MEHLVILLE — It started with a group of Mehlville High School grads chatting on Facebook, wondering whatever happened to super fan Tim "Ozzy" Osborn.

For more than 25 years Osborn had been a fixture at Panther games, but no one had seen him recently.

What they learned was heartbreaking. The mentally disabled man had fallen on hard times. Osborn had lost his job and apartment and was living on the streets in downtown St. Louis.

"Somebody said they'd brought him some coats and blankets a few years ago, but I felt as a group, we could do more," said Curtis Breville, 39, a former neighbor of Osborn's.

The grads started looking for Osborn. They contacted an alum who was a city police officer, and asked him to be on the lookout. Another grad drove around to the places where Osborn had been spotted.

When they found him several months later near Busch Stadium, one of them gave Osborn a room in his home. Another helped him apply for benefits and paid for medical exams he hadn't had in years. They got him a part-time job.

Now the group helping Osborn has grown to more than 400, and they're working to make sure he's never homeless again.

Osborn, 53, never knew he had so many fans.

"I was really hoping I would get off the streets, and I'm just so grateful that I did," Osborn said, tears streaming down his cheeks.

A FAN IS BORN

Osborn grew up in a middle-class neighborhood filled with brick-and-frame ranch homes situated a few blocks from Mehlville High. About a dozen boys would get together every day to play baseball, football or hockey, and Osborn hung around with them.

"It was great having friends to pal around with," said Osborn. "We were a little like 'Our Gang.'"

One of those boys was Ken Stevenson, now 50, of Affton, who recently gave Osborn a place to stay.

As they grew older, Osborn continued his education at Southview High in the Special School District while most of his friends went to Mehlville. Stevenson said Osborn kept up with them by coming to watch them play sports.

"Ozzy was part of the reason I wanted to play sports for Mehlville because he'd talk like it was the equivalent of playing for the Cardinals or something," Breville said.

At the games, Osborn regularly led a cheer, "Down by the river," that made the fans go wild, Breville said.

"He'd get down in the front and boy, he'd just belt it out," he said. "Everyone would hang on his words and repeat after him."

ON THE STREET

After Osborn graduated from high school, he got a job as a food service worker at the Jefferson Barracks Veterans Administration Hospital. In 1996, his job was eliminated, but Osborn was offered a position at the John Cochran VA Medical Center in midtown St. Louis.

Osborn said he got into a falling out with his father, who helped him manage his finances, about whether he should take the transfer. Osborn, then 40, didn't want to take it — and he ran off.

Stevenson said Osborn's family looked for him, but had no idea where he'd gone or what had happened to him. Osborn's father was so upset, he refused to speak about it, said Johanna Taylor, Osborn's aunt.

"Very quickly I stopped asking because it was such a hurtful subject to him," she said.

Osborn said he moved to the city to see if he could change his luck, but when he couldn't find work, he ended up living under a bridge at Jefferson and Chouteau avenues with four other people.

"We were kind of like a little family because we supported each other," he said. "The wintertime was really awful, though."

Despite his desperate situation, Osborn said he never used drugs or drank alcohol, and he refused to beg. Instead he took whatever temporary work he could get. On the weekends, he picked up castoffs from Flower Row, and sold them for a dollar each on the street.

He used some of the money for bus fare to see Mehlville High games whenever he could. During one yearlong stretch, he was able to afford a one-room apartment, but things fell apart again.

Then on Aug. 1, as Osborn waited outside Busch Stadium hoping to catch a glimpse of the game through a gate, his fortune changed. He recognized a familiar face, Jim Joyner, who he knew from the high school and was now a police officer.

Joyner told Osborn that people were looking for him and wanted to help.

OPERATION OZZY

The Mehlville grads chatting on Facebook formed a group — Operation Ozzy.

They reached out to alums who could offer Osborn free eye care or dental work. A lawyer agreed to set up a trust fund to handle donations for him. They helped him get a job at Fortel's Pizza Den in Affton as a dishwasher, and are trying to find him full-time work.

The group reunited Osborn with his father, who is living in a nursing home, and his aunt takes him to see his dad every other week. Osborn also talked, via e-mail, to his only sibling, a sister who lives in Texas.

Sharon Hopman, 41, of St. Peters got involved when her brother, Breville, told her Osborn's story.

"He called me on the phone, and my heart just sank," she said.

She agreed to pick up Osborn every Tuesday and Thursday to apply for assistance, go to doctor's visits and for other appointments. So far, she's been able to get approval for job training and food stamps. She said Osborn's exact disability has never been diagnosed, and that has been a roadblock to him getting more help. She's paying for him to get a medical evaluation.

Osborn still has a positive attitude even after living on the street for 12 years, she said.

"He's a really beautiful soul and, a lot of us, all we have is love in our hearts for the man," she said.

Stevenson said people ask him all the time why he would open his home to a homeless guy.

"But he's not just any homeless guy, he's Tim," Stevenson said.

The grads have been meeting every two weeks at Mehlville High's library to discuss their progress. They've turned the football game Oct. 23 against St. Louis University High into a benefit for Osborn. Regular tickets are $2, but Operation Ozzy will be selling tickets for $10, with $8 going to Osborn's trust fund.

At the game, a specially painted portion of the bleachers will be unveiled; it'll reserve a seat for Osborn forever. The grads say it will be a chance to pay homage to a guy who's been a loyal fan for generations.

Osborn described the fundraiser as a "total thrill."

"It's going to be a special night for me," he said.