The 66-year story of the New England Patriots has been something of a rags-to-riches tale.

They struggled with mediocre results in early years before rising to the top of the pack in the 1985-86 season to tackle the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XX.

Even then, it wasn’t until 2002 that the Pats finally brought the Vince Lombardi Trophy back to Boston. That kicked off a golden era under quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick, during which the team secured five additional Super Bowl victories through 2019.

Brady and Belichick have since moved on, and a largely different Patriots team now heads to California to face the Seattle Seahawks this Sunday in the 60th Super Bowl.

The team has undergone countless changes over the decades, but one thing remains the same — the avid Mainers who’ll be cheering on their New England heroes. Fans will be either at home or out with fellow fans, as they garb themselves in red, white and blue.

Here’s a look — curated from our Newspapers.com archives — at some of those enthusiasts from four past Super Bowls.

Super Bowl XX — Jan. 26, 1986

Posing for a Morning Sentinel photographer in the days leading up to the 20th Super Bowl outside her Skowhegan home, Betty Williams sported a shirt depicting the classic “Pat Patriot” logo, with a twist — Pat had hands on a shovel instead of a football, with the words “Berry the Bears” above him.

Williams also held a bandaged-up teddy bear wearing the number 72, made up to represent Bears lineman William “The Refrigerator” Perry. Signs decorated her front yard, one of them inscribed with “Go Pats / Skin the Bears.”

Local businesses got into the fervor. Alfio’s Restaurant & Lounge in Augusta invited people to celebrate “Alfio’s style” with hot dogs steamed in beer and the $7.95 Patriots Porterhouse Special. The second annual “Hotel Rumford Superbowl Sunday” cost $10 but got you 25-cent beers, 50-cent mixed drinks and all the food you could eat. Those who bought a 25-inch-or-larger color TV from Appliance Warehouse in Auburn scored a free party platter.

Then came game day. The Lewiston Daily Sun rooted for the Pats — who had an 11-5 record as the team faced off against the 15-1 Bears — noting in an editorial that despite New England’s underdog status, it was capable of pulling off a surprise: “Were we the wagering sort, we’d think about it a good while before betting a hard-earned buck against the Patriots — and then put the buck back in the wallet.”

Things started off strong. The Lewiston Daily Sun took a photo of Scott Cameron of Auburn cheering as the Pats recovered a fumble by the Bears in the first quarter. But that quarter ended with Chicago ahead 13-3, foreshadowing the rest of the game.

“The game’s not over til the fat lady sings,” Charlotte Gaudette of Saco told a Journal Tribune reporter while rooting for the Patriots at The Stadium restaurant in Biddeford. She and a friend continued to cheer into the third quarter, despite the Pats trailing by three touchdowns.

Elsewhere at The Stadium, Dorothy Letourneau wasn’t cheering. “I’m a Bears fan. Why do you think I’m quiet?,” she asked a reporter. “When you’re in the minority, you sit in the corner and close to the door.”

A second photo of Gaudette reflected her disappointment at her team’s eventual 46-10 loss. “When the music finally ended … the Chicago Bears had defeated the Pats with the biggest point spread (in) the Super Bowl’s 20-year history,” the Journal Tribute lamented.

Fortunately, the lady would sing again. The Pats would be back, and then some.

Super Bowl XXXI — Jan. 26, 1997

Eleven years later, New England was on the rise again, and fans thrilled to see the Patriots defeat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 20-6, in the American Football Conference Championship on Jan. 12, 1997 — securing the Patriots’ place in that year’s Super Bowl.

Mark Thibodeau of Waterville, among those who packed into the Pointe Afta Sports Bar in Winslow to watch the game, had license plates reading NE-PATZ and said he was a Pats fan “right down to my boxers.”

Polled by the Sun-Journal about who they thought would win, six people went with the Patriots, and six others with the Packers.

Lennie Asselin expected up to 35 people at his Lewiston house on game day, beginning with an 11 a.m. breakfast and followed by a card-playing tournament, mini-tailgating party and pregame party, all before kickoff. At halftime 30 pizzas were due to arrive from Sam’s Italian Sandwich Shoppe.

“Patriots fever is alive and well in northern New England, and Lewiston-Auburn is no exception,” the Sun-Journal reported on Jan. 26, 1997. “Devoted and not-so-devoted fans are walking the Patriots walk, talking the Patriots talk, wearing the T-shirts and hats, and generally planning to eat and drink a lot in front of the television.”

Al Knowlton and his son Andy, then a seventh grader at Mahoney Middle School in South Portland, managed to overcome a significant obstacle in order to be there together in person, where they watched the action happen from the nosebleed section of the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans. Bill Nemitz, visiting The Big Easy himself to cover the event for the Portland Press Herald, wrote movingly about the Knowltons’ journey.

Unfortunately, as had happened exactly 11 years before to the day, the Patriots lost. This time, by a 35-21 score.

The Packers won, just as they had in the first two Super Bowls, continuing a legacy. Meanwhile, the Patriots’ legacy had become losing both its shots at the big game, Press Herald sports columnist Steve Solloway wrote.

But the Pats’ second bid for the Lombardi trophy couldn’t be so simply cast aside, he pointed out to readers: “Eleven years ago you turned off your television in the first half. Did you do that Sunday night?

“Did you call the kids back in from the dining room and pop ‘Toy Story’ in the VCR? Did you grab your dog and the leash and take a really long walk?

“You didn’t, because this Patriots team deserved your attention and maybe even your heart,” Solloway wrote. “They fell behind, 10-0, but before you could reach for the remote control, they changed your mind.”

Five years later, the Patriots would change minds the world over.

Super Bowl XXXVI — Feb. 3, 2002

When they returned to the Louisiana Superdome, now to face the St. Louis Rams, the third time in the Super Bowl proved to be the charm for the Pats.

“The best wins for fans are the ones that are unexpected, and that is what has made this entire NFL season a joy for Patriots fans,” sports columnist Travis Lazarczyk wrote in the game day edition of the Kennebec Journal. “If anyone tells you they saw the Patriots in the Super Bowl right from the start, take their car keys.

“This has been a season of magic,” he added.

There was more optimism in Patriots Nation this time around. In a “who’s who” poll of Mainers, including then-Gov. Angus King and Waterville philanthropist Harold Alfond, six people predicted the Pats would claim the Lombardi trophy, and three leaned toward the Rams.

Press Herald sports writer Mike Lowe, down in New Orleans capturing the pregame fervor, asked a local fortuneteller to weigh in. Jennifer Devlin foretold that the Patriots’ pacekicker’ Adam Vinatieri “will be a major, major factor” in the game, and that the Pats “have a chance to win.”

Devlin called it.

“The basement in John Loiko’s house exploded Sunday night shortly after 10 p.m.,” the Kennebec Journal’s Dan McGillvray reported. “Guests leaped from chairs and yelled in a round of celebratory harmony as New England Patriots kicker Adam Vinatieri booted the football 48 yards for a clutch game winning score to crush the St. Louis Rams, 20-17, as time ran out in Superbowl XXXVI.”

Whereas newspaper photos had shown scenes of disappointed fans in 1986 and 1997, this time they reflected elation.

“That’s the way football should be played,” Gertrude Reilly Pollis exclaimed as she watched the game’s finale at Bay Square, a senior center in Yarmouth where she lived. “Right to the last second. Rejoice! Rejoice!”

Receptionist Mary Curran said naysayers would have to “eat their words. The Patriots are going to get respect, that’s what.”

Charles Schaeffer, an 89-year-old retired Army major, bristled at Mariah Carey’s national anthem rendition: “These young singers. It’s not that she can’t sing, but this modern generation, they feel they can sing it any way they want.”

It was the time of all times to be a Pats fan. Mainers flocked to stores to pick up Patriots championship T-shirts and other merchandise. The day after the game, Bill McCloskey of Portland waited about six hours outside Olympia Sports in the Maine Mall for the arrival of Pats Super Bowl caps, but he said he didn’t mind.

“I’ve been a New England fan for so long and I’ve been disappointed so many times,” he told reporter Allan Drury. “When they won, I went outside my house and started screaming ‘Patriots! Champs!'”

By that morning, The Shirt Factory had turned out 90,000 units.

“It was quite a sigh of relief,” co-owner Marc Brown said. “If the game hadn’t gone the way it did, it not only would have meant the Patriots lost, but it would have meant we wouldn’t have been able to print the shirts. It would have been lose-lose. Instead, it’s a win-win.”

Mainers had traveled to games for decades to watch the Patriots, and on April 10 the Patriots came to Maine, Lombardi trophy in hand. Owner Robert Kraft, who visited alongside players Vinatieri, Lawyer Milloy and Bobby Hamilton, were first greeted by about 4,000 people at a rally in Bangor, followed by between 25,000 and 30,000 at a ticker tape parade at Monument Square in Portland.

One Noble High School senior had arrived at 6:30 a.m. to secure a front-row spot by the stage.

“This means everything and more to us,” said Ben Bragdon (not to be confused with the Sun Journal’s managing editor). “I can’t find the words to describe how I feel right now. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing, to be able to say I was here today. What a day to miss school.”

Check out photos from both the New Orleans game and the Portland gathering.

Super Bowl LIII — Feb. 3, 2019

In 1997 the Patriots’ Super Bowl legacy was comprised of two losses. Going into 2019 the team had secured five victories, cementing its place in championship history.

As usual, the hype was intense leading up to the Pats’ showdown with the Los Angeles Rams.

“Here’s a story about some dogs named Brady” sang a headline in the Feb. 3, 2019, Portland Press Herald. Gillian Graham reported that Saco alone had 18 dogs named after Tom Brady. Lynn Copeland said she’d named her puppy as such because he was “handsome and tall and strong. He was a really good guy. The only person we could think of like that was Tom Brady.”

South Portland’s Elizabeth Paradis named her Pomeranian after wide receiver Julian Edelman. “He’s a frisky little thing. He’s very protective,” she explained. “I feel like the name fits him.”

With drinks a big part of Super Bowl tradition, the Press Herald asked five Portland sports bars to come up with cocktails of a Patriots theme. Unlike the plethora of Brady-named canines, none of the drinks were named for The GOAT (Greatest Of All Time, for those not in the know).

The Bar, Binga’s, Brunos, Fore Play and Rivalries delivered, with concoctions like the Edelman Energizer and the Edelman-Tini. Also, the Burkhead Hill, named for running back Rex Burkhead. And for the coach, The Belichick and The Belichick Redux.

Elsewhere, a sign outside the Federated Church in Skowhegan stated that “God doesn’t have a favorite team but the pastor does!!” The Rev. Mark Tanner, who’d successfully called the Pats’ final score in the Jan. 21 AFC championship game, predicted the Pats would win, 34-24.

“I think it’ll be a good game, but I’m not necessarily thinking it’s going to be a close game,” he said. “They want to prove that they’re not old, that they’re talented.”

This time, the reverend was a little off. The Patriots did win, 13-3, in the Superbowl’s lowest-scoring game ever. There was only one touchdown, which didn’t land until the fourth quarter.

“This championship wasn’t pretty, but it may just be the sweetest,” Mike Lowe’s Press Herald headline opined. He went on to write, “in an uneven season in which everyone outside of New England predicted the end of the New England dynasty, the Patriots only enhanced it.”

Columnist Travis Lazarczyk recalled how times had changed since he caught his first Patriots game, at age 8 in 1982, a season New England’s two wins were overshadowed by 14 losses.

“The Patriots were bad. Really bad,” he recalled. “It didn’t matter. I was hooked.”

Fast forward to 2019, where the prior 18 years had been “a complete reset for the franchise,” Lazarczyk wrote. A far cry from the mediocre days, of the team being a subject of ridicule both on and off the field.

The Patriots’ story is an inspiring one — from the constant underdog that disappointed fans in Maine and beyond, to the six-time Superbowl champions who justified the faith of those fans.

Fans like Charlotte Gaudette, who was going to keep cheering until a certain lady sang. Like Mark Thibodeau, a Pats supporter down to his boxers and license plate. Like Al and Andy Knowlton, who witnessed their team’s loss in person but had an amazing father-son bonding experience. Like Ben Bragdon, who picked the best day ever to skip school.

Will the New England dynasty continue this Sunday? Will fans cheer or lament? Either way, they’ll be loud and proud.

Tune into Super Bowl LX to see if history repeats itself once again.

Alex Lear is digital producer for the Maine Trust for Local News.

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