Free Tickets to Super Bowl XLII Given to Injured War Vets

The University of Phoenix scored a touchdown with Iraq war veterans, giving eight coveted tickets to Sunday's Super Bowl XLII to a group of wounded service members, MyFOXPhoenix.com reports.

"Being part of it - it'll be nice," veteran Brent Bretz told MyFOXPhoenix.com.

Bretz has undergone 57 surgeries, and his recovery from his war wounds is still not complete. He returned from Iraq in 2005, as did Robert Bartlett, another ticket recipient, who said he was "pretty surprised" by the gift. "It's the chance of a lifetime," Bartlett told the TV station.

It all began when Bretz's mother, Kathy Pearce, met with the university's Veterans' Affairs office seeking help with tickets for her group, Heroes to Hometowns, which helps injured vets readjust to life back home.

"If you ask, sometimes you will receive, and I approached them and said, 'Hey, these guys would love to go to the Super Bowl,' and they said, 'What if we give you eight tickets?'" Pearce said in the MyFOXPhoenix.com report.

Patrick Sutliff, who oversees the university's Veterans' Affairs office, said the university was more than willing to help secure the tickets, which have a face value of $700 each.