SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Space Needle 12th Man flag battered but not beaten
Jan 21, 2015, 5:50 AM | Updated: 9:44 am
A tattered 12th Man flag flies over the Space Needle Sunday. A new one will be hoisted the Friday before the Super Bowl. (KIRO Radio photo)
(KIRO Radio photo)
Much like the Seahawks, the 12th Man flag that flew over the Space Needle the past several weeks was torn and tattered, but withstood a fierce challenge.
“What that flag went through is kind of what the Seahawks went through, it’s kind of what the 12th Man fan base went through,” says Don O’Neill, co-host of KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don Show.
The flag was damaged by the strong winds and rain that battered Seattle Sunday before and during the Seahawks stunning come-from-behind victory over Green Bay.
The Space Needle announced earlier this week the flag would be replaced by a new one for the Super Bowl, prompting a push by Ron and Don Show listeners to instead patch it and fly it again.
But Space Needle VP of Marketing Karen Olson says plans called for a different flag for the Super Bowl.
“We are all about tradition as well. This is actually the playoff flag, and last year we had a different flag for the Super Bowl. So we actually had fans sign it and we sent it to New York/New Jersey and the flag was in the locker room with the team,” she says.
The 12th Man flag flying atop the Space Needle is a tradition started with the Seahawks back in 2005. It’s been raised on special occasions since then by former players and local notables from Seahawks greats Cortez Kennedy and Walter Jones to Macklemore and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready.
Kennedy was fearless on the field, but it turns out the 600 foot height was a bit too much for him, Olson says.
“Afterwards we generally do interviews with the media who are up there and we thought he went down for a cup of coffee. (When) we called, he was on 520,” she laughs.
As co-host Ron Upshaw points out, you can’t just order a new 25×35 foot flag on Amazon. It turns out they’re made by Seattle’s Rainier Industries specifically for the Space Needle, according to Olson.
Plans for next Friday’s flag raising are still being made. In the meantime, Olson says you can download a new app from the Space Needle website that lets you put the Space Needle flying the 12th Man flag into your own pictures wherever you are.
Olson, at Don’s urging, says the playoff flag could be used to gather signatures from fans again like last year and sent to Arizona to adorn the Seahawks locker room.
