Original Seahawks season ticket holder passes down legacy to grandson



SEATTLE – We’ve been waiting for what seems like forever the Seattle Seahawks to take the field and it happens Sunday in southern California.  Whether you’re new to the area or you’re a lifelong Seattlite, together we make up the 12s.

As we kickoff, the preseason season, Q13 News introduces you to an original Seahawk season ticket holder and the legacy he built over three generations.

“We’ve been going to different kinds of games for years, but there was nothing that was exciting as the championship game was,” said original Seattle Seahawk ticket holder Jack Roberts.

But to really know just how much that win means for 82-year-old Jack Roberts, you have to go back to 1976.

“Seattle was always, in my opinion, a special city to be living in and working in and doing things in,” said Roberts.

Jack Roberts had to get in on the action with a new football team coming to town. This TV personality, music loving, sports fan, and family-man signed up to be a Seattle Seahawks season ticket holder in its inaugural season of ’76.

“I was just part of the fans and went to all the games,” said Roberts.

The Roberts Family has epic seats on the 50-yard line, Row 16, visitors’ side.  So close you could hear the plays being called and feel the pulse of the team in your seat.  All the Seattle greats came and went through the decades and Jack Roberts held on to his seats holding out hope the team would get better.  He passed along that excitement to his sons and then his grandkids including his grandson Ryker Roberts.

“I’m very happy my grandpa took a chance on the Seahawks,” said Ryker Roberts.

The blue and green is embedded in Ryker’s DNA, but he’s definitely part of the new generation of the 12th Man.  He’s only known CenturyLink Field because he was just two years old when the Kingdome came down.  With a brand new stadium, the Roberts hoped for a brand new winning team.  Ryker attended spring training camp and cheered on the Hawks.

“Every time they would lose in the playoffs or lose a game with Matt Hasselbeck, I would just run down the hallway just balling my eyes out in my room,” said Ryker.

But Ryker would pick himself up after every lost, just like the resilient Hawks. Finally, a glimmer of hope when the Seahawks beat the Dallas Cowboys in nail-biting dramatic fashion for Ryker’s first ever live game at CenturyLink.

“It was the whole field goal when we were supposed to lose and he just fumbled the ball on the snap of the field goal and we picked it up and we just barely ended up winning that game and I was there and it was crazy. It was very emotional. It was an up and down game. And from what I remember yeah it was amazing,” said Ryker.

Ryker picked up football and helped his school team make it to the state championship game in 2015.

“It was something that I will always, always, remember,” said Ryker.

That championship game and the big win by the Seahawks in February 2014. Finally, a victory parade in the city of Seattle for the Seahawks. A dedicated family fandom finally paying off with a championship.

“He’s always been there for everybody and done amazing things like offering this to our family,” said Ryker.

At 82-years-old Jack Roberts doesn’t go to the games as much anymore.  That’s a blue and green tradition now rich in his kids and grandkids. In true 12th Man fashion, Ryker has this prediction for the upcoming season: 12 and 4 headed to the playoffs.