GrandPa Hogette

From the DC Sports Bog:

Ralph Campbell -- who died last week at the age of 73 -- was one of the 11 original Hogettes. He was known as GrandPa.

For most of the past 27 years, being a Hogette was a huge part of Campbell's life -- he went to two Super Bowls, conducted the National Symphony, rode an elephant down Pennsylvania Avenue, and appeared in a Visa commercial.

The Navy veteran, who served in Vietnam, actually arrived in the D.C. area early in the Gibbs Era as a Cowboys fan, due to Roger Staubach's Naval connections. He was on the path to conversion when the Hogettes began, and that completed the trick.

Lori Cole, Campbell's youngest daughter recalls "All of our friends made fun of us . . .but later as we got older, we got to see all the events he did. We went to Joe Gibbs stuff, went to Gary Clark stuff, we actually saw the good in it, and then it got to be ok."

Campbell will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery next month, wearing a Redskins tie. He's the first original Hogette to pass away.

His daughter said that he was also an avid sailor, and a devoted father and grandfather, and a 27-year Navy man, but she said it was fine for him to be memorialized as a Redskins fan in a dress, tying balloons for kids and making silly puns and boasting about his yellow dress.

He would love to be remembered [that way], his daughter said, and we would love for him to be remembered for all the good he did.