Married to the Packers? So much so that your wedding day was on a Sunday Funday weekend, when they just happened to be playing at home? So the town was full up, and it proved hard to book a hotel for guests, easier to get to the church, and rather we had to check out an air b ‘n’ b. Even though the bride works for one of the dozen-or-so it seems, banquet-hall-type-places that also fill the square mile that holds Lambeau Field, so the location of her reception was as much a no-brainer as going for a two-point-conversion when down by two. But with her, however, no b ‘n’ b connections. I guess that was shown by the fact, that a sign greeted all those going to a super-big-time wedding reception … but that was for a different bride and groom.
To muddy the marrying waters further, my brother drove up to Green Bay with me and the gang from Milwaukee, after I first had long-haul taken the bus to his southeast part of the state, from my west-central home, to meet up with them all Friday afternoon. Got all that?
And that one more crucial step, oh yeah, somewhere in the process my brother had gained comp tickets for us for the Green Bay Packer Hall Of Fame Through All The Decades Of The NFL And Before It Was The NFL, et al. As I would see, my father’s house, since he was a Packer fan too, has many rooms, not just a hall. So before the wedding reception started nearby, guess where we ventured to.
And as I had rummaged through these rooms in the journey of my life — I’m starting to sound like the omnipresent in both the spiritual and on-field Aaron Rodgers, but more on that later — one thing that struck and stuck was how my nephew bested my one hand by a full two feet in measuring the height of a legitimate inside-from-the-cold Lambeau Leap. I’ll spell that out more soon.
For starters at The Hall Of Fame, was redeem those vouchers, so you could go vouch for the Packers fame, completed and initiated with a stand in line of the many colors of Green and Gold, and some White, too, as that’s the melding of all colors and also Reggie’s name. So forget the Silver and Black. This is the Black and Blue. I joked a bit on the many sources of such football fodder available, with the worker who was going to take at least one of our tickets, time spent at his booth since he then directed us back to the main line which led into the ticket stands inside — another room.
Past Pack picks
This gave me plenty of time to reminisce about this being the first time I’d been back to again, Lambeau et al. in a long time. Since say the ’70s. Ah those years when the Pack could not sack anyone, and often not even gain that many yards.
But in the second of my two sightings inside the famous oval stadium, the Packers rammed it down the throat of the San Diego Chargers with a great passing game that scored into the 30s, with us being in the front row, like the just passed Bob Uecker, at the 40 yard line. So members of the soon-to-be-made-defunct Chargers came past and harassed us, then would stand not be on one (bended?) knee in order to block our vision of everything but a TD pass on an Old School zig zag, like you used to do in our big backyard, in the corner of the end zone. Ramble on, going there …
The first contest was when they faced the dreaded Bears, who to get to Lambeau probably ran on some of the same highway we did, and we watched that time from near the top row in the back of the end zone — not front or the corner — beyond where kicked footballs go.
But at this time, the Lambeau oval was relatively small, with a capacity of about 55,000 and a long waiting list for tickets. And also, no hall of fame or banquet facilities to visit if you were frozen out of tickets.
But with this year’s playoffs around the corner, now we stood in line again, not to get a seat but a walk-through pass, and I said to one, for the first of three times, then others in our group, I was extraordinarily interested in where they would place my fave BIG GB QB of all their many greats, Lynn Dickey. This was back during one of those times in the NFL when throwing for 400 yards and scoring 40 points was not unusual. I would ask this question because he was not shown until way in the back forty of the hall. Represented in just the form of a single football he might have thrown. Though it’s molded and welded into silver, like hundreds of those provided here in the decisions made by the Green Bay upper brass. They had to sell lots of tickets, for games and hall, to pay for all those formerly thrown big balls, in their current big ball they now throw every day of the week, displayed between its many walls.
And those walls just kept on coming, as we rounded corners. At first our five-person party ventured around a first main room, big enough to be impressive on its own, and I at that point thought, that’s all she wrote as far as the scope of the hall. Boy was I wrong.
You rounded the corner, then entered another big room, and another, and another. And near the end you saw that there was yet another floor, a second one just as big to view. It just kept on coming, like a Reggie White bull rush.
Dickey and Majik?
But still no Dickey, I ain’t lyin’ about this. Or yet also, my second choice for favorite quarterback, The Majik Man, he of at least one magic hand. We also had to wait a bit for the obligatory Favre featurette. And then Rodgers? He didn’t show up early or big. This was about the wins here and now and Jordan Love, too, as the lowdown on this, their prime marketing strategy, is basically brilliant. Use it to promote sale of tickets for the games currently slated, too.
So the first room or two was about, what are we doing for you lately. The other rooms and adjuncts were on themes, beating some of them to death, piling on in a very good way, with all the written words by the hundreds supplied to back up each icon.
Even though heat rises, it was up top that we discovered the Ice Bowl room. This was a ball. People were encouraged to sit, so they would keep their seat and not venture away, rather than stand as the entire game with commentary played through, until you got to that climatic moment. Seeing that Old School black and white footage was worth the wait. And we all knew ahead of time what the happy ending would be.
One of the last things seen before exiting is the very long hall within a hall, where lines of three-tiered glass cases held those silver footballs and/or helmets signifying the careers of all the greats who had ever won honors such as all-pro. There were hundreds, and the space at the end was starting to fill up, so they might have to had on if there is another set of Super Bowl rings to embrace.
This was the climax of everyone wondering if their favorite Packer moment, or player, would make the cut. These thousands of clips and memorabilia all seemed to be squeezed in somewhere, if even very nearing the end, leaving no one at wit’s end.
Lap that leap
But there was also that Lambeau Leap meter, where you could test your vertical jump vs. a pole with horizontal arms to strike with your hand at each inch, starting very small and going up to about 12 feet. My tall nephew, who could have just starting playing small college basketball, but instead chose the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-rec leagues, went first and scored 10-and-a-half feet. I was eager to try, but our group moved on. I later managed to split off and double back, as I was excited but also more than a bit apprehensive about the challenge, since I could — just barely — dunk a basketball when I was in college.
So, I tried. Twice. And only registered 8-and-a-half feet! I told anyone in the family who would listen that felt I had embarrassed myself.
I thought geez, they invested some money into this hall. But there is an answer to that. The official Green Bay Packer Pro Shop, that goes way beyond golf.
There was every kind of good you could imagine, just with a Packer logo emblaze on it. Some prices were reasonable, some outrageous. They even mixed sports. Does someone really need something like a Packer golf umbrella? Or a Green Bay truck, and not from a local dealer, that has pasted on its driver’s side window, do not sit inside. (Or test drive it out of this “showroom.” I think we could have figured that.) Next to the payload, a man took his chances and yelled out “Go Colts” in invoking the opponent of the next day. Fortunately, since this was before game time, no one had quaffed enough beer to punch his lights out and end his pony show.
Our group swung around the corner and there was — another even bigger room, collectively almost as big as another football field. Too much. As we wandered out a man heard a quip from one of my family members, about that truck for sale and how it could cost some people their annual salary, and he wanted a picture of them and was talkative beyond the two-minute warning.
So, to this point there had been no November Rain. It had held off for most of this October wedding, fittingly, until toward its end, as this needn’t be a Packers-will-play-in-the-mud overall experience. Then it started coming down as we had seen the 11 men and things were now trekked toward the 11th month.