Two months ago, at the first football game of the season, everyone was looking around for Armond Colombo. The patron saint of Brockton football was always, always on the sidelines for Brockton football games. He had been there, unceasingly, for a half-century, and he was still there, still unceasingly, after he retired in 2003 and passed on the reins to his son, Peter. But the 87-year-old Armond seemed to be missing at this Friday night game. He wasn’t.

Most fans eventually spied him to their left, hanging his arms on the fence by the shimmering statue of his brother-in-law, Rocky Marciano, on the stadium’s north side. Colombo’s health and mobility was declining (not quite good enough to be on an active football sideline) so school officials let him pull his Buick right up to the fence.