Celebrate When a Chicago Fan Trying to Catch a Ball Didn't Give the City Nightmares

(PHOTO: Screen shots from video at NFL.com)

Chicago sports has a colorful history of fans trying to catch balls that fly into the stands with most of it centered around one particularly tortured incident in 2003.

But not all of these fan-meets-ball moments come with tragic consequences. In fact, the mid-air grab of an extra-point kick that Mike Pantazis made at a Chicago Bears-Green Bay Packers game in 1995 is getting the celebration it so richly deserves.

»H/T to DNAInfo Chicago; Check Out Their Interview With Mike Pantazis

On Sept. 11, 1995, Pantazis jumped in daring—some might argue, stupid—fashion from the Soldier Field stands to snatch a point-after kick by the Bears and land unhurt on the concrete below. Since that time, Pantazis’s stunt from a potentially dangerous height has been highlighted by ESPN, the NFL and even in a 2011 short documentary, Off Into Space (the title is taken from something Monday Night Football broadcaster Dan Dierdorf says while narrating a replay of Pantazis’s catch during the game).

Pantazis and his band, Some Years Later, will celebrate the 20th anniversary of his catch at 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, at The Abbey Pub, 3420 W. Grace St. Pantazis, who also will be celebrating his 49th birthday that day, will be giving away autographed photos of his Soldier Field feat.

»WATCH: Check Out the Mini-Documentary Off Into Space at Vimeo

In case you don’t remember the catch, check out the video from this ESPN segment, which shows Pantazis’s act of derring-do (something parents used as an example of derring-don’t) and his post-game interview.

(Note to kids and young adults in the audience: Ask your parents to talk to you about the mid-1990s if the ponytail-half mullet ’do and curious sideburns Pantazis sports leaves you with unsettling questions and feelings.)