Super fan dies, was featured in ad

MILWAUKEE - One of the men featured in a Visa credit-card television commercial for having never missed a Super Bowl has died. He was 79.

Bob Cook had been to 44 straight Super Bowls but couldn't make it to Texas to watch his beloved Green Bay Packers defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers on Feb. 6. Instead, Cook viewed the game from his hospital bed with his wife, who decorated his room with green and gold lights.

Cook, whose obituary ends with "GO PACK GO," died last week after a blood infection and other chronic issues, including congestive heart failure, his wife, Sarah Cook, said yesterday.

She said they had their bags packed and were ready to go, but Bob Cook told his wife 3 days before the game that he was too ill to travel to the game.

"I'm just a die-hard Packer fan," he told the Associated Press last month.

The Brown Deer, Wis., man and the three other members of the "Never Missed a Super Bowl" club - Thomas Henschel, of Tampa, Fla., Larry Jacobson, of San Francisco, and Don Crisman, Kennebunk, Maine - were the stars of the Visa ad leading up to the Super Bowl. Henschel, 69, said Cook was the last to join the group, during the 36th Super Bowl. Henschel had met Crisman and another man who also had been to every Super Bowl around the 17th Super Bowl. Henschel, a Steelers fan, said Cook's two daughters went to the game in his place.

"It was kind of strange," he said. "Here's his team playing against my team. I thought we'd have a little fun. Maybe put a little wager on the game."