Jeremy Rodrock lives in Baldwin City, 553 miles from Soldier Field, home to his beloved Chicago Bears.

Today’s Super Bowl between the Bears and Indianapolis Colts has been a long time coming for Rodrock, a local chiropractor. He’s evaluated the players on his boyhood team, endured the losing seasons and stayed committed to the Monsters of the Midway, even when he felt like the only Bears fan in town.

“It’s lonely at times. There’s not always a lot of support around you,” said Rodrock, 30, who was just 9 years old the last time the Bears won the Super Bowl. “I knew we were acquiring the talent and that we’d be good before too long.”

Rodrock has developed a family of Bears supporters with whom he watched each game this season. For games, they gather at Wayne and Larry’s, 933 Iowa, and the Super Bowl will be no exception.

Rodrock said he’d have a few Bears fans and plenty of others he was “going to make be Bears fans” with him today.

Wayne and Larry’s owner Wayne Martin, born in Chicago, has built a loyal crowd of Chicago fans.

“It’s going to be crazy here, with such a loyal following of Bears fans,” said Martin, who’s lived in Lawrence on and off since 1969. “I’ve worked hard to bring some things from Chicago here.”

Jeremy Rodrock, Baldwin city, left, a lifelong fan of the Chicago Bears, will be watching today's Super Bowl between the Bears and the Indianapolis Colts at Bears-friendly Wayne and Larry's Sports Bar, inside Royal Crest Lanes, Ninth and Iowa. Rodrock visits with waitress Brynn Davy, Kansas University junior from Chicago, and bar co-owner and former Chicagoan Wayne Martin on Thursday at the bar.

Martin, a major Bears fan himself, said he expects a packed house for the game. He’s moving out his pool tables and reconfiguring the bar in order to cram a few extra bodies in. Pierce Buckman, a Kansas University sophomore from Chicago, will be among the throng. He said he planned to show up as early as noon for the 5:25 p.m. game.

Buckman said having a place where he can surround himself with Bears fans makes being away from the action much easier.

“As long as you have those fans with you, it doesn’t matter. Bears fans everywhere know how to cheer,” he said.

And Buckman knows devotion to his team. When he came to KU as a freshman, he didn’t have a car. He trekked – on foot – from his Naismith residence hall room to Buffalo Wild Wings on Massachusetts Street in order to see every game.

Colts fans aren’t as prevalent in Lawrence; however, Brandon Boyd, a Kansas University student from Wichita, has been a fan of the Colts all of his life.

He’s descended from a long line of Baltimore Colts fans. His dad and his granddad both cheered on the Baltimore Colts and stuck with them when they moved to Indianapolis.

He will be watching the game from his southern Lawrence apartment in what is a tradition of his own. He’s a bit superstitious and doesn’t want to do anything different than he’s done for all the other Colts games this season.

“I’m going to go out and celebrate after they win,” he said.

Rodrock already has plans for his own celebration, win or lose.

The fan has never been able to make it to a Bears game at Soldier Field, or anywhere, for that matter, but their newfound success has given him a new mission: secure tickets to next season’s Chiefs-Bears game in Chicago.