Football fans are all choked up as 100-year-old Colorado super fan bursts into tears live on TV

Colorado’s resurgent football season reached a new high in Week 12, and not because of the Buffaloes’ 49-24 victory over Utah.

Peggy Coppom, the pom-pom-wielding Colorado superfan known to just about everyone in Boulder, turned 100 during an emotional pregame ceremony on ESPN’s College Game Day. The centenarian has missed just three Buffaloes home games since 1966, and this year head coach Deion Sanders has dedicated the Buffaloes’ season to getting “Miss Peggy” to a bowl game.

The festivities ultimately proved overwhelming. Coppom started crying after receiving a beautiful Buffaloes-themed cake when the ESPN crew, ex-Colorado quarterback Kordell Stewart and thousands of fans began serenading her with “Happy Birthday.”

“I don’t even understand it yet, but I cried,” Miss Peggy told reporters afterward, as quoted by Fox News. “I just thank God for my life and for all the friends and for everything that’s happened to me.”

Even viewers got caught up in the emotion of the moment.

Head coach Deion Sanders of the Colorado Buffaloes stands with then 98-year-old fan Peggy Coppom in 2022. Coppom turned 100 years old on Tuesday in Boulder

“This makes me cry,” one fan wrote on X.

Others were quickly charmed by Coppom.

“She’s so cute,” one woman wrote about Coppom, who is often seen wearing a ’90s Colorado Starter jacket. “It warmed my heart when they started singing.”

“She is a Colorado legend,” another fan commented. “God bless this amazing woman and her passion and heart is beyond special.”

Naturally, the day was somewhat tarnished by the absence of Coppom’s twin sister, Betty Hoover, who passed away in 2020 due to an illness.

“I wish my twin sister was here,” Coppom said. ‘It all started because we were twins. I can’t deny that we are loyal fans, but I said it’s incredible to get all this attention for just having a good time.”

As always, Coach Prime had nothing but praise for Coppom.

“It’s amazing that God would find two people from two different walks of life, two different generations and bring them together the way He did,” Sanders said of his relationship with the Buffs’ biggest fan.

Fans and non-fans alike got caught up in the spirit of the moment when Coppom turned 100

Colorado Buffaloes superfan Miss Peggy Coppom celebrates her 100th birthday Tuesday with the Colorado Buffaloes women’s basketball team

Twins Peggy Coppom (left) and Betty Hoover cheer on the Buffs years earlier

Peggy Coppom, left, and her sister Betty Hoover are seen praying in church in 2005

“She has always greeted me with love, compassion, support, stability and hope,” he said. “I’m grateful to know her, I’m grateful she can reach me whenever she wants, and I’m grateful to celebrate her 100th birthday with her.

“She is the epitome of CU Buffs. She is the embodiment of Buff nation. She is the rock that holds us all together, and I am grateful to know her. I really am.’

Sanders even hopes to launch a clothing line in her honor, which Coppom certainly appreciates.

“He’s brought all this attention to our entire community and the university,” Coppom said. ‘This is all unbelievable. So he is, quite incredible.”

Coppom did go to Colorado, but stayed only a year before marrying an Air Force pilot and starting a family. Perhaps not coincidentally, her sister also married an air force pilot.

The 8-2 Buffs are at Kansas on Saturday. The Jayhawks are coming off an upset of undefeated BYU in sixth place.