Monday, May 19, 2008

We're all looking for our "15 Minutes of Fame"

For more than 10 years starting in the late 1970s, Rollen Stewart was the nation's most celebrated sports fan, a wig-wearing, wigged-out self-promoter who showed up at virtually every major athletic event worldwide and always managed to plant himself smack-dab in front of a television camera.

He was known as the Rainbow Man, for the multicolored Afro wigs he sported, or Rock 'n' Rollen, for the party vibe he exuded. Later, after finding religion, he morphed into the John 3:16 guy, for the Biblical messages he espoused.

He found fame, as planned, simply by showing up.

But the fanatic who was always there, Stewart says, really was no fan at all.

"I despised sports," he says.

Serving three life sentences for hostage-taking, he has been imprisoned since 1992. It's probably just as well -- Stewart has already had more than his "15 minutes of fame."

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