February 10, 2023
Hashknife Pony Express riders transporting the football on the Holbrook to Payson route on Feb.1. (Photos/Navajo County Sheriff’s Office)
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The annual Hashknife Pony Express was extra special this year as it became a part of Super Bowl history when Gary Hayes Jr., a BNSF locomotive engineer based in Winslow, was selected to deliver one of the game balls in Glendale. Hayes was selected among a team of Pony Express riders to run the final leg of the approximate 180-mile journey from Holbrook to Scottsdale. When he arrived at the Museum of the West in Scottsdale, he handed off the team’s special freight—a ball for Super Bowl LVII—for the Feb. 12 game.