Decades living in Minnesota hasn’t dampened St. Paul comic’s pride for his hometown teams

Rick Logan has called the Twin Cities his home since the early ‘90s, is married to a Minnesotan and has raised three children in the Gopher State but when it comes to sports he’s still every bit a Philly fan.

Logan, a mailman and standup comedian, lives in St. Paul not too far from Allianz Field, the new home of Minnesota United. He knows plenty of fans of the third-year MLS club but he keeps closer tabs on how the Union are fairing.

“Thanks to cable and the internet I can follow them from a distance,” Logan said. “You don’t need to be anywhere to be a fan of a team.”

Like a lot of Philly ex-pats, Logan has lived in Minnesota long enough now that people there — his daughters included — poke fun at his Philly accent but when he talks to friends back home they say he talks like he’s from Minnesota now.

A Bucks County Community College and Temple alum, Logan grew up in Narberth but also lived in Bucks County, Manyunk, Fishtown, Delaware and Lancaster before he moved to Minnesota with a girlfriend he met working at the Renaissance Faire in Lancaster.

Things ended up not working out with her, but he stuck around, continued acting, teaching and doing sketch comedy and eventually settled down and started a family with a woman from Bemidji, Minnesota, which is about five hours north of the Twin Cities.

Always the ambassador of his hometown, which comes up in his standup act, Logan recalls going to his wife’s school reunion in Bemidji and meeting a member of the Sons of Ben.

“I was talking with a friend of hers and she lived on the East Coast with a guy in the Philly area and I was talking to him and asked if he was a Union fan and he pulled out his wallet and he was one of the original members of the Son of Ben,” Logan said. “I was so excited.”

Logan, who once did standup on a Southwest flight to Vegas where he opened up for Carrot Top, has similar interactions whenever he runs into someone wearing a Phillies hat, an Eagles jersey or anything else connecting them to Philadelphia. While he grew up rooting for the big four, living 1,100 miles away didn’t keep him from paying attention when the Union joined MLS in 2010 or from transitioning to a five-for-five Philly sports fan.

“I was excited when they joined MLS even being far away,” he said. “I love the jerseys, the colors, the name, the Join or Die, the Sons of Ben.”

The Union will be playing in Logan’s neck of the woods on Sunday afternoon with the scheduled to kick off at 4 p.m. eastern. It will be broadcast live on PHL17. The Doopy Brothers will be there so check back on the site next week to hear more about their journey to the Twin Cities.

Know a Union fan we should profile? Email me at matthew.r.ralph@gmail.com.