Celebrating his 79th birthday on January 4th of this year, Al Benninger is a man on the go.  A retired executive with the Lincoln Insurance Company, Al has returned to his alma mater (Class of 1957) at the University of Louisville and has worked basketball games for the Cardinals since 1960 and football games since 1961.  During that 45 year span Al has missed only five basketball games -- one because of illness, two when he took a family trip to Hawaii, and two during Super Bowl XVI, when the sixteen year Cincinnati Bengals season ticket holder went to cheer his team.  To this day, Benninger still cannot believe that then coach Denny Crum would schedule two home games on Super Bowl weekend!  Over those same years, Al has missed only one home football game when he was at a softball game in Orlando, Florida and bad weather delayed his flight back to Louisville.

In addition to his loyalty to the Cardinals athletic teams, Al has captained the stat crew team which has worked 38 Final Fours -- including the last 36 in succession.  The early years were all done by pencil, paper and manual typewriter before computer statistics went on board in the 1985 Final Four in Lexington.  Originally a six-man stat team, the crew now features Benninger, Jeff Peterman, John Cecil and Terry Leleita.  The stat team has also worked every Kentucky Colonels ABA home game from 1967-76 and played in the Kentucky Gardens -- known as the Madison Square Garden of the South.

Al always enjoyed college basketball and became a season ticket holder in 1959 with his wife who "got a deal" on the family plan.  The next season, Al's wife gave birth to their son and she felt an obligation to attend to their son rather than the Cardinals.  Al then hooked up with business associate Ben Nickerts who worked on the Louisville stat team and said that he could get Al into the games for free.  Early in the season, someone dropped off the team and Al became a permanent fixture.  Al worked the Final Four in 1962 and 1963 when it was in Louisville and by 1966 became the captain of the stat team.  Al campaigned to the NCAA to return his stat team for the 1969 Final Four.  That year the team worked the National Championship game in the afternoon, took the officials to the airport after the game and worked a home ABA game later that night.  Since then the team would be a permanent fixture at the Final Four.  Although the NCAA didn't provide transportation to the future finals, the local newspaper the Journal-Courier did a feature article on the stat team entitled "Have Typewriter Will Travel" .  Since several members of the team were employed at Lincoln Insurance (which was conveniently mentioned in the article) and the publicity was positive, Al asked his boss to use the company plane to fly to College Park, Maryland for the 1970 Finals.  The boss obliged (as long as Al came up with four tickets to the games for him) and the stat crew has never missed a Final Four since.

In addition to Finals Fours and ABA games, the crew has worked 13 consecutive NCAA Division II Basketball Finals (seven in Evansville, Indiana and six in Louisville) and nine Orange Bowl Games.  After the 1987 Final Four in New Orleans another airport meeting took place with Al and then Metro League Commissioner Steve Hatch who was going to take a position with the Orange Bowl Committee.  After the conversation, the Louisville stat crew spent the next nine New Year's Days in Miami until the game was moved to Pro Player Stadium in 1996.   

Al's love of sports has continued in the his most recent years as he still participates in the Senior Olympics -- and is a former champion in the Golden 100 & 200 Meter Dashes.  Al still plays softball in Louisville's Senior Softball League (for players 65 years and older).  He began playing in 1954 when slow-pitch softball first started.  He currently manages one team and runs the entire league.  The indoor season began on January 10th of this year and 91 players are in the winter program.
 

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