Twenty-five years and still fighting: The Captain Aggie story
The Utah Statesman on February 3, 2017 at 5:46 pm
He sits at the table in his house in Smithfield. It’s a peaceful
day. He fiddles with a wood bridge he is currently building. He doesn’t allow
himself to get bored — he must always keep busy.
His house is filled with Utah State University Athletics
posters, many of them signed by Aggie coaches and student athletes. His
basement is filled with various Aggie sports memorabilia — a piece of a net, a
collage of tickets dating back to the 1970s, pictures with legendary Aggie
coaches.
On his floor sits a scrapbook filled with newspapers containing
articles about Aggie sports he’s collected from working at Valley Recycling
years ago — his version of scrapbooking. His goal is to have 40 binders of
newspapers by the end of the year.
Andy Pedersen has
been fighting Parkinson’s disease for nearly 25 years. He was only supposed to
live 20 years at most.
He’s scheduled to take his medication several times throughout
the day. Without it, his body will become completely paralyzed and he can
hardly speak. Even with the medication, he is forced to walk with a cane or be
pushed around in a wheelchair by his wife, Judy.
Although Pedersen’s health conditions have progressively
worsened, he doesn’t see himself stopping for anything anytime soon.
Pedersen is a fighter, a collector, an Aggie super-fan and
advocate for many with diseases. Some call him the Forever Aggie, the Aggie
Pope — but his personal favorite is Captain Aggie.
Captain Aggie is part of the identity that keeps him going.
Pedersen started attending Utah State University in 1969, around
the time when the Vietnam War was in full-swing. It was the spring of 1970 when
the Aggies went to the NCAA tournament. They finished eighth in the country.
That was the spark. The glory days.
Now, 47 years later, he attends almost every home game — even at
the age of 65, adding to his tally of about 1,400 total games attended.
Basketball. Volleyball. You name it. Pedersen is probably there.
“This is what I told the doctor last week: ‘I don’t want the new
medicine, it’ll slow me down and I won’t be able to do much,’” he said. “‘I
want you to know that your medicine is no better than the students at Utah State.
They keep me going.'”
Some days Pedersen finds himself in a slump. His happiness
floating away as quickly as it came while he waits for his medication to kick
in.
Then an Aggie game comes around and he’s OK again.
“When he’s ready to go to a game he’s up and he moves and he can
always do well when he is going to an Aggie game because he’s always in a good
mood,” Judy Pedersen said.
Captain Aggie to the rescue.
•••
Andy Pedersen rolls into a game, sporting Aggie Athletics
posters in the spokes of his wheelchair along with a pope-looking hat that he
fixed out of an upside down ashtray he found in a scrapyard years ago. His
outfit is finished off by a white cape with a blue “A” on the back.
“He’s a very positive person,” said Janet Flinders, a friend who
sits near the Pedersens at Aggie games. “He doesn’t let anything that’s
going wrong with his body to interfere with being an Aggie fan. I mean, yes,
there will be a day here and there where he can’t make it, but he has to be
really sick in order to miss a game.”
Grayson DuBose, the women’s volleyball head coach and Pedersen’s
friend, said he often notices Pedersen doing push-ups at his matches.
“For all the challenges he’s had physically, he’s still a
vibrant personality,” DuBose said.
He’s known by regular Aggie fans, students, athletes and coaches
not only by his outfit and occasional push-ups, but also by his signature
cheer:
“Give me an A!” he yells at every game and fans echo him. “Give
me a G! Give me a G! Give me an I! Give me an E! Give me an S! What’s that
spell? Aggies!”
“He’s like everybody’s grandpa,” said Blake Lyman, USU Athletics
and Campus Recreation vice president and student section president. “We all
want to see him there and want to take care of him and make sure he’s there to
help us out.”
USU students, athletes, fans and coaches genuinely care about
Pedersen and find ways to pay him back for his unfailing support throughout the
years.
In April, the entire football team came to Pedersen’s home and
fixed up his yard. Female athletes from the women’s volleyball and soccer team
will often come to Pedersen’s house to visit and do some cleaning.
His support for all Aggie Athletics is not done for fame or
attention. “It’s me and the kids at the school and the players, “ he said. “I
don’t care about the outside world.”
Making it out to Aggie games is also not a bad way to spend some
time out of the house.
“Some people with Parkinson’s go home, never come out and die
within five years,” he said. “That’s not the life for me.”
Captain Aggie never gives up.
•••
It isn’t just going to Aggie games that keeps Pedersen active
and positive. At home, he keeps his hands and mind busy by building things and
collecting anything he finds interesting.
“The one thing I’ve been given, after my bodily functions have
been taken way, is that my mind works really well,” he said.
In a corner of his basement, a massive train track wraps around
a small room with a low ceiling. Trains find their way around the track,
looping under tunnels, passing stations with little figurines waiting. In the
middle of it all stands a giant Ferris wheel and Christmas tree — Christmas is
his favorite holiday. He sits in a little niche he made for himself between the
tracks, controlling the trains.
Several license plates cover the ceiling above the train tracks
where Christmas ornaments, a spaceship and other trinkets hang. Shelves on the
wall hold other toy trains he has collected from years of attending toy train
shows. Sometimes he sells them online or gives them away to his grandkids.
“When he wants to get something done he’ll work at it and work
at it and it doesn’t matter if it’s difficult or he’s having a hard time with
it he works at it until he gets it done,” Judy Pedersen said. “He’s doing
things and keeping busy.”
Captain Aggie is always positive.
•••
It’s Saturday night at the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum. Pedersen
sits down near the student section next to his wife, sporting his Captain Aggie
apparel.
When he finds a break in the noise coming from the crowd, he
uses a rail to stand up.
“Give me an A!” he yells, his voice strong and unbreakable.
The students rise to their feet and cheer.
Captain Aggie is their hero.
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