It’s been since 1945 that the Chicago Cubs made it to the World Series. Ninety-seven-year-old Pearl Harbor veteran Everrit Schelgle watched from the stands at Wrigley Field for that series.
Fast forward 71 years later, he’s itching for another chance to see the Cubbies break their 108-year World Series drought.
Towards that end, Schelgle’s family as set up a GoFundMe to raise funds to get him there.
Helen Schelgle, his granddaughter, is the one who set up the account, which shockingly hit its intended goal of $10,000 in just one day.
“My Grandpa is 97 years old,” she wrote. “He served in Pearl Harbor and is the BIGGEST Cubs fan I know. He had the opportunity to go see the Cubs in 1945 World Series Game 7 and still has the original ticket stubs. He has been waiting since that heartbreaking day, to see the Cubs in World Series. Please help my Grandpa witness the Cubs in the World Series again.”
Back in 1945, he was standing in line for a ticket outside Wrigley Field before Game 6 of the World Series when a policeman pulled him out of the line.
“A policeman came along and he said, ‘solider, what the hell are you doing here?’ and I said, I’m going to go to a ball game,” [he said] ‘you don’t have to stand in line, come on with me,’” Jim recalls, per WGNtv.com.
The officer took Jim straight to the front of the line.
“He said, Maybel, I’ve got a solider here who wants to go the ball game,” Jim said. “She was all shook up, and she said ‘how many tickets do you want?’ and I came up with four, and she gave me four tickets.”
Schelgle, who still has the tickets (valued at $1.20 apiece) was able to watch Game 6 and Game 7 of the series with three of his buddies. As we all know, the Cubs unfortunately lost to the Detroit Tigers in Game 7, which was the last time Chicago made it to the World series.
Incredibly, Schelgle was close enough to the Pearl Harbor attack that he saw a Japanese pilot wave at him. Just out of boot camp at that time, he was on patrol when the tragic attack was executed on December 7, 1941.
The veteran is predicting a Cubs in in seven games.