Peyton Manning makes sure Indiana couple has night to remember

Imagine if the sports icon you wanted to meet more than anyone on the planet went above and beyond to meet you?

Brookville, Ind., native, Kristen Patterson left Peyton Manning no choice when she wrote the Denver Broncos quarterback a letter Sept. 21 requesting a chance to meet, but forgot to include her contact information.

That's one way to stand out among the hundreds of letters Manning likely receives.

Patterson was requesting the meeting on behalf of her husband, Army Sgt. Ryan Patterson of the 1/25 Stryker Brigade Combat Team.

In an area made up predominantly of Bengals fans, he grew up a die-hard Colts fan, watching Manning. During his two tours in Afghanistan, Patterson would set alarms to wake up at odd hours of the night just to stream Colts games. He even tried to get relocated to Colorado to catch Broncos games.

He sounds like a perfect candidate to meet his top sports icon, right?

The only problem was, Kristen Patterson wasn't writing from the contiguous United States. The couple and their 10-month-old daughter, Olivia, had recently moved 3,950 miles from where they were stationed in Fort Campbell, Ky., to Fort Wainwright in North Pole, Alaska.

She requested a meeting with Manning when they'd be back in the Midwest to attend the Broncos and Bengals game Dec. 22 while visiting family for the holidays but, of course, hadn't provided any contact information.

So Manning requested the Broncos' public relations team try to find her. It took three months but the Broncos tracked down Patterson's phone number through the utility company in North Pole. The company contacted the state troopers, who called Kristen Patterson.

She later spoke to the Broncos, setting up a meeting with Manning on Dec. 21 at the hotel the team was staying at in the Cincinnati area.

"When I got a call from (an Alaska) state trooper they asked if I wrote a letter to Peyton Manning," Patterson said, adding that she was confused at first. "They said the Denver Broncos were trying to get a hold of me. When I sent it, you never know if someone is going to read it or if it is going to be tossed in a pile. So I thought they never read it, no big deal."

A state trooper called Ryan Patterson's phone and asked for his wife. To keep the meeting a surprise, Kristen told her husband it was about a police dog demonstration for the school where she worked.

When they arrived in Cincinnati, she convinced her husband they were going to dinner with a friend, but he realized something when they arrived at the Broncos' team hotel.

"I was trying to keep it as a surprise, but I'm a horrible liar and I couldn't think of a reason why we would be going to a hotel," she said. "It would have been really hard to keep it (a secret), plus he needed time to process everything."

The hotel lobby was full of Broncos fans. Ryan Patterson's initial thought was he would be among many to receive autographs and vying to snap a quick photo and hello. Instead, the family was taken up an escalator to a private conference room.

"The team's flight was delayed, so I was pacing the room like I was expecting a child. I saw (Manning) come up the escalator and my first reaction was he is at least 15 feet tall, if not taller," said Ryan Patterson, who had a picture taken with Manning and received an autographed football. "Peyton introduced himself, asked my daughter's name and played with her for a second and thanked me for my service."

The Pattersons described Manning as personable, approachable and, above all else, genuine.

"He seemed genuinely tickled that we lived in North Pole, Alaska. He said, 'You guys are really hard to find,'" Patterson said. "Before he left he shook my hand and thanked me for my service one more time and I thanked him for being my quarterback.

"(Kristen) enjoyed the fact that she is the greatest wife ever and there was nothing I could ever do to top this. "If you asked me who is the one person, anybody in the world, I want to meet, I would immediately say Peyton Manning and she made that happen."

Here is Kristen Patterson's original letter to Peyton Manning:

Dear Mr. Manning,

My name is Kristen Patterson. I am writing to ask a question. You see my husband is a HUGE fan, and when I say HUGE I mean it. He is currently serving our country in the United States Army and has deployed twice to Afghanistan. He would set alarms to wake up at odd hours in the night just to listen to your football games. We recently had to move across the country for the Army and he tried to get us stationed in Colorado just so he could ensure that he would never miss your games.

We will be attending the Bengals vs. Broncos game on December 22, 2014, while home for the holidays, and it would mean so much to my husband if you might be able to find the time to just even say hello, not to mention it would make me to coolest wife ever of all time. I know you are a busy man, and if you can't, it will be ok. I just thought I might ask in the rare chance that you might agree to this.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Sincerely,

Kristen Patterson