The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders love their Grandpa Cliff

CEDAR RAPIDS — He sits patiently in a blue chair at ImOn Ice, sporting a heavy black coat and black and gray stocking cap with the logo of his absolute favorite hockey team.

Cliff Broxey waits for each and every member of the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders to come off the ice at the conclusion of practice. One of the entry ways to the team’s locker room is right next to him.

He’s in a perfect spot to greet them all, chat them up.

“Hi Cliff!” a RoughRiders player says. “How you doing today?”

For the next couple of minutes or more, they will converse. The subject might be fishing or hunting, might be his favored Iowa State Cyclones, might be hockey, of course.

On this day, Broxey is telling guys about some pesky coyotes that seem to keep coming around and showing up in his backyard at home. They bother him, bother his dog.

How does he plan to take care of this problem?

“Get my gun out,” he says with a grin.

Broxey is known simply as Grandpa Cliff around the rink. A season-ticket holder, it’s what’s on the nameplate of his seat at games.

The 73-year-old Cedar Rapids man can’t get enough of his RoughRiders, and his RoughRiders can’t get enough of him.

“They are just such nice young men,” Broxey said.

“We’re always talking about Cliff in the locker room,” said RoughRiders defenseman Eric Pohlkamp. “Sometimes when he’s not here, we’re like ‘Hey, where is Cliff?’”

Broxey is there, though, more often than not. Every home game and at least couple of practices a week.

He has three grown children, a couple who live out of town, so he has decided to “adopt” a few younger kids. That’d be 27, to be specific, the number of players on the RoughRiders roster, injured guys included.

“The boys, you watch them play hockey, and it’s rough,” Broxey said. “But they come here, and they’re just young men, far away from home. Just like a lot of us when we were 18, and in the service or off to college far away. You’re away from your family. To me, this is what God wants me to do. To come here and be Cliff, Grandpa Cliff.”

Broxey always brings a plastic sack of candy with him to practices, treats for his boys, a reward for a job well done. They usually have to share, but Grandpa Cliff was so proud of Pohlkamp the other day, he got a full bag of goodies for himself.

Granpda Cliff adores them all, but Pohlkamp is his favorite. Don’t tell anyone.

“I call him Big Rig,” Broxey said. “That’s what he told me he was, a big rig. If you ever watch the commercials (on the arena big screen), he’s the one saying ‘All we need is more cowbell.’ He talks as much as I do, is a good boy. There’s no boy about him. He’s a man.”

“He’s a great fan, a great guy,” Pohlkamp said. “He’s got season tickets, and we know where he sits, so if we score down there (on that side of the ice), we’ll go to him. He’s all fired up for us. That makes his day, coming to the rink. He sits right there by the locker room so he can talk to all of us. That definitely makes his day.”

It makes their day, honestly.

“He seems very appreciative of the guys. He’s like family to all of us,” said RoughRiders Coach Mark Carlson. “He came down last year and talked to the whole team. Right there on the bench, addressed the whole team. Really cool thing. Talked about just how proud he was of the guys, how much he likes watching them. Stuff like that.”

The RoughRiders gave Grandpa Cliff a jersey for his birthday. A little reciprocation for all the candy perhaps?

Broxey said he got hooked on the Riders when they first came into existence for the 1999-2000 season. He worked at Quaker Oats for 43 years, much of the time on second shift, so his opportunities to get to games were limited until he retired.

When his wife of 40 years passed away, he needed something, someone to help get him through the days. That and they were the RoughRiders.

“This gives me something to do,” Broxey said. “Everything is God’s plan. When I feel down and the world is getting to me, my son, who’s a minister, tells me ‘God’s got a plan for you, dad. You’re supposed to be here.’”

There’s no doubt about that. Grandpa Cliff chatted with a couple of players for a while after a recent practice, letting them take some candy.

“Love you, guys,” he told them, as their chat concluded and the players headed toward the locker room door.

“Love you, too, Cliff,” they both replied instantly.

That’s kind of what it’s all about, isn’t it?

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