How I became a Packer FAN - What's your Story?

[IPBprez]

In several other threads throughout this Forum, I've been seeing comments about bandwagons, cheerleaders, etc.. when it comes to sports, period... So, with that line of thought, I figured I'd start the ball rolling with "how" it happened for me... here in Lambeau Midwest.

===================================

Waaay back, using the "wayback machine" (some may remember the cartoon) ----
I was in Jr High, and around here in the Sixties, all there was... was the Chicago Bears and a few other Teams to choose from... Everyone around here used to tell me we"had" to be Bears Fans if we wanted to be "in".... Well, being born politically incorrect... I said "screw that"... and chose the Team which they all really hated, especially in the Sixties... The Lombardi Team which we all rave about today...

That was about 1965/66 when that happened. In the next couple of years, I got to watch the Packers win the NFL/AFL (SuperBowl) game and the Packers made mince-meat outta those guys (dose guys - my Dad's sicilian)...

After that first SuperBowl, you'd think the NFL would learn a thing or two about the Lombardi way... when it comes to creating winning Teams.. not so... The Packers came back and had to re-train all of 'em all over again... taking SuperBowl Two by storm.... Two-in-a-row!

After that, Lombardi figured to go back east and settle down with the Redskins... and well.... history tells you the rest.

I was an impressible kid at the time, and that's when those things happen the most...

That's how.. I became a Packers Fan!

What about you?

 

[NCPackerfan]

Good story, IPB. Mine is similar in that I'm not from Wisconsin and didn't get up there until 1996 (38 yr old) when I went to my first game at Lambeau. I was born in Connecticut, but my family wasn't into Pro Football (Grandfather was a Red Sox fan). We moved to Hawaii in the mid sixties and it was there that I watched my first games. It wasn't hard to pull for the Packers back then. Bart Starr was the coolest QB and Ray Nitzchke was the baddest of the bad. After watching the Pack dismantle the Raiders in the 2nd Super Bowl, I was hooked. Moved to NC in the late 60's and continued to pull for the Pack, even in the lean years. It was pretty hard to follow the Packers back then. The Redskins were on the TV every week and of course we didn't get many national games back then. I did go see the Packers every time they played in Atlanta against the Falcons, but that didn't happen often. I was always impressed though, with how many Packer fans were at those games so far from Wisconsin and with teams that weren't very good. Packer fans are by far the most loyal fans in all of sports.

 

[eastcoastpacker]

My father and Uncle,back around '65 were Eagle fans.They called me over to show me the Packers on tv.They said that the Packers were the best in the NFL. I started to follow them.But the following year I saw on tv the packers vs the rams,Donnie Anderson had a punt blocked, and I thats when I was a die hard fan.I felt sorry for the team.Little did I know they would go onto the super bowl. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[eastcoastpacker]

Did any of you remenber the first super bowl was on NBC and CBS,but was only telavised(sp?) by CBS on both channels. I remenber changing the channels from one to the other.

 

[JohnnyBlood92]

No choice

Well when you're mother is from Madison, and you go to your first game at the age of four... you really don't have a choice. Being a Packer fan to me means so much and I probably put an unhealthy amount of emotional stock in their games. But oh well.. I love em, what can I say??

 

[Sandra]

My eighth grade (1991-92) homeroom teacher, Ms. Kane, was butt-crazy in love with Don Majkowski. She had posters of him in our science class, and would make at least one reference to him in every lesson. Sundays are big "chore" days at my parent's house, so I'd bust it to get done before noon so I could watch the games and see what all the fuss was about.. And then, one day, The Majic man was injured, and this kid came out on the field, jersey #4, and the rest was history. My family has always been Packer fans, so I guess it's in my blood.

 

[leopardmech]

My parents came to Canada from Scotland in '67 and my dad fell in love with American football and the Green Bay Packers. So when I was born I was named Vince after Coach Lombardi of course. Then as I got a little older I really thought that it was cool that I was named after him. In Canada back then we didn't get a lot of coverage of games so I was always having to read in the back of the Sports section for the Packers results. Now I have Sunday Ticket and the internet yahoo!!! All my friends growing up would jump on the bandwagons of the great teams at that time as kids do but I stuck true to my roots and cheered for this team that wasn't very good. As time went by I was then rewarded for my loyalty and "The Pack was Back". I have been to Lambeau twice but only once for a game. The Army posted me in July of '96 to Edmonton Alberta from Ontario, so we chose to drive through the states to get there. This of course meant that we could take a detour to Green Bay so I could go to the Hall of Fame and on the Stadium Tour. I felt like I was home. Then last year I finally got to my first game the Playoff game against Seattle. I figured Lambeau field in January in the playoffs can it get any better and it did they won!!!! This is my story of why I bleed green and gold.

Later
Leopardmech

 

[Zero2Cool]

My father grew up in PITT during the steel curtain years. We'd play catch all the time and I'd be 'Sterling Sharpe' whenver I made a good catch he'd call me 'Lynn Swann' which jus pis... peeved me big time. I was only 8-9 yrs old. When he move GB the steelers were not so great, neither were the Packers but it was hard not being a Packer backer living jus miles from the Stadium. Well seeing as when I dropped a ball my dad would call me 'Sterling Sharpe' I wanted to watch ever snap of every packer game with my dad to prove sharpe was good. He knew he was good he just liked to raz me about it. I'd have to say I really began watching hardcore on the Majik man's TD that was the first real instant replay, play of '89 season against the Bears that helped cap the win. From then on I have focus'd my attention to Packer games. My idol as he was drafted was Barry Sanders so I'd try to catch every lions clip and game that was possible. If more men were like him in the NFL it would be a much great place. To tink, the Packers could have got him too. ... I think

 

[jdlax]

I live in B.C., Canada, so nobody around here really has influenced my "choice" of the Packers. It's kind of a dumb story I guess, but I'll share. Back in 1991 I was 9 years old, and on the side of the road one day found a green hat. So I picked up that hat, liked the looks of it, and brought it home. My parents weren't overly pleased with me finding and wearing a hat off of the ground outside, but I relented, and after a good washing I got to keep my hat. Eventually I found out what the "G" on my new hat stood for, and I figured that I had best start following the Packers. Anyways, not long into my following of Green Bay, this Majikowski fellow, who I was told was pretty important to the team, got inured, and was replaced by this strong armed, erratic young QB. So as it turns out I came right into a pretty good period of time in Packer history. I haven't yet seen them through any terrible times, and hope I never have to.

 

[ArizonaPackerFan]

2 weeks before I was born, my parents went to a Packer game, and I heard the "Go Pack Go" chants in the womb. I've been a Packer fan ever since :wink:

Actually, I grew up in Wisconsin and became a Packer fan as a kid in the 70s. They were so bad then, but I loved them anyway since they were from my home state. As a kid and a fan of such a bad Packer team, I was amazed then to learn about the Lombardi teams and how good they once were.

I moved to Arizona in the mid 90s, but will remain a Packer fan forever. We have a couple of cool Packer Bars down here.

 

[IPBprez]

Simply amazing guys (and gals)...outstanding! Keep 'em coming!

Ya know.....!?! One person we have yet to hear from... Is that RYAN guy....

What gives... ? Hell, he built this place! Gotta be a story in there somewhere!

 

[leopardmech]

IPBprez great topic. :joy:
Hey Ryan your loyal followers are waiting.

Later
Leopardmech

 

[IPBprez]

I hear ya LM... Just wish the rest of the Membership would sign in... and give "their" stories.. We could do a book...!

 

[yooperfan]

Packer Fan

In the early 1950's the Packers were in serious financial trouble. Here in Ishpeming Michigan we had a banker and business magnate by the name of Sam Cohodas who also had strong financial dealings in Green Bay. The Packers came to him for financial help. Well old Sam bought a ton of stock and also strongarmed all the businessmen in Ishpeming to buy stock and season tickets. My best friends father was one of those businessmen. Since he and so many other people in town owned stock and tickets the Packers became an interesting topic of conversation and most people here became Packer fans. Now my father was a Lion fan so I got a slow start but because my friend and his family were Packer fans and went to games I got more and more interested in the Pack. In 1957 I bought my first pack of football cards and Billy Howten of the Packers was in that pack. He became my favorite player right then. Shortly after they began televising Packer games up hereand I could actually see them play.
This area was awash in tickets so we could always get them and Green Bay was a short 3.5 hour drive away so I have been able to go to dozens of games and through my college years my friends and I went to every home game.
My allegiance has grown stronger every year and now my wife and kids are all Packer fans and our house is adorned with a Packer Flag, numerous pictures and posters and many books.
That's my story!

 

[Ryan]

Sorry guys.

My story is pretty simple. I was born in WI. All I know about Sunday was watching the Packers. (granted I was born in 1980 so it hasn't been as long as some of you old timers) My entire family on my dad's side ( 7 bro's and sis) are all Packer fans. So I guess I was by default. My mom grew up in northern wi and my dad went to HS in GB and Eagle River, we are just plain 'ol Wisconsinites. I don't have a point in which I became a Packer fan, just always have been since I can remember watcihng TV. My first game at Lambeau was against the Cleveland Browns when I was (I would guess) 10 or 11 (I tried finding the game on google with no luck so far) I remember I told my parents I wanted to go to a real game because the browns don't have a logo on their helmet, silly me, thinking the Browns aren't a real team, oh wait :wink:

Well that's my little story, nothing fancy, just a Packer fan by birth right. I am a born and raised Wisconsinite with green and gold in my blood!

:jumpsmile:

 

[IPBprez]

Ya der hey... How about that 70's Show..eh?

 

[sixone220]

well mine was born out of hatred of another team, the minnesota vikings. it all started about 88-89 or so when i was about 8 or 9. with my dad and everyone close to the family worshipping the vikings, i did what any kid looking to rebel would do and started cheering against the team they hated. so that went on for a while and then i think it was about 91-92(someone help me out) the vikes found a wide open no name wr down the sideline to set up the gw fg. that was all it took and i wanted to packers to destroy the vikes everytime they played and it just progressed to die hard status and the next thing you know, you're 24 and you buy every piece of green and gold to fill your packers room.

 

[weeds]

Grew up in a small town 20 miles south of Green Bay. Dad was a fan going wayyyyyy back. The first Packers game I attended as a 7 year old, was the renaming of City Stadium to Lambeau Field. I remember getting into the stadium and asking Dad who the guys in Green were... haha...all we had was a black and white TV. I've always been a fan of the Pack ... living in Northeastern Wisconsin, it's almost a birthright.

 

[Madfan]

I was starting to understand the game of football and I read in the Sunday paper that a new Packers coach was hired. He was an assistant coach with the Giants. The Packers has a poor season the previous year and were talking about starting Lamar McHan (sp?) at QB, but ended up starting a 17th round pick from Alabama.

I remember the playoff lose to the Eagles that year. The rest is history. I still remember the starting line-ups from those years.

 

[CHFG]

Since i live overseas football was never a real factor in germany till the end of the eighties, beginning of the nineties. One day i zapped through the channels and immediately stopped when i saw 22 men running all over a field, chasing the one man who got the ball. As soccer is a huge sport i got "addicted" to this game from the first moment. That was in the 49-era with Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. From then on i watched every little tidbit i could get from this new sport. In the beginning i started rooting for the Bengals because i liked their quarterback Boomer Esiason. Unfortunately they fell to the 49ers in the last seconds of Superbowl XXIII. Then i became a witness of the four-game-superbowl-losing-skid from the Buffalo Bills...

But one day, sadly i cannot remember exactly when this was, i saw some crazy people running around in a football stadium with cheese on their heads ! Man... that looked funny. :wink: And so he was born... the Cheesehead from germany.

Have a nice time !
CHFG

 

[dan7]

Even though I don't live in Wisconsin, I became a fan of the Packers because:

1. The fans are loyal; Lambeau Field always sells out even when the teams have been lousy.
2. The stadium looks great (especially after the recent renovation).
3. Lots of people are Packer owners (instead of one person or one family).
4. A tradition of winning (12 NFL titles so far).

 

[sunrays]

right on Dan. That is the way I feel too. I love them Packers!!!!! :agree:

 

[IPBprez]

Uh-huh - no way - sunray - that's not how this thread goes...
Ya gotta step up and be counted like the rest.. so give....

Let's hear your story -everyone's got one... that means you, too!

And, CHFG - I have a link for the group of Germany Packerfans that our Club is already aware of.... here it is....

"Cheeseheads is cool"

 

[TOPackerFan]

My story is as follows. I was 5 years old (21 years ago, my god I'm getting old) and I was a huge sports nut. Being Canadian it always was hockey. I never really liked football but ended up watching a couple of NFL games and I was hooked (I'd always watched the CFL until then). I heard the name "Green Bay Packers" on TV and I said that has to be the coolest name I've ever heard for a sports team. No matter how bad they were I always was a Packers fan.

I also have a cousin from Berlin, WI who is a Badgers fan - so we always talk Wisconsin sports. Loved Wisconsin and Wisconsin sports ever since then.