Three San Fernando Valley sisters were bouncing off the walls in anticipation of turning a $50 longshot bet into $6,300 if the Cincinnati Bengals win Super Bowl LVI on Sunday.
Teresa Dahlquist, 82, and her twin sister, Josephine Cavalluzzi, both Woodland Hills residents, and their big sister Mary Bartnicki, 91, of Canoga Park made their way to California via The Bronx, New York many years ago.
(L-R) Sisters Josephine Cavalluzzi ,Teresa Dahlquist amd Mary Bartnicki and placed a $50 bet in February 2021 that the Cincinnati Bengals would win the Super Bowl in 2022. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
Dahlquist and Bartnicki were in Pahrump outside of Las Vegas last year when they put down $50 on the Bengals to win Super Bowl LVI with 125-1 odds at the time.
“We are gamblers,” said Dahlquist on Tuesday. “We love to gamble. We were picking teams to gamble on, and I said to my sister, Mary, I want a long shot. It was after the Super Bowl. She said, ‘You want a long shot, are you crazy’?”
But the sisters have slightly different memories of how it came to be that day they bought that ticket.
“I never said you were crazy,” said Bartnicki, a self-described sports and Bengals fan. “I said do it. I’m a bettor.”
It was Bartnicki who chose the Bengals as the longshot.
Cavalluzzi wasn’t with them at the time.
“She gave us (the money),” said Bartnicki. “We are partners forever. When we gamble, we split it three ways.”
The National Football League consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. Throughout the year, the sisters bet on 10 teams and crossed each one off as they lost a chance at the Super Bowl, leaving the Bengals and Rams on the makeshift board hanging on the kitchen wall.
Bartnicki was in charge of the potential winning tickets.
“If they win, it’s a lousy $1,000,” Bartnicki said about the Rams’ return on their $50.
Bartnicki kept the tickets in a safe place throughout the season.
“I told my two sisters exactly where they were, because I’m 91 and I think maybe I could die,” Bartnicki said. “I never expected (the Bengals) to (go to the Super Bowl). We were shocked.”
As part of the fun leading up to Super Bowl LVI, Bartnicki had miniature magnetic team football helmets on her kitchen refrigerator. Every time a team lost the chance to go big, she would take them down and stash them away until only the Bengals and Rams were left.
On Sunday, Cavalluzzi’s son is throwing a big Super Bowl party in Silver Lake. The sisters are cooking up a storm in anticipation. All three will be rooting for the Bengals, but only Bartnicki is the true fan.
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And whether they win $6,300 on the Bengals or $1,000 on the Rams, they each have plans for their windfall.
“The ecstasy of winning surpasses the agony of losing,” said Cavalluzzi who plans to take Sunday’s winnings and head to the craps table as soon as possible. “I’m going to let it ride.”
Bartnicki says she’s going to use the winnings to pay off her property taxes while Dahlquist wants to give hers to charity, much to the chagrin of her older sister.
“I don’t need it,” Dahlquist said. “I’m going to give it to Bryan Stevenson,” she said, referring to the attorney who founded the Equal Justice Initiative, which fights for people who’ve been wrongly convicted or crimes or unfairly sentenced.
“Except for $100,” she said. “No $150. I’m going to gamble with that.”