CLEVELAND — "I said, 'kids, now we know why mom can't retire. Because I can't sit.' I'd have to find something to keep me out of trouble."
83-year-old Jan Shupe has been causing trouble with the Cleveland Cavaliers for 44 years. As Manager of Suite Services and Experience, she takes care of guests on the suite level at the arena.
In her time with the team, she's now seen three NBA All-Star Weekends right here in our city and has countless memories that would make any basketball fan jealous.
It all began at a booster meeting in 1974, when Shupe pestered then-head coach Bill Fitch into giving her a job.
“I'd tell him things that I'd noticed at basketball," she told us. "He said, 'I'm gonna hire you for ticket sales because you know more -- as much about basketball as I do. And I think you’d do a good job.'”
At the time, Shupe was one of only three women in the Cavs organization. And she quickly rose through the ranks, moving up from ticket sales, to guest services, and now -- running it all on the suite level at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
“I'm kind of like the fire marshal," she said. "But if somebody's toilet isn't flushing or the kids spilled popcorn all over the floor during the Disney run, they give us a call and then I know who to contact."
Knowing all those ins and outs at the arena has taken time. And Jan's been through it all, right alongside some of the Cavs' best.
"When I was in sales, Austin Carr would go on a sales call with me or Jimmy Chones would go on a sales call with me, or Bingo [Smith] would go on a sales call," Shupe said. "They were just regular guys."
Shupe formed a friendship with one of those "regular guys" -- the legendary Austin Carr.
“If I’m Mr. Cavalier, she’s Mrs. Cavalier," Carr told us about Shupe.
He says, she's like a sister.
“Truthfulness. Just straightforwardness. She does not fall with any punches. You know, where you stand with her, if she's a little irritated with you, you know that too. So that's one thing that I've always appreciated about her," Carr told us.
Soon after Shupe started with the team, the Cavs moved from downtown Cleveland to the Richfield Coliseum, where even the drive couldn't stop her dedication to the team.
“I enjoyed that except in the winter of '78 when we had the terrible snowstorm and it took six hours to get home up 271. It needed a little, little plowing," she said, laughing.
Through new coaches, players and facilities, Shupe has seen it all. She worked the All-Star games in 1981 at the Coliseum and in 1997 in the Gund Arena. But don't ask her to recall her favorite play from the game.
“I don't remember any particular details of other ones other than I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, making sure everything got taken care of," she said.
But one night she won't ever forget? Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. The series was tied 3-3 with the Golden State Warriors, and the Cavaliers came from being down 3-1 in the series to win the championship. Shupe was one of the Cavaliers' staff who received a championship ring.
"It was so electric. It was incredible. That night, up on the club level, we partied 'til four o'clock in the morning," she recalled.
It's that positive energy and passion for the team that Patrick Scanlon, Senior Director of Guest Experience says, makes Shupe invaluable.
“She has forged those relationships over the course of almost half a century, to make this truly her house,” Scanlon said.
So why is Shupe still so dedicated to this team?
“It beats the heck out of me. I don't know. I just love them. It’s like they're my family," she says.
Shupe says she loves her guests and her team.
“Well, I'm thankful that they let me keep coming around because I think it does keep me going," she said.
Shupe is as much a part of this team's history as any player or coach ever was.