They’ve been to more Super Bowls than Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw and Tom Brady combined.
In fact, they’ve been to all 51.
Meet the “Super Bowl Five,” a group of longtime friends who have attended the big game since its modest beginnings in 1967.
“It’s something all guys dream about and we did it,” said 79-year-old Manhattan resident Sylvan Schefler, an investment banker.
“Some people go to two of them, three of them, 10 of them. We’ve been to 51,” Schefler said proudly.
“It’s a miracle that we are still doing this,” said Harvey Rothenberg, 84, who grew up in Brooklyn and now lives in Boca Raton, FL.
Joining Schefler and Rothenberg at Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis next week will be their pals Lew Rappaport, 80, of Westchester, and Larry McDonald, 83, of Georgia.
“We really all look forward to it. It’s a special time for us,” said McDonald — the sole non-New York guy in the group.
The fifth member of the elite club will skip this year’s game. “This is my first miss — pneumonia. Sorry guys,” said Al Schragis, a Westchester guy who will be stuck watching the game on TV at his winter home in Palm Beach.
The Super Bowl Five met through business connections in the mid-1960s. The four New Yorkers — diehard Giants fans — were curious to see the NFL do battle with the upstart AFL, and Rothenberg extended an invite to his new pal McDonald after a business deal.
They flew to Los Angeles to see Super Bowl I, then known as the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, which was played before 62,000 people at the 90,000-seat LA Coliseum. Tickets were $10.
Tickets for Sunday’s game are going for an average of $3,700 online.
It helped that NFL officials golfed at the Doral Country Club in Miami — now owned by President Trump, which was built and owned by Schragis’s family. “They’ve (NFL) been sending us tickets (at face value) every year,” Rothenberg said.
As their streak picked up momentum, Schragis bought watches, rings, luggage, cufflinks and jackets for everyone to commemorate the achievement. They have their own website. There was even a horse named “Super Bowl Five,” that has since gone to hoof heaven.
The four New Yorkers have witnessed everything from Joe Namath’s guaranteed victory in Super Bowl III to Janet Jackson’s equally shocking “wardrobe malfunction” during the 2004 halftime show.
The Giant guys relish Big Blue’s two victories over the hated Bill Belichick and Brady Patriots. But McDonald, an Atlanta Falcons fan, “doesn’t want to talk about” his team’s epic collapse to the Patriots last year,.
When they’re together, Rothenberg, is “The Prof.” Schragis goes by “The Prez,” Rappaport is “Chicago Lew,” McDonald is “Larry Mac” and Schefler is “The Fog.”
They have one firm ground rule: No wives at the game.
That’s because theirs is an epic tale of male bonding.
“This is a story about friendship,” said Schefler.
Rothenberg said he’d love to keep the streak alive as “long as we can.”
Added McDonald: “I’ll keeping doing this until they put me on the other side of the grass.”