I'm not a Packalope or a pope. I don't paint my face green or wear a gold cape. I don't eat four brats and guzzle a six-pack of Leinies to enjoy a game. I'm just a common, ordinary Packer FANactic for 56 years. I attended my first Packer game in 1946 on my seventh birthday. My dad was a volunteer usher at old City Stadium. He called home about a half-hour before kickoff and said "It's cold out...send Jimmy with my gloves." Arriving at the gate, I was escorted to the west end zone and was seated on the field in front of the band shell. That was to be my "reserved" seat for every game until my teen years when climbing over the wooden fence along the East River became "cool".
I witnessed the struggling Packers during Curly Lambeau's last seasons, and the high hopes and disappointments under Gene Ronzani and Lisle Blackbourn. I was a high school junior when the "new" City Stadium was built. There was no waiting list for season tickets...the Packers were happy to sell tickets however they could. Along with two friends, I purchased three season tickets, paid for with my personal check, thus giving me ownership of the seats. I watched Vice President Nixon and James Arness dedicate the stadium as we beat the hated Bears. I watched in horror when the Packers under Scooter McLean self-destructed and in awe when Vince Lombardi took the reins and created the dynasty of the Sixties.
After college, military duty, job opportunities and travel resulted in my leaving Green Bay for over thirty-five years. I remained a loyal Packer fan spreading the Packer gospel around the world. Letters from home always included Packer clippings to keep me up on the news. I've listened to Packer games on crackling short-wave radios in the rice paddies of Vietnam and the jungles of Thailand. I've watched Packer games and highlights on TV in Germany, Korea and South America. I celebrated the Superbowl XXXI victory sipping champagne aboard a tall sailing ship deep in Caribbean waters. I proudly flew the Packer flag from my new home in New Mexico although we were "deep in the heart" of Dallas Cowboy country. I've plastered Packer stickers, hung Packer pennants, and passed out Packer pins from beach bars in the Caribbean to Inca trail huts in Peru to tented camps in the African Serengeti to the DMZ of Korea. I've joined mobs of green & gold fans at Packer games in Chicago, Dallas, San Diego, Kansas City, Phoenix and New Orleans. But best of all, I converted my wife into a Packer FANatic too.
When we retired three years ago, we moved back to Green Bay and enjoy watching Sherman's Packers from the same seats that I watched Lombardi's Packers 40 years ago. Life is the greatest in the home of the world famous Green Bay Packers!!!
Self nomination
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