Fan’s UNLV love affair at 42 years and counting

The list was impeccably prepared, because it seems as if Brad Stirling doesn't do anything in a lackluster manner when it comes to UNLV basketball. The names were neatly written down the side of one page, all those Rebels players from the 1960s.

All the ones Stirling watched when he began attending UNLV games.

There are all kinds of college fans. The students. The alums. The casual observer. The bandwagon passenger. The boosters, both financially influential and those who scrap together what they can to give.

Then there is Stirling.

The loyal one.

How does 42 years grab you? That's how long Stirling has been attending UNLV games, his latest an 89-70 breather of a win against a dreadful Colorado State side on Saturday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

That's how long one obscure but exceedingly faithful Rebels supporter has lived and died with each basket, presumably all while wearing a blue windbreaker and carrying a bag that might include enough valuable items to balance the bleeding ogre that is the state budget.

Stirling's father moved his family here from southern Utah in 1967 to take a construction job, soon took Brad to his first UNLV game, and that was it. Hooked. Captivated with a team. Intent on following a program and names he learned those first several seasons. Curtis Watson. Elburt Miller. Odis Allison. Booker Washington.

"I don't really have one favorite all-time (player)," said Stirling, who attended Clark High School and began working immediately after graduation. "It would be too hard to pick one."

Player autographs are important to Stirling. He has thousands. It's unknown, however, if he tracked down the signature of Colorado State sophomore forward Andy Ogide.

Ogide was matched against Joe Darger of the Rebels early on, and Rams coach Tim Miles took offense when his team didn't attempt to throw the ball inside on its second offensive trip.

"You have the greatest (bleeping) mismatch in history!" Miles screamed at one of his guards. "Throw it to him!"

Amended list of all-time mismatches:

1. Andy Ogide.

2. Wilt Chamberlain.

3. Michael Jordan.

Funny. If he didn't acquire an autograph from Ogide, it is one of the few Stirling doesn't own.

The last time I saw a poster tube as precious as the one he brings to each game, Jan Brady had lost her father's important architectural plans and the entire family plus Alice the maid were running through an amusement park like a bunch of lunatics.

The poster inside Stirling's tube is a rendition of former UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian and the Thomas & Mack. When a friend first gave Stirling the artwork, it had no autographs. Today, it has one from Tarkanian and every Rebel with a retired jersey other than Reggie Theus and Stacey Augmon, along with several other former players.

Stirling says he never would part with the piece -- "Not for $100,000" -- but you can imagine some of the bids he might get in a city so charmed with a program and its history as this one.

Stirling also arrives with game programs dating to 1976-77, to the season that featured his favorite UNLV team, the one of the "Hardway Eight," of Theus and Robert Smith and Glen Gondrezick and the rest.

"Averaged over 100 points, no 3-point shot, no shot clock," Stirling said.

It would be smart to trust his memory, especially when it comes to numbers. He keeps score each game, running and individually. He begins by writing out 100 points for each team, which means he either is an overly optimistic person or thinks everyone defends like Colorado State.

You also might have seen him over the decades standing outside Cashman Field, waiting for minor league baseball games to end and for more autographs to be sought.

He lives alone and says he was laid off from a cement job in January. He is nearly 53. Silently, he sits several rows off the Thomas & Mack court behind the basket closest to the visitor's bench, keeping score and taking his notes and drawing sketches of players during the game.

There are all kinds of college fans, some more prominent than others. Money sets some apart. Tenure others.

But when it comes to faithfulness, few have it on Stirling. Obscure as he is in the big picture of UNLV basketball, the guy in the blue windbreaker with the little bag and all its prized items has the one thing no program can get enough of. Loyalty.

He also seems fairly attentive on the game at hand. Our interview lasted 15 minutes, this after we spoke following the game against Texas Christian on Tuesday. And yet shortly after leaving him Saturday, Stirling tracked me down with this question:

"Who do you work for?"

Can you blame the guy? He was about to watch the greatest individual mismatch in history.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 702-383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.