ENGLEWOOD, Colo. — Englewood bar owners, Angel McNealey and Josh Pugh, aren't cheering on the Nuggets in regular fashion – no T-shirts, banners or bull horns – they enlisted a little paint, an unorthodox haircut and a lot of hairspray.
One week after McNealey first met Pugh, he got a new haircut.
"I was like what in the hell is this?" said McNealey. "Okay, we're going to work with it." Work with it she did –for 12 years.
"Alright, are you ready?" She asked her now husband. "I am ready," said Pugh, sat in a chair in their bar, the Shot Spot in Englewood.
Instead of cheering on their favorite Colorado teams with a typical sign, they use the hair. It was McNealey's idea to turn his hair into a walking billboard back when Pugh first showed off the new mohawk.
"What if we could figure out a way to put it on the side of your head and you would never have to hold it up?" McNealey asked Pugh.
He called it the "Mile High Mohawk."
The hairdo now doubles as a holiday celebration. One year they even made it into a Christmas tree. Another year, it was an anniversary card that read "Happy 45th" to Pugh's parents' wedding anniversary.
But the canvas is most often used to cheer on the home teams – the Broncos, the Avalanche, the Rockies, and of course, the Nuggets.
"The longest mohawk which is my favorite one," said McNealey. "It’s his Rockies Easter mohawk and it took 17 and a half hours."
The works of art may have some superstition attached.
"Before we owned the bar he would make me do it for every single Broncos game," said McNealey.
“I didn’t make her, I asked her," laughed Pugh.
Denver man shows Nuggets pride with amazing mohawk art
“OK, he would have me, is that better? Even if we didn’t leave the house it just had to be done because it was good luck for the Bronco."
McNealey has come to accept her fate as the wife to a man with a memorable mohawk.
"I don’t know what I would think without it now," she said.
They've spent thousands of hours and dollars on Pugh's hair, and they keep thinking one day they'll stop.
But then, they don't.
"It gets a little tiring sometimes," said Pugh. "But it’s pretty awesome. I love the peoples faces, the kids, the...just the excitement everybody gets when they see it."
One more masterpiece of Pugh's mane is complete. You might catch a glimpse of his hair-raising fandom at Game 5 in the stands of Ball Arena.
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