AL GREASON
Wauwatosa, WI

It all started back in 1941 for my brother, Al Greason, when he was twelve years old (one of a Coleman, Wisconsin farm family of 12). His brother lived on East Walnut Street in Green Bay, just a few blocks from the old East Side City Stadium. Al was curious about how little Green Bay could compete with the likes of Chicago, Detroit and New York. His brother took him to the Detroit game. Don Hutson was the biggest star. That year the packer lost only one regular season game. As he learned more about the team, he was even more amazed to find that there was no big, rich owner. Ordinary fans as stockholders owned the team. This further solidified his support for the unique Green Bay Packers.

I remember when Al was absent from our usual traditional Thanksgiving Day dinner on the farm in 1949. He had gone, on a cold day with snow flurries, to see the fundraising intersquad game in Green Bay - a game to save the Packers. "I knew I had to be there," he remembered. In 1950, with the first $25 saved from selling pickles from the quarter acre patch allotted him by his father, he bought a share of stick in the Packers. The framed stock certificate is still a prized possession. He remembers that stockholder meetings often drew less than 25 people in those lean years. In 1956 he bought his first season tickets to games at the old, east side City Stadium -- that year the record was 4-8. The next two years, in the new City Stadium, the record was 4-19. Then Lombardi came to town.

Because of the generosity of his Green Bay brother, Al saw his first games, "Don't pay me back," his brother said, "just in the future, take someone new to a Packer game if you can." From 1970 onward Al has provided tickets for fans desperate to witness a game at Lambeau. His own season tickets eventually grew to thirteen so he often gave tickets to total strangers when he heard them express their hopes. "It is our dream someday to take the kids to an actual Packer game at Lambeau." A week later four tickets arrived and their dream was fulfilled. The children had a new interest forever. This year seven happy fans had their first "Lambeau Experience." About 140 have done so since 1970. There were times when Al and his friends stayed home so that others could have the "Lambeau Experience." They always enjoyed listening to the excited reports of the first timers. Al has been retired for 14 years and lives on the shores of Lake Noquebay near Crivitz, Wisconsin. Through thick and thin, last place and first place, sweltering heat and fourteen below, he was there at Lambeau. He kept his promise to his late brother and became the complete Packers fan.

Submitted by his sister, Joyce Schilling.