City Stadium
What trip to Green Bay would be complete without a visit to the old City Stadium? Not this one that’s for sure. Add to that a visit to the former homes of Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr and today sure was a lesson in the history of the Green Bay Packers.
Our first stop was by the old coach’s home. Talk about modest to say the least. This is a regular home in a regular street right next door to what I’m sure were very regular neighbours. It’s amazing how different things were back then. There wasn’t a Lamborghini, Helicopter or bunny filled Jacuzzi in sight.
Standing there it was difficult to comprehend that one of the winningest, most successful, most well known coaches the world over lived the same as everybody else. I did an interview with a radio station back home in Melbourne last week and for the most part we spoke about Lombardi and the contribution he has made not just to the Packers or the NFL but the art of coaching itself.
Not far around the corner was the old home of Bart Starr. If not for the tennis court I could say the same about his house. Just another regular home next to a dozen other regular homes. Neither were what you’d expect two of the most revered names in Green Bay Packer history to have lived in.
Our final stop for the day was via the Old City Stadium.
The funny thing about history, for me at least, is that I can’t often believe what I see in front of me. I don’t doubt it, I just have trouble imagining it. City Stadium is a prime example. Knowing what I know about football today it’s difficult for me to imagine that City Stadium is in fact anything more than a regular High School Football field. I know that it is steeped in history and even if I didn’t, there are enough signs there to tell me so. It’s just so unbelievable.
If ever there was a real life indication that Green Bay, as an NFL town, is 1 in a million, this is most certainly it. It represents the beauty that is Green Bay, the mystique of the good ol’ days and the very reason so many people hold this team so close to their hearts.
I’m a foreigner who didn’t grow up in a Packer household, with a Packer crazy Dad and family get togethers every time the team played. My Grandfather wasn’t a Packer fan, didn’t get season tickets 40 years ago and didn’t go to school with Vince or any of his children. I don’t recall the Ice Bowl but for what I’ve read, I’m not on the waiting list and I will probably never own a share in the team.
Unlike everybody we have met on this trip so far there isn’t a single Packer story that anybody in my family could tell.
I’m not the fan who hasn’t missed a home game in the last 23 years. I’m the fan who had to wait 23 years just to get here in the first place.
I call myself a new generation Packer fan. Of all of the sports to follow in the world I chose to follow this one. Of the 32 teams to support in the league I chose to support this one. Nothing about my being a fan had anything to do with where I have come from or how I grew up.
With the world at our fingertips 6 months ago we chose to move here. There are thousands of other fans all over the world that have chosen to support this team in what I’m sure are very similar circumstances, for very similar reasons.
Touring Green Bay the way we did today drove all of that home for me. This is a special place with special people and it deserves it’s place in the history books. The size, the memories and the 80 odd years of stories that fill this little city will stay with those who tell them forever. Days like today make me feel like a good old fashioned fan too. Like I know what is going on. Like I “get it”.
Today I got to taste what used to be and that, like all of the memories you have, like all of the stories I am told, with big smiles and recollections of those past, will stay with me forever.
