Super Bowl new to an old neighborhood - Ingles

You're just in time for the Lucas Oil Stadium neighborhood tour, where we find out how many different things can be within 12 blocks of a Super Bowl. It might be winter, but for this Roman numeral, everything is close to everything.

The New York Giants are staying three blocks north, the New England Patriots 10 blocks northwest. The statehouse is four blocks away, with the sign on the lawn, "Loud noises may be heard evening hours to deter pest birds." Presumably they don't mean the Baltimore Ravens.

This must be the first Super Bowl with a bean factory in the south parking lot. That would be N.K. Hurst, a three-generation family business in that location since 1947, and not about to move, even when authorities unsuccessfully tried to sue under eminent domain when Lucas Oil was built.

So there it sits, this brick bastion of defiance, in the very shadows of Super Bowl XLVI and its hulking stadium.

"It was about 18 months of tough moments, but the public really stepped up for us," said company president Rick Hurst, a football fan who turns his parking lot over to tailgaters for Colts games.

"The NFL has been great to work with. They wanted us to move out for the week, but we just can't do that. Dry beans sell in the winter. So we're closing for a four-day weekend next Friday."

Elvis Presley played his last concert 12 blocks away. Mike Tyson went to prison for raping a woman in room 606 of the Canterbury Hotel, four blocks away. Next to the Canterbury is St. Elmo steakhouse, in business since 1902. The Web site lists all the famous names who have dined there, including 10 Super Bowl winning coaches, not to mention the Rolling Stones, President Kennedy and O.J. Simpson.

The NCAA passes judgment on naughty schools from its offices four blocks northwest. Seven blocks east is Lilly pharmaceutical company, which gives the world — and possibly some coaches — Prozac.

Two blocks east is the Slippery Noodle Inn, oldest bar in Indiana.

"We've been a bar since 1850, 13 years longer than Thanksgiving has been a holiday," said Hal Yeagy, owner with wife Carol. "We've had a couple of murders inside the place. The last one was 1953, so it's been awhile. They did shut down the brothel at that point."

John Dillinger's gang hung around the bar, and Yeagy can show you bullet holes in one of the walls. In the basement, supplies are stored in small rooms where slaves once hid on the underground railroad, headed north for freedom.

Peyton Manning drops by to listen to music after games and Carol said he often requests "Rocky Top." You can take the boy out of Tennessee . . .

They'll be open 7 a.m. Super Sunday, bullet holes and all.

Within two blocks of this Super Bowl, you can buy welding supplies, get an estimate for collision repair, catch a Greyhound bus, see the nation's first railroad union station.

Or you can go to mass.

Not 800 yards from the Super Bowl and all its secular excess sits St. John the Evangelist church, there since 1871. Right outside its door is the Super Bowl Village, where the music is loud, the beer flows and the customers line up to ride the zipline, which basically is getting attached to a wire nearly 100 feet in the air and then flying down the street for 800 feet.

The proverbial Road to the Super Bowl? "We're right at the front door," Rev. Rick Nagel mentioned. He will keep his church open all week, with friendly volunteer greeters and three masses Super Sunday. A sign outside says "If you thought the zip line was a thrill … Come inside and spend some time with JESUS!!!"

Come inside and first thing you see is a giant cutout of Benedict XVI, for photo ops. What says Super Bowl more than posing with the pope?

Given behavior you see at this event, a handy church is not a bad idea. "The line for confession hasn't been long," Rev. Nagel said. "But maybe later in the week."

You know what they say is key at a Super Bowl. Location, location, location.

This article was written by Mike Lopresti and appeared in USA Today.