La Grange hometown hero Julian Love made a vital contribution in the Seattle Seahawks dominating Super Bowl win over the New England Patriots Sunday as a crowd of about 50 people gathered to watch the game at Robert Coulter American Legion Post 1941 in La Grange.
Bill Kiddon, 1941 post commander, said the gathering had been in the works for months.
“This game is special because we can celebrate a local kid,” he said. “But we didn’t know about that until just recently when the teams advanced to the game.”
Love, 27, a safety for the Seahawks, was raised in Westchester and played at Nazareth Academy in La Grange Park. He graduated in 2015, winning several regional awards after recording 92 tackles on defense and 1,067 rushing yards on offense and producing 18 touchdowns.
Love starred on the gridiron at the University of Notre Dame for three years and then was drafted by the New York Giants in the fourth round, and played four years for the Giants before signing a two-year, $12 million contract with the Seahawks.
While he was the star of the show Sunday at the La Grange gathering, he wasn’t the sole reason for the party.
“We’ve done about five of these Super Bowl dinners,” Kiddon said. “We started in 2019, but then we had the pandemic, so we had to shut down.”
Still, Love gave people a rooting interest.
“I’m going to go with Seattle because he’s with Seattle,” said Elaine Michaels, Post 41 auxiliary president.
Beverly Kiddon, the post commander’s wife, was also pulling for the Seahawks.
“The Patriots have been on top for a long time,” she said. “I’d like to see the Seahawks win.” The Kiddon’s granddaughter Skyler said she was for whoever her grandmother was rooting for.
La Grange Trustee Peggy Peterson also was rooting for the Seahawks win, predicting a score of “21-17, or something like that,” based on the team’s tough defense.
Peterson was actually not that far off, with the game ending with a 29-13 Seahawks win.
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From the opening kickoff, both defenses dug in and it looked like the game would be a grinding, low-scoring affair — a war in the trenches. The first half produced only three field goals, all by the Seahawks.
“It was kind of slow and boring,” Peterson said at halftime.
Resident Ray Hodson remained confident that Love and the Seahawks defense would win the day for the team. “I told you what was going to happen,” he said. “They’re going to beat the crap out of them.”
The second half started out in the same grind-it-out fashion, although the Seahawks did manage to add another field goal and led 12-0 at the start of the fourth quarter.
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But the fourth quarter saw more lively offense from both teams, with the Patriots’ quarterback Sam Darnold finally breaking out with some long pass plays, one of them a touchdown strike to A.J. Barner.
New England finally started to move the ball in the fourth quarter, with a quick, three play drive that resulted in a touchdown pass to Mack Hollins.
That’s when Love intercepted Patriot quarterback Drake Maye to set up a field goal, drawing a huge cheer from those gathered at American Legion Post 1941. A New England fumble led to another touchdown as the Seahawks pulled away.
“It was never in doubt,” Hodson said.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
