Touchdown

Palisadian Steven Barber Places First Super Bowl Monument in Los Angeles

By STEVE GALLUZZO | Sports Editor

On the way to your Super Bowl party, stop by The Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills and have a picture taken in front of “Touchdown,” the first Super Bowl monument in history, brought here before Sunday’s big game thanks to the effort and ingenuity of Palisadian Steven Barber.

“As the Super Bowl approached I’d seen them sculpting the football player and asked if they’d build me another one, which they did,” says Barber, a documentary filmmaker who has funded monuments in honor of the astronauts of NASA’s Apollo 11 and 13 missions as well as a Sally Ride monument to be unveiled in New York in June. “I put it on a truck and brought it out here, but all the places I pitched said ‘no.’

I’ve been going to The Peninsula for 30 years, I love their bagels and I had a miniature of the monument with me, 17 inches tall and 40 pounds, which I left with the concierge. The owner called me an hour later and asked how much do you want us to pay for it and I told him nothing. He liked that and agreed to display it for 14 days. They put it right in the foyer so people see it when they walk in. I couldn’t believe it! Of course they have a lot of guests flying in for the Super Bowl and everytime I’ve stopped by there’s people taking pictures.”

Barber will have to move the seven-foot tall George Lundeen bronze on Valentine’s Day—the day after the Super Bowl—but hopes the piece of art gets Angelinos excited about the game and their community.

“I’m a hometown boy so I’m pulling for the Rams to beat the Bengals,” he says. “It would be so great for the city. We’ve been in darkness for 24 months and a Rams victory would bring some much-needed light. This is the right monument at the right venue at the right time!”

Barber, who turns 61 on Saturday, has plans to build the first NFL Monument Park with all 32 teams represented, beginning with life-size sculptures of former Oakland Raiders coach and longtime color commentator John Madden and legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, the man after whom the NFL championship trophy is named.    

As for “Touchdown,” it is for sale and until he finds a buyer Barber will rent a U-Haul and drive it back to his place. The piece of art looks as impressive as other sports figures Lundeen has sculpted, like football greats Red Grange, Dan Marino and Dick Butkus.