Sister Marie de Lourdes Falk didn’t don her black and white habit Sunday because right now, her Sunday habit is all about orange and blue.
Falk and several other Sisters of Charity from Exempla St. Joseph gathered at the hospital Sunday to cheer on the Denver Broncos during their annual version of a tailgate party.
Former Bronco Larron Jackson, now a community outreach director at the hospital, organizes the party to thank the sisters for their work and invites retired players to join in the revelry.
Falk says she became a fan of the Denver Broncos during the 1977-78 season when the team lost in the Super Bowl to the Dallas Cowboys.
“I elbowed my way downtown to welcome them back,” the nun said while watching Sunday’s game on a big-screen TV. “Even though they lost the Super Bowl, they were winners to me.”
From that day forward, Falk was a football fan.
“I schedule my life around the Broncos,” Falk said. “If I am invited someplace, if they don’t have a TV, then forget it.”
She was depressed last week when the Broncos lost to the Indianapolis Colts. But Falk had high hopes the team would conquer the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, which they did.
“I kind of whispered in the Lord’s ear, ‘Hey, help us win,”‘ she said.
Jackson, a offensive guard in the 1970s, knows it doesn’t hurt to pray, but divine intervention isn’t all it takes.
“Both teams pray, so somebody’s gotta have some talent to offset” it, Jackson said.
Back at the convent, the sisters have a Broncos TV room and two pet fish – one named Jake Plummer, the other named Elway.
“We like sports,” said Sister Maria Paula Hardy. “It’s good recreation and a big part of being in Denver.”
Hardy is originally from Kansas City Chiefs country but says that for her safety, she wears her Chiefs shirt only when the team isn’t playing the Broncos.
She also was saddened when the Broncos lost to the Colts.
“It just wasn’t in the books,” Hardy said. “They’ll win next time.”
Sister Maureen Kehoe says she isn’t as rabid a fan and mostly comes in to view the game around the second half.
But she wasn’t fooling anyone when stood up Sunday in the meeting room decorated with orange pompoms and tablecloths and cheered, “Give me a B, give me an R … .”
“I’m a moderate fan, but when I am there, I’m there,” said Kehoe, who also wore a bright-orange beanie. She and the others feasted on ribs, chips and other party fare – but no kegs of beer.
Chip Myrtle, a Broncos linebacker in the 19060s and ’70s, said he once carried some resentment for nuns because of the discipline they meted out on him as a child.
“It’s fun to give them a big hug now,” he said. “In those days, our parents always took the nuns’ side, so I knew I had no shot.”
Myrtle said it’s because of a woman named Sister Margaret Helene that he learned to balance his checkbook when he was in the fourth grade.
“I only balanced the checkbook once in my life,” he said, “but it was not her fault.”
Staff writer Felisa Cardona can be reached at 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com.
