This profile of Bronco QB Club Member Judy Mathais originally appeared in Broncos GameDay Magazine October 2006. By J. Michael Moore
Occasionally, a friend may ask Judy Mathias what church she attends.
During football season, Mathias’ answer screams Orange and Blue.
“Well, personally, my sanctuary was Mile High Stadium and is now INVESCO Field,” Mathias says. “My spirituality is lifted more there than being in any church building.”
That passion for Broncos football has accompanied Mathias since 1960. That’s when she and her husband would load more than a dozen friends into a pickup truck and head out from the local bar to the game.
“It began from day one,” she said. “I’m a Colorado Native. I was born in Denver and I loved high school football. When the Broncos started playing my husband and I started going to the games … I was actually more of a diehard fan than my husband was and, quite often, he would like to stay at the bar and watch the game on television rather than being there in living color.”
It was that way for more than a decade.
But things changed dramatically in the fall of 1978. The Broncos were coming off their first Super Bowl appearance and Mathias, her husband and friends had just finished watching another game.
Denver lost to the New York Jets 31-28 on Nov 5, 1978.
That’s also the day Mathias lost her husband, who suffered a heart attack in the parking lot after the game.
“He had three heart attacks in seven years,” Mathias said. “That day he was feeling good and the Broncos were winning at halftime … he never got overly upset if the Broncos lost (anyway). I guess it was just his time to go. The minute he got into (the truck) he went unconscious and we were unable to revive him.”
It may seem unusual that Mathias was back at Mile High Stadium Nov 19 for a 16-3 win over the Green Bay Packers, but the Broncos played a key role in helping her cope with the loss.
“I was back in two weeks,” she said from her home last week. “I figured being at Mile High and sitting in the top rows of the stadium I couldn’t get any closer to God.”
Mathias, who is now 68, missed a few games over the next season, but now has season tickets.
She remarried and, with her husband, has been attending games regularly for the past 24 years. You can find them in section 517.
The couple begins every game day with luch at their favorite Mexican restaurant and makes sure to tape every tame – home or away.
“If we win, we usually come back and watch the game,” she said. “For away games, we watch it – just the two of us – in our home and we want no interruptions at all.”
The retired tax auditor also serves as the Denver Broncos Quarterback Club treasurer and has plenty of stories about games at Mile High Stadium and her beloved Broncos, including her trip to Pasadena, Calif, for Super Bowl XXI.
Mathias didn’t have tickets to the game, but she and her son made the trip anyway. They met a reporter during the week’s festivities and were part of a feature story about the fan fare surrounding the game.
That also got them a spot in the stadium.
She has never been selected in the Super Bowl ticket lottery for season ticket holders and she said she “will not buy tickets from a scalper.”
She tried out for the Denver Broncos Cheerleaders at age 40 and vividly remembers games in the midst of rare Denver blizzards and her trip to Canton, Ohio, two seasons ago for John Elway’s Hall-of-Fame induction.
Mathias estimates her basement is about “90 percent” Broncos.
“The Broncos will always come first. I like hockey and my husband is Canadian and hockey is first and foremost in Canada … but there’s just too many games and it’s too expensive to be a season ticket holder.
“I’ve got tons of autographs and keep every single ticket from every (Broncos) game I’ve got every souvenir that they’ve ever handed out at games.”
Like many Broncos fans, Matias shows her team spirit with a decorated car – an orange Ford Mustang, 40th Anniversary Edition.
“I’ve had my Mustang a year. I was just looking around for a new car and hadn’t planned on buying a convertible, but I needed to replace my ’87 Cougar.”
She found a dealership through her credit union and the orange Mustang caught her eye.
There was no more shopping after that.
Mathias, like most Broncos fans, spends her weeks counting down to Sunday and has the orange car around town to prove it.
And, slowly but surely, this lifetime Broncos fan feels the passion for the team joining her both in the community and at INVESCO Field at Mile High, where the Broncos “preach” on Sundays.
“I didn’t feel the spirit coming back until last season when we were close to the playoffs and the fans were really getting into it,” she said.