GARY LOVE
Hicksville, NY

Gary first became a Packer fan watching the Packers play on television while staying in a motel on a vacation in 1957. The team was not doing well and he decided the team needed a loyal fan. Thus was born another Packer fan from afar. He met Ray Nitschke at an autograph session in New York City and Ray told him if he was a real fan he should come to Green Bay and see a game. In 1983, Gary decided to do just that. His first game here was an alumni game and Ray invited him to the party the night before. He brought a football to the party and had all the Lombardi players sign his football that he proudly displays in his Packer family room in his Long Island home along with about every souvenir a person could buy over many years as a fan. He was hooked.

In his many trips to Green Bay, Gary has made many friends here. He has found his favorite restaurants and motels and brings New York bagels and other treats from New York to all his friends here in Green Bay. Gary loves Green Bay and over the years has also become a fan of our city. He comes to at least two games a year and brings a contingent of New Yorkers who he has converted to loyal Green Bay Packer fans.

Gary is also the poet laureate of the Green Bay Packers. He has written poems about Ray Nitschke, Bart Starr, Brett Favre, and Red Cochran. He has become friends with all of these men and also with the Green Bay police as he himself was a policeman in those early days of his coming to the Green Bay football games. He has become a close friend of the Nitschke family and was a pallbearer for Red CochranÕs funeral. He tailgates with his many fiends here in Green Bay and indeed is an extraordinary and dedicated fan.

Submitted by friends Pat Cochran, Darlene Kramer, Amy Nitschke Klaas, Doug Warpinski, Jerry Watson.