

City of Seattle settles lawsuit over death of Jaahnavi Kandula<\/a><\/p>\n

Some gift cards sold at Costco are now worthless<\/a><\/p>\n

Seahawks Super Bowl parade: Video, highlights, more from downtown Seattle<\/a><\/p>\n

Semi full of candy crashes on Highway 18 in Covington<\/a><\/p>\n

Crowds climb, damage Seattle’s historic pergola after Seahawks Super Bowl win<\/a><\/p>\n

To get the best local news, weather and sports in Seattle for free, sign up for the daily FOX Seattle Newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store<\/a> or Google Play Store<\/a> for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national news.<\/p>\n

Seattle Seahawks<\/a>Seattle<\/a>Sports<\/a>News<\/a>NFL<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE – He defied doctor’s expectations, rooting for the Seattle Seahawks from his hospital bed. He’d hoped to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":757194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[7,29886,88,6,238,237,261,2635,9,800,10374],"class_list":["post-757193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-seattle-seahawks","tag-football","tag-king-county","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-seahawks","tag-seattle","tag-seattle-seahawks","tag-seattleseahawks","tag-sports","tag-us","tag-wa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116083412438088739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=757193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/757193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/757194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=757193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=757193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=757193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}