Super Bowl Memories

Local Resident Reflects On Career Of Running Stadiums

After a career of more than 30 years in the sports and entertainment world, Glenn Mon is enjoying retirement in Lexington.

Mon was involved in 12 Super Bowl games, serving as either the host facility manager or the stadium director. He and his wife, Ashley, moved to Lexington four years ago from Philadelphia, Pa., the headquarters of the management company Mon worked for.

The first Super Bowl game Mon, 73, worked was Super Bowl XXVI in Minneapolis, Minn., in 1992, when the Washington Redskins defeated the Buffalo Bills 37-24.

At the Super Bowl the following year in Pasadena, Calif., Grammy-winning country singer Garth Brooks delayed the start of the Super Bowl because his request to debut his video for “We Shall Be Free,” in response to the Los Angeles riots following the verdict for the Rodney King riots in 1992. He did get his request approved, and he went on to perform the national anthem. Since this incident, the NFL has now made it a requirement that all Super Bowl performances of the anthem are pre-recorded.

Mon also worked Super Bowl XXVIII in 1994 at the Georgoa Dome in Atlanta, Ga., with U.S. Vice President Al Gore in attendance.

Over the years, Mon saw a lot of interesting sights at the Super Bowl. At one Super Bowl in Phoenix, Ariz., in the pregame ceremony, a cowboy came on the field, and his horse flipped him onto the concrete.

Mon worked Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 in the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans, La., with the New England Patriots overcoming the St. Louis Rams 20-17 for their first Super Bowl title in franchise history. Following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, earlier in the season, the NFL postponed a week of regular-season games and moved the league’s playoff schedule back. As a result, Super Bowl XXXVI was rescheduled from the original date of Jan. 27 to Feb. 3, becoming the first Super Bowl played in February. The pregame ceremonies and the halftime show headlined by the Irish rock band US honored the victims of 9/11. Due to heightened security measures following the attacks, this was the first Super Bowl designated as a National Special Security Event.

Mon started his career in the 1980s, and his first big event was running the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, with the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the main venue.

While in Los Angeles, Mon helped with the relocation of the NFL’s Oakland Raiders to Los Angeles and the NBA’s San Diego Clippers to Los Angeles in 1984.

He later worked for the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and ran Joe Robbie Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.

Mon was involved in the creation of the Florida Marlins, a professional baseball team that later became known as the Miami Marlins. He worked closely with the staff of businessman Wayne Huizenga to help purchase the Marlins, who started as an expansion team in 1993.

“I was privileged to be part of the baseball team,” said Mon. “I have a lot of great memories.”

The staff also figured out how to transform Joe Robbie Stadium, later known as Pro Player Stadium, from a football venue to a baseball venue and back.

The Marlins’ first game was against the Los Angeles Dodgers, under the direction of Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda.

Working for a management company in Philadelphia, Hamanassett Bed & Breakfast, Global Interface Consulting, gave Mon “time to slow down and get away.”

On one of his trips with Ashley, they discovered Lexington. In 2015, they started looking at property and decided to make the move in 2021 when they sold their Pennsylvania property. Now they live near the Virginia Horse Center.

Since moving to Lexington, Mon has shared the adventures of his career with locals. “I’ve done some presentations in Lexington to groups of what it takes to run a Super Bowl game,” he said.

In retirement, Mon enjoys spending time with Ashley and their two dogs, Shadow and Noble. A longtime resident of Philadelphia, he said he would be rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl, although Ashley would be rooting for the Kansas City Chiefs.

“What’s fun about it is my wife has really become a football fan because of Chiefs,” said Mon.

Instead of working the Super Bowl, Mon was looking forward to enjoying the big game on television. For sure, the experience was more relaxed for him than all of the years watching it up close and making sure everything ran smoothly.