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Remembering the Motown madness with Ernie

| October 13, 2018 12:25 AM

To be honest, following the Seattle Seahawks’ playoff run following the 2005 season was already pretty special.

Watching your grandma sitting at her kitchen table rolling money so you’ve got a little extra spending money for a playoff game will do that for you.

Having your brother wanting to watch the NFC Championship game at his house in Sagle so he could see the look on your face when the Seahawks had lost — then didn’t — that was something as well.

Then, the day after, you have a friend from high school that turns it up a notch.

WHILE I was preparing to start work that day at another job, I received a phone call from my mom to get in contact with Ernie Ouellett, whom I graduated with from Wallace High School in 1997.

“Hey dude, I’ve got a ticket to the Super Bowl with your name on it if you can get to Detroit,” Ernie said.

A few hours later, and with some help from family, it was done. We were going to be in Michigan for the big game.

The next couple weeks were a blur, the flight to Minneapolis, as well as the flight to Detroit.

At first, I wasn’t quite sure I wasn’t being joked with as I rode on the rental car shuttle, but alas, there was Ernie sitting in the rental car office waiting on me.

The next day, it wasn’t an alarm clock that woke us up before the Super Bowl, but rather my brother on the phone, chanting “Pitts-burgh Stee-lers” at me to try and get me fired up for the game.

It worked for both of us.

We left the morning of the big game from Chelsea, Mich., toward Detroit, stopping at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor and at few restaurants until we finally found a shuttle bus to get us to Ford Field for the game.

Little did I know at the time that Ernie had some connections to get us into the Nike pregame party before the game, which I later realized was at a bar owned by former NHL player Chris Chelios.

So we sat, watching the people come and go. One of them, Brett Hull, came up to us, slapped Ernie on the back, and said “Go Seahawks.”

Pretty cool stuff for a couple kids from Wallace.

BY NOW, you kind of know the rest of that story about the Super Bowl.

Matt Hasselbeck throws a touchdown pass to Darrell Jackson, it gets called back.

Ben Roethlisberger scores a touchdown when the ball didn’t cross the goal line.

Willie Parker scores on a 76-yard touchdown run to give the Steelers a 14-3 lead early in the third quarter. After that play, I remember yelling at Ernie for going on a beer run and missing that play, thinking it had somehow jinxed the Seahawks since he wasn’t in his seat.

Those final moments where Pittsburgh ran out of the clock and the ensuing celebration on the field.

Leaving the stadium that night — not having a clue which way to go — and running down the street to find a cab to get us back to our rental car before the Steelers’ fans’ celebration started was something I’ll never forget.

THROUGHOUT THAT weekend, as well as my entire life, Ernie always had a way to make me laugh.

Whether it was in school, or during a football game, there wasn’t a time when either of us weren’t laughing or smiling around each other.

During a high school football game Ernie was playing in, some Wallace coaches wanted to try to play a trick on rival Kellogg and had Ernie wear the jersey of another offensive lineman during pregame introductions. The reason was to put the player at tight end in an effort to catch the Wildcats off guard.

That game ended in a 20-20 tie that night. For those keeping score, it’s the only tie in the head coaching career of Shawn Amos, who coached Kellogg High for two seasons before taking over at Coeur d’Alene High in 1997.

EARLIER THIS week, Ernie passed away after a lengthy battle with multiple sclerosis, a disease that can attack your central nervous system.

During my visits with him in recent months and years — some good and some bad — he always gave me a smile and laugh, no matter how he was feeling.

And for that, I can smile.

Because had he just stayed in his seat that one February night back in 2006, instead of going for that beer, we might have TWO Super Bowl titles, not just one.

Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JECdAPress.