Gate-crashing great Dion Rich has last word at memorial
If anyone could crash his own memorial service, it would be Dion Rich.
That’s essentially what the San Diegan did as he greeted about 180 attendees to his “Kick the Bucket” party from the video screen in prerecorded footage.
The sports aficionado who sneaked, talked and finagled his way into more than 30 Super Bowls over the years, closed the video walking into Qualcomm Stadium wearing a 2003 San Diego Super Bowl jacket. He turned his head toward viewers and gave a mischievous wink, leaving the impression he wasn’t done gate-crashing.
Dion Rich was a character. If there was a sports Hall of Infamy, he would be in it. But he also was a member of Nice Guys of San Diego, served food in shelters on holidays and organized outings for underserved kids.
The Grossmont High grad spent a few years as a commercial fisherman and bartender, once owned a popular bar near San Diego State, then used his social connections to build a ticket brokering business.
His search for the spotlight went international when he sneaked into the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1964 and strategically stood at the bottom of the ski jump holding a sign that read, “Dion’s Bar of Music San Diego” in view of cameras.
He had planned to attend last month’s Super Bowl but passed away of cancer on Oct. 28, at age 92.
Nearly every detail of Rich’s service on Saturday was carefully planned and orchestrated by the man himself, beginning when he was 85 — seven years before his death.
It was carried out by colleagues under the direction of Rich’s friend and banker, Mariana Aguilar, who produced a video narrated by radio personality Mark Larson and scripted by baseball historian and author Bill Swank.
The Liberty Station celebration of life featured everything from a live band and lithesome young ladies wearing black attire with “Dion” emblazoned in spar
kly letters (Rich’s neighbors), to a lavish layout of food and drink, valet service and A-list VIPs commenting throughout the 30-minute video.
It highlighted some of Rich’s gate-crashing exploits but, beyond that, his ability to snuggle up to the VIPs, celebrities, sports figures and get his face in historic news photos at events with which he had no connection. There was Rich:
• On the platform of the first Super Bowl in 1967 when NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle presented the championship trophy to Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi.
• At the end of Super Bowl XII in 1978 helping carry Dallas Cowboys Coach Tom Landry off the field in triumph.
• In the Louisville Courier Journal photo of the 1996 Kentucky Derby Winners Circle with victorious jockey Jerry Bailey.
So great was his selfmade fame that, in 1993 Super Bowl coverage, an L.A. Times sports article headline deadpanned: “Who’s the Guy Next to Dion Rich?” Sportswriter Rick Reilly shared many of Rich’s exploits in Sports Illustrated
and elsewhere, even accompanying Rich as he crashed Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 in New Orleans amid heightened security after 9/11, thus spreading Rich’s notoriety.
Video commenters also included Swank, Larson, publicist and former Chargers staffer Steve Miller and Carmen Delgadillo.
She applauded Rich’s support of the Friends of Scott Foundation she
founded in memory of her son and his befriending of a boy fighting a deadly brain tumor, making the youngster an honorary guest at his 90th birthday party, then orchestrating an unforgettable evening for him at a Padres game.
Reilly said Rich took boatloads of kids fishing, to the zoo and to the ballpark. “He was kind of Mother Teresa with a wild hairdo,” commented the sports
columnist.
Rich was in the public eye for finding a way into Super Bowls by concocting stories, sneaking in amid a group of football players, posing as a medic, a disabled person and even a security guard.
But he also bluffed his way into the World Series, all-star games, Olympics, boxing championships, America’s Cup events, Academy Awards ceremonies,
Grammy Awards and Playboy Mansion parties.
There was Rich with his arm around celebrities Gwyneth Paltrow, Brooke Shields, Nicole Kidman, Oprah Winfrey and, yes, sitting by Farrah Fawcett. There he was next to Muhammad Ali, Bill Clinton, Dennis Conner, Snoop Dogg, Oscar De La Hoya, Michael Jordan, Mario Lopez, Joe Namath, Tiger Woods .... And was that Rich in the hallway of the Playboy Mansion wearing Hugh Hefner’s bathrobe over his tux? He had the photos to prove it — about 500 of them.
Posing with celebrities at exclusive and invitationonly events was a challenge and a hobby for Rich.
In his early days, he rarely got caught, but eventually security officials were on the alert — especially in Hollywood where he was a repeat crasher of the Academy Awards.
In 1999, two undercover cops in tuxedos escorted him from a seat behind Steven Spielberg and Jack Nicholson at the Oscars. He received a letter of reprimand from the Academy.
Reilly recalls Rich’s picture being taped to metal detectors going into every event at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
Rich justified his gatecrashing as a game, rationalizing that events were either sold out, or he bought tickets but tried not to use them to prove he could finagle his way in.
His gate-crashing days are over just as sophisticated facial recognition software surely would be his nemesis. But it seemed as if he was in the room Saturday crossing one last escapade off his bucket list.