All sports fans have their superstitions and for 20-year season ticket holders Kenneth Herbort, 61 and Jackie Herbort, 65, both of Allen Park, that includes not attending any Red Wings playoff games.
“We’re not allowed to go to playoff games anymore,” said Jackie Herbort. “Every playoff game we’ve been to they’ve lost so we stay away from them.”
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Jackie and Kenneth have been going on dates to Wings games since they married each other in 2000 and became season ticket holders in 2002, after the Wings won their third of seven Stanley Cups at Joe Louis Arena.
Jackie and Kenneth Herbort sporting their Red Wings jerseys.
That team, which had 11 players play in the 2002 Winter Olympics, 10 future Hall of Famers (including coach Scotty Bowman) and four career 500-goal scorers, was the greatest collection of talent in Red Wings history, capping off a winning season with the 10th annual Stanley Cup.
Things have changed for the Wings since Jackie and Kenneth Herbort first secured their seats in Section 216 at the Joe.
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A championship in 2008 and a move to Little Caesars Arena, among other things.
For the Herborts, however, their fondest memories are engraved into the Joe. The couple loved the Joe so much, they have their original seats in their house in Allen Park as a keepsake.
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“The seats that we sat in for fifteen years, we have them, they’re sitting in our family room,” said Ken Herbort.
In 2019, when the building was tore down, the Red Wings let the couple drive directly into the stadium and construction crews unscrewed and put seats 25 and 26 into the trunk of their car.
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“It was definitely a different feeling, going in there seeing everything get tore up,” said Ken Herbort.
“I don’t ever think you’ll have another rivalry like the Avalanche and the Wings in the late 90s, early 2000s,” said Jackie Herbort. “That was special.”
One of the most intense, bloody rivalries in sports history between the Colorado Avalanche and the Red Wings featured players Claude Lemieux, Darren McCarty and Patrick Roy, among others between 1996 and 2002.
The rivalry birthed three cups for the Wings and two for the Avalanche. It also produced one of the greatest brawls in hockey history on March 26, 1997, which the Free Press named “Fight Night at The Joe.”
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“It was so important for us to win that game, and how we won it elevated the importance of winning it,” Kris Draper said. “That was something we needed mentally for our group. We needed to find a way to beat the Colorado Avalanche, because they had had our number all year, they were the defending Stanley Cup champions. It was a huge night for our team.”
And as the Red Wings head into their centennial season, they can be sure to find Jackie and Ken, sporting one of 15 jerseys they have together, continuing their superstitions.
“These jerseys have over 100 signatures from former players on them. We wear them on the first and last game of every season. So far they’ve worked,” Ken Herbort said.
Jalen Williams is a trending reporter at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jawilliams1@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: This couple’s relationship is built on Detroit Red Wings bond