DECATUR - Duane Chandler admits he can never remember a time when he wasn't a Bears fan and owns a Mike Ditka autographed - oddly enough - baseball to prove it.

John "Jack" Collins came to be a Chicago Bears fan because of his father's ties to George Halas, but he was on ;ly able to convince one of his twin sons to follow that loyalty.

Abby Cruz and her fiance - each Bears fans for different reasons - set their wedding date deliberately away from Super Bowl Sunday.

And Tammy Nelson? Well, she even has a bottle of ketchup with her team's logo, though that just happens to be the Indianapolis Colts.

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"I just turned 50 years old in September, and I would say since I could remember walking, I've been a Bears fan," said Chandler of Maroa.

His loyalty helped him win a contest 20 years ago, the contest getting him his first chance to see the Bears play at Soldier Field.

"There was snow on the ground; it was around Nov. 5. It was very fitting for my first game to be cold; I was staying warm on adrenaline," he said. "I was in awe."

Chandler then rattled off a list personnel he remembers being "within spitting distance of": Michael McCuskey ("I've met him a couple of times since then."), Jim McMahon (injured but on the sidelines), Dan Hampton, Richard Dent, Steve Mc ;Michael.

Chandler's son Nathan followed his father's team choice and just recently requested his Dick Butkus shirt be mailed to San Antonio, Texas, for him to wear Super Bowl Sunday. Nathan Chandler already had taken with him the cast he wore at age 7 autographed by the late Walter Payton.

Oh, and the baseball? Duane Chandler was at a Chicago Cubs weekend event.

"The first person I saw when we walked into this cocktail party was Ditka, and the only thing I have for him to autograph is a baseball."

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John "Jack" Collins of Decatur said his Bears pride goes back to his father, much the same as son, Dan, quipped, "I think I came out of the womb a Bears fan."

Jack Collins' father was a semiprofessional baseball player.

"He played with all those guys at A.E. Staley Mfg. Co. He'd signed a contract with the New York Giants; the next day he broke his ankle," Jack Collins said.

"Those guys" who played baseball included the football guys of the day, the legendary George Halas and others who made up the original Bears team, known as the Staleys.

The current Bears team, said Collins, has been getting some less-than-complimentary press, but that doesn't keep him from his prognostication:

"The Bears will go all the way, handily. They are together as a team. They've come around from a lot of adversity as well."

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Experience - plus a love of football - had a lot to do with the Feb. 10 wedding date selected by an Albuquerque, N.M., couple, Abby Cruz and Adam Ouimet.

Cruz, a Decatur native, said after their engagement last February, they thought about a November wedding; December was too busy already.

They knew from attending a fall wedding, they wanted to avoid a football weekend. Their experience had taught them that guests ended up watching a game in the bar rather than attending the reception.

So, each being avid college football fans - she roots for Florida State University, he for the University of Florida - the first thing Cruz did was look at the football weekends.

While Florida had a bye week, Florida State was scheduled to play Boston College.

"That wasn't going to work."

Then it became a question of February. Both being fans of the Chicago Bears, they avoided Super Bowl weekend, just in case the Bears were playing. Cruz is a Bears fan, she said, because of growing up in Central Illinois. Ouimet is a Bears fan because he went to the same college as quarterback Rex Grossman.

Besides, it would have been harder for people traveling to Florida for the wedding then, Cruz said.

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Tammy Nelson of Decatur has been an Indianapolis Colts fan since she was a newlywed a few years back. Her loyalty came about, truthfully, because of Peyton Manning.

"It was the last game of the college season," Nelson remembered. "Peyton Manning was quarterbacking the Tennessee Volunteers. I was really impressed with him the whole game."

And when the quarterback was drafted by the Colts, Nelson stayed with Manning.

The owner of lots of Colts' sweatshirts and T-shirts, Nelson also treasures her Colts' Santa hat, some hair ties and ketchup.

"My husband went to the grocery store the other day, and he bought some ketchup with a Colts label on it.

"I'm keeping that."

Nelson, by the way, has spent recent days in friendly bantering with her boss, Peg Kovach at Growing Strong Sexual Assault Center.

"She's a huge Bears fan," Nelson said.

Arlene Mannlein can be reached at amannlein@herald-review.com or 421-6976.