Stan Chilcoat's 1983 Oldsmobile Royale Brougham has 275,000 miles on it, a cracked windshield and a busted taillight. A few weeks ago, one of the front wheels fell off when a tie-rod gave way.
But Mr. Chilcoat, 72, a retired sign-painter from North Beach, isn't about to get rid of this car, although he may retire it one day. You see, this is the Skins' Mobile, an arresting and colorful expression of Mr. Chilcoat's 57-year love affair with the Washington Redskins football team.
The red, white and gold car is part team poster, part record book, with scores and trivia painted over it, and part souvenir, with more than 30 Hall of Fame football autographs written in indelible ink.
"It would be the easiest car to sell in the world," Mr. Chilcoat proclaims. "There isn't a month that goes by without someone saying, 'You want to sell that car? Name the price.' "
He recalls the time two men came up to him after a Redskins game. "You could tell they were money guys because of the way they were dressed," Mr. Chilcoat says. One pulled out his checkbook. "He laid down a check and said, 'You fill in the amount, and give me the keys.' "
Mr. Chilcoat chuckles at the memory.
His passion for the Redskins began about the same time he was developing a talent for drawing and painting, growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania.
It was 1938, and Mr. Chilcoat was a 16-year-old student at Orbinsonia High School in Lewistown. One day in English class, his teacher caught him drawing a sketch during a lecture on Macbeth. "He said, 'I want to see you after school,' " Mr. Chilcoat recalls. "I said, 'Oh, no. I don't want to get into trouble.' " But after school, the teacher said, " 'How would you like to do artwork for the school paper and yearbook?' That's how I got started."
On weekends, Mr. Chilcoat and his buddies would gather around the radio at the town's general store to listen to college football games on Saturday and professional games on Sunday.
In 1937, the Redskins were moved to Washington from Boston and won the championship that year behind the skilled play of Sammy Baugh, a future Hall of Fame quarterback.
By the next season, young Stan Chilcoat was hooked. He and his friends would drive to Washington for the home games. "Back then, you could just show up and buy tickets," he said.
In 1941, Mr. Chilcoat moved to Washington to live with his brother, who was a pharmacist for the Peoples Drug store chain. Stan Chilcoat got a job with the drug store painting store windows.
He continued going to Redskins games. The only games he missed were in 1944, when he was serving in the U.S. Navy.
He married, and he and his wife, Jean, had four children.
Eventually, they moved out of Washington, and Mr. Chilcoat opened a sign shop. His passion for the Redskins never wavered. In 1987, he bought the Oldsmobile when the Redskins were on their way to the Super Bowl.
As a show of support for his favorite team, Mr. Chilcoat painted the words, "Let's Go Joe to San Diego" along both sides of the white car. After the team made it to the Super Bowl, he painted more Redskins decorations on the car and got the players and coach Joe Gibbs to autograph the hood.
For the 1988 season, Mr. Chilcoat decided to re-decorate the car. He sanded off the designs from 1987 and repainted the car. He removed the hood with the autographs, stored it and bought a used hood from a salvage yard.
Every year since, he has had the current squad of players sign the hood, then removed it at season's end. He's got seven hoods stored away, with hundreds of player autographs.
The driver's side of the car is reserved for home game scores. This year, Mr. Chilcoat painted a Redskins helmet and their opponent's helmet for each home game, and later painted in the final score. He did the same thing for away games on the passenger's side.
The trunk lid Mr. Chilcoat saved for special autographs, those of Hall of Fame players like his idol Sammy Baugh. Others who have signed the trunk lid include Otto Graham and Jim Brown.
There's not much room left for more signatures, but this ultimate Redskins fan has a secret desire: He would like nothing more than to have Baltimore's Art Donovan, a Hall of Fame defensive lineman for the Colts, sign the Redskins car.
"I think he would," Mr. Chilcoat said. "I've noticed he's never really bad-mouthed the Redskins. He jokes about them, but he never bad-mouths them."
He may be right, but the odds might not be in his favor. He'd be asking Artie Donovan to put his autograph on the same trunk lid with Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke's signature.