Megan Stefanski needed a win Sunday.
A die-hard Lions fan, Megan would often joinher father, Donnie "Yooperman" Stefanski, as he tailgated at every Detroit Lions home game for more than 25 years. They'd wake at 2 a.m. on Sundays, makingthe five-hour trek to Detroit from their Upper Peninsula home in Goetzville, arriving at Eastern Market for tailgating at 7 a.m. and sometimes not returning home until 11:30 p.m.
On Sunday, Megan woke up and made the drive without her dad. The Yooperman died Sept. 3 at 61 years old, leaving behind a loving family and a crowd of Honolulu blue and silver-outfitted mourners.
While Megan wasn't at every game her father attended those 25 years, Lions football was a cornerstone of her relationship with her father for decades.
"I got to miss a day of first grade because Joe Montana was playing at the Silverdome, and (my dad) said that it was more important than what I was going to learn in first grade that day," Megan said.
A U.P. native and formerChippewa County Road Commission employee, Donnie owned a bar inGoetzville called Yooperman (after his affectionately-given nickname). He'd gained recognition from fellow fans and the Lions for his tailgating dedication; he hadn't missed a home game since he got season tickets in 1993.
Sunday's game was all about Donnie. Tailgaterswore Yooperman shirts and carried beers plastered with Yooperman labels; the riotous crowd stopped for several seconds to honor Donnie with a moment of silence.
Everyone hoped for a Lions win just a little more than usual, and the Lions pulled through, narrowly beating out the L.A. Chargers for their first season win.
Megan was on the field Sunday as the Lions honored Donnie too, playing a Yooperman tribute video on the jumbotron before the 1 p.m. kickoff.
While Donnie's intense football devotionshown through Sunday, he was more than an avid Lions fan; he was a business owner and a generous family man. He had three children with his wife, JoAnne, and four grandchildren who he adored.
"He was the best of us, and to have a guy like that be taken from us so quickly is devastating,"said Hans Steiniger, founder of the Tailgating Hall of Fame. "He was about building relationships, so he would drive all this way to support his team, but not just that. It was to build relationships with the fans who also came out to support this team, and that's evident when you see all the people that are coming out for him today."
Donnie organized a yearly charity to benefit the Hospice of the EUP, and gave to the local fire department. Yooperman's Bar and Grill, aside from being a Lions shrine, was a sanctuary where Donnie and his family offeredcommunity and home-cooked meals.
"He did things in a quiet way, like a Yooper would do," saidRon "Crackman" Crachiola, Donnie's tailgate partner and longtime friend. "Donnie was simple. He loved cutting wood, plowing snow, spending time with the family."
More: The "Yooper bars" of the Upper Peninsula
While Megan was the only immediate family member at Sunday's tailgate, Donnie's fellow tailgaters were his family too. Several drove up to the U.P. for his funeral, honoring him with a casket-side shot of his favorite whiskey, McMaster's.
"You get to know people down here and they become your family —your football family," Megan said. "It's pretty special."
The football family passed around a bottleof McMaster's Sunday too, chanting "Yoop, Yoop, Yoop!" and partaking in "the three-step method," a Yooperman tradition. Crachiola stood on a platform above the crowd, leading them as they took a shot of McMaster's, a sip of beer, then the rest of their shot, then another sip of beer.
Crachiola wasn't necessarily a lifelong friend of Donnie's; they met because of tailgating, forming what Crachiola calls "a special bond." After Crachiola saw a news story about Donnie years ago, he knew he had to be friends with the Yooperman.
"I thought, I had to meet this man, and I hunted him down," said Crachiola, who's been on the Lions tailgating scene since the '90s. "I hunted him, I was like a dog sniffing...and I found him, and it was a special bond, me and him. And we'd been tight ever since."
Since he met Donnie, Crachiola hasn't been to a home tailgate without him. The two bought a decommissioned shuttle bus from the Lions several years ago that's nowa Sunday mainstay in the Eastern Market parking lot.
Crachiola and Donnie owned their corner of Eastern Market every Sunday, merging with other groups over the years to take over a chunk of the parking lot. For MarkMullins, whocouldn't make it to Donnie's funeral because he was in the hospital, Sunday'stailgate was closure, a moment to remember a friend.
"Donnie's wit was ridiculous," Mullins said. "He was so funny. He had the driest sense of humor and real slow delivery, but what a character. It still doesn't seem real."
Mullins, who met Donnie a little more than 10 years ago through Crachiola, is a Lions legend in his own right. Every year, Mullins and his daughter Mandie dress as pilgrims for the Lions' Thanksgiving Day game; Sunday, Mullins just wore his black pilgrim hat.
The tailgate family Donnie formed meant that when he and Mullins became friends, Mandie and Megan did do. The two were side by side much of Sunday, navigating the tailgate through teary eyes.
"There's no words can say how shocked we are," Mullins said. "It's so hard for Megan, but she's got to carry on —she's going to. She'll be here every game."
Megan will keep up her father's tradition, she said; she plans to keep tailgating and attending home games. In some way, even her dad's life cycle revolved around the Lions.
“Because football is in my blood, the Detroit Lions are in my blood,” Donnie told the Free Press in 2016. “I was born a Lions fan, and we always joke that the last time the Lions won a championship was in 1957, a week before I was born. These guys always say the next time they win one, it’ll be a week after I’m dead.”
In the end, the Yooperman didn't always care about whether the Lions won or lost. He was a true diehard —nothing stood between him and the game, even when the game was a tough loss. In 2016, Donnie missedhis granddaughter's baptism for game day.
"I'll back (the Lions) till the day I join the Yoop up there, and I know that Donnie felt the same way," Crachiola said.
Nothing stood between Donnie and game day this Sunday either.
"He's with us in heart and spirit —he'll be with us the whole season," Crachiola said. "You never know about life... when it's your time it's your time. I've got to believe the good Lord was looking for a leader and Donnie was chosen, and he's up there in the big stadium, looking down."
