Melba's first Chiefs game at 100

She tells it over old photos. There she is on the fender of a new convertible, and there she is on the running board of her dad's car. She has always been curious about just about everything, and she kept the newspapers to show for it. One is from the day after Pearl Harbor, which was attacked on her birthday, December 7.

Her interest spread to every sport, and now it's the Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. She follows him in the Kansas City Star and has a whole bunch of stuff on him. "He's so fast and so slick," she says. And, she adds, he's so darn cute.

For all that, she's never been to a Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium. So her son wrote the team a letter.

The answer comes to her in person. "Hi, Melba," says Mitch, who introduces himself as the voice of the Kansas City Chiefs. Her son's letter, he tells her, caught the attention of the whole team. On behalf of the NFL and all of Chiefs Kingdom, he invites her to the home opener, with her own jersey from the team. "It's got your name on it," he says.

He has some numbers for her, too. It's the NFL's 100th season and the team's 60th year, and they want her in the loudest stadium in the NFL for her very first game.

At Arrowhead she wears a red jersey with the number 100. She's welcomed on behalf of the Hunt family to what Mr. Hunt used to call his favorite place on earth. Melba sums it up in three words. "Oh my gracious."

Save

There's a tour, too. At Len Dawson's display case, she says, "I'm glad to see your statue. Boy, you earned it." Then she gets her hands on Patrick's helmet. "Man, that thing weighs a ton."

Later the whole crowd hears about her. The Chiefs are honored, the announcement says, to have longtime fan and Bonner Springs native Melba Mills with them, at the age of 100.

All of this may take a while to sink in. It's a once-in-a-lifetime day. She has spent a hundred years on one block of North Nelson, and today she gets a whole stadium.