The late Jim Riehle, according to his son, was so much more than a Korean War veteran and the mayor of Lafayette, Indiana for nearly a quarter century. He was a Cubs fan. And maybe even that’s understating it.

He was the ultimate “wait till next year guy, his son described, in talking to Indy Star writer Dave Bangert at his parents’ gravesite off Schuyler Avenue on Thursday, in the town where his pops once presided.

He recently flocked to the cemetery, with a bucketful of ice cold Chicago-style beer and a vintage cigar, to celebrate with the late, elder Riehle — as happy as any baseball fan in America. It was there he gleefully spoke to Bangert about the team and his family’s love for them, while the sweat of Old Style cans dripped on the marble headstone.

“I’m feeling good. How could I not be?” He told him. “The relief is unbelievable. I had to come out here and be with my dad to share it, you know?”

Jim passed away in 2007, and never got to see a Cubs’ World Series title during his lifetime.

“If you believe in those things, I knew he was up there watching and saw it, so he knows the Cubs won. He’s hanging out with the Cubs greats. I hope he got to see that game with them.”

“Again. If you believe in that sort of thing. I tend to.”

More from the Indy Star:

Mick Riehle planted a World Champions flag next to the headstone. His cousins signed a message on a Cubs batting helmet: “Uncle Jim, today is your day!”

Riehle set up a blue camp chair to finish his cigar and talk through the Cubs’ chances to win more in the next few years.

“That lineup is young enough,” Mick Riehle said.

Same time next year at St. Boniface Cemetery, then?

“Why not?” he said. “Why not next year, too?”

Jim Riehle served in the United States Navy on the battleship the USS Wisconsin, where he and his fellow sailors aboard supported the South Korean army in their struggle against North Korean forces, as well as U.S. Marines on the ground.