How I became a Green Bay Packer Fan

I receive many emails asking, "How in the world did you Packers fan?" I guess I ask that question, because I'm from Wisconsin, I live in Texas, and was born in Oklahoma. For me, it all started with my dad. My father was born in Texas and moved to Oklahoma, as a teenager. In the 60's, everyone who lived in Oklahoma and Texas are automatically assumed to be a fan of the Dallas Cowboys. But not my dad. He liked the brand of football the Packers played in the 60's and loved how Vince Lombardi coached. He said, "It would be the third attempt and one, and everyone knew that the Packers are going to run the ball with either Paul or Jim Taylor Hourning. However, Bart Starr would take the snap, drop back to pass , and shoot for the first down or a touchdown. "And then my dad would say," that took guts, and Lombardi guttiest players and stronger to play in the NFL. "As a kid, I loved hearing my father talk about the Packers and the glory days of the 60's, the NFL championships and the first two Super Bowls.

I was listening to all these great stories about the Packers as a child in the 1970 and I was too young to ever see great Packer teams of the 60's. The Packers then were not near where the great team that once had been. They reached the playoffs once in 70 years - in 1972 after the passing of John Brockington corridor. But in the NFC divisional playoff lost 16-3 to the Washington Redskins. The rest of the 70 for the Packers was marred by mediocre teams and a coach, Dan Devine, who ruined the Packers in the coming years with an office that did to the Rams in Los Angeles for an aging quarterback John Hadi in 1974. The trade costs the Packers five packages of projects, a first, second and third in the 1975 draft, and first and third in the 1976 draft. In my opinion, this is the key to the team so bad from 1975 to late 1980. The Packers will not recover for a very long time.



But still, no matter how bad they were, I was a fan of the Green Bay Packers. You know you are true fan of a team, because when your team loses, you get sick in the stomach and are depressed for several days. I suffered in the season of the 70 and 80 per season, I grew up in Oklahoma, and saw all my friends were all fans of the Dallas Cowboys, to see how your team has won games, won in the playoffs, and play in the Super Bowl.

The bright spot of the 80's when the Packers to the playoffs in the strike-shortened season of 1982. Green Bay hosted its first home playoff game since the 1967 Ice Bowl and the Packers defeated the St. Louis Cardinals in the snow 41-16 in the first round of the playoffs in the NFC. The Packers then moved to Texas Stadium to take on the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC divisional playoff, they lost 37-26. I did not realize at the time, but playing the Dallas Cowboys at Texas Stadium will be something that would not be very nice to the Packers and their fans in the coming years.

I remember being sad and angry every year as the Packers disappoint. But they never gave up, and I always proclaim that the next year, "The package would be back." But it never did. And while they were losing year after year, for me, there's something special about the Packers. There was the whole story, Lambeau Field, Green Bay and the city is smaller than an NFL team. And I always dreamed of attending a Packers game at Lambeau Field.

The closest I had ever been to Lambeau Field in 1973, when he was 7 years old. While traveling to Escanaba, Michigan, with my family, we went through Green Bay, Lambeau Field stopped by, took pictures, walked around for a few minutes, then put it back in the car and went. I remember thinking that was the last time I would have to close the legendary stadium. However, it would not be the last time I'd see Lambeau Field, some 28 years later, I'd be there again.