It all started on the gridiron for Roy Peterson.

The Joplin resident has been a Pittsburgh Steelers fan since the 1970s, shortly after he started playing football. At the time his love for the game and the Steelers being one of the best professional teams around, it seemed obvious to be a Steelers fan.

“They’re a class act organization,” Peterson said. “They’re kind of a family.”

When Jeanne, his wife, first met Roy, he was a Steelers fan. At the time they first started dating she watched the Kansas City Chiefs. Roy eventually won her over to being a Steelers fan.

“I was a fan of the Chiefs, but that was a long time ago,” Jeanne said. “It was close to here and everybody in the area is a Chiefs fan. He kind of got me. I got hooked on the Steelers, too. I liked Terry Bradshaw and Joe Green. Those were the good days.”

As a fan, Peterson started collecting memorabilia around 1980. Since then the collection has grown from a few items to enough collectables to fill a room. His collection is so big he cannot recall what his first purchase was in the collection.

“It was a jersey or something,” he said. “It was so long ago, I can’t remember.”

“I think it’s nice he has something that he enjoys,” Jeanne said. “That’s the thing he enjoys the most, except for our children probably. It’s nice that he has a hobby. He lets me do whatever I want as a hobby and I like to decorate.”

The collection first took residence in the family room. After his daughter moved out of the house, Jeanne persuaded Roy to move his collection from the family room to his daughter’s bedroom. Jeanne told him she didn’t care what he did with the room, as long as he got his items out of the family room. Roy soon set up to fix the room the way he wanted it, with the walls painted gold and the carpet black.

“I just let him get whatever he wants for it,” Jeanne said. “Everybody knows that if you get Roy anything, get him something Steelers.”

The walls are lined with memorabilia. Along the east wall hangs four replica jerseys along with four plaques that represent the four Super Bowl wins for the Steelers.

“These (the four plaques) used to be over here, behind my chair,” Roy said. “Every time I would lean back in my chair, my head would rub up against them. Now the names are gone. I was so mad when I saw it.”

Above the jerseys are some of the Steelers hats he has collected. Along the bottom of the wall, underneath the jerseys sit four chairs. Two of the chairs are painted black and the other two are black and gold with the Steelers logo on them. On the south wall hangs one of Roy’s most prized possessions, an autographed picture of head coach Bill Cowher along with a letter Cowher wrote him. Cowher wrote Roy in response to a letter Roy wrote him about being a die-hard Steelers fan. On the west wall is a bookcase of memorabilia Roy has bought from the Danbury Mint.

“There is probably around $200 worth of collectibles here (on the bookcase shelves),” he said.

The collection of materials has started to spill out of his room and into his front yard. In Roy’s front yard, standing more than six feet tall, is an inflatable Steelers player. Beside the player is a sign that reads “Home of a Steelers Fan.” Roy’s mailbox is made up to resemble a Steelers football helmet. He worried after the first day of putting up his mailbox that “some kid might come by and bash it in.” Luckily that has not happened. Hanging from his porch are two banners and a windsock, all emblazoned with the Steelers logo.

Roy raised his children as Steelers fans. Anything they got for birthdays or Christmas always had a Steelers theme to it, like bicycles and clothes. There was a scare for a moment that his daughter, Gina, might turn out to be a Dallas Cowboys fan, but all was forgiven when the family found out she liked the Cowboys because of the cheerleaders.

“My kids, everything they got, their bikes were Steelers bikes,” Jeanne said. “Their blankets, their jackets, they got into it too. They still are; my daughter lives up in Springfield after moving from Kansas City. She was behind enemy lines; it was a little spooky, but she never changed. She stayed a Steelers fan.”

Both of Roy’s kids were involved in sports when growing up. Gina played soccer for Missouri Southern and scored the first goal for the women’s soccer team in the debut game against Southwest Baptist University in September 1998.

Roy has only been to one Steelers game at Pittsburgh his entire life.

It was the final season the team was playing at Three Rivers Stadium and he wanted to be there for it. To commemorate his trip Roy got a tattoo on his arm showcasing the stadium. With a power-packed cable plan, Roy always watches the Steelers play every Sunday.

“If they win, then I’m in a good mood for the week,” Roy said. “If they lose, I’m mad about it until Sunday.”

While out shopping with his wife, Roy has met up with fellow Pittsburgh fans, and after talking with a couple of them, they plan to start a fan cub in Joplin. The club hopes to form by the beginning of the next football season.

“We’ll come to my house and watch the game or go to someone else’s house who has it,” he said.

Roy and Jeanne usually go to Kansas City to watch the Steelers play the Chiefs. This year after the game was over and Pittsburgh lost, 41-20, Roy and Jeanne, his son and his wife were walking back to their vehicles when some Kansas City fans started harassing the Steelers fans. His son and daughter-in-law walked by first and the fans heckled them.

After they passed Jeanne approached one of the fans and told them they won the game and they shouldn’t be treating other people that way. The fan replied with a derogatory remark and spit in her face.

Roy had enough. He walked up to the guy and knocked him out with a single punch.

“I didn’t say a thing, I’m not stupid,” Roy said. “There’s too many Chiefs fans up there. But I’m not going to let a guy spit in my wife’s face.”

After that guy had hit the ground another one was jumping him. In total Roy fought three guys and won.

One of the guys he fought was one of two who jumped his son. Somewhere in the middle of the fight Roy lost his cell phone and broke his middle finger.

“I was frustrated that we lost, so I took all of my frustration out on them,” Roy said. “I sure hope that doesn’t happen anymore, I’m getting too old for that.”

Roy has never had any problems with Chiefs fans in the past.

He has even started a decorating contest against a neighbor who is a Chiefs fan. After Roy put his inflatable Steelers player in his front yard, it wasn’t too long afterward that his neighbor had a Chiefs player in his front yard along with a banner hanging from his porch.

“He won’t beat me, I’m the bigger fan,” Roy said.