In the half-frozen mud around Eakins Oval, at the points closest to the barricades erected in front of the Art Museum steps where the Eagles concluded their Super Bowl LII championship parade Thursday afternoon, fans staked out their positions long before the sun came up.
David Ngyuen, a pastor from Bucks County who was wearing a kelly green Randall Cunningham jersey, said he’d been there since midnight, among what he said were about 50 hardy souls who camped out in the cold.
“A few minutes,” Ngyuen said, when asked how much he’d slept.
A few yards away, David McNicholas of East Falls said he’d arrived with his 9-year-old son, Gus, around 3:30 am.