To Absent Friends - Joe Schmidt

While out of town last week, the news arrived of the death of Pitt, College Football, and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Joe Schmidt at the age of 92.  A graduate of Brentwood High School in Pittsburgh, Schmidt became an All-American linebacker at Pitt.  In 1953, he was drafted by the Detroit Lions where he played for thirteen seasons,  During that time, the Lions were NFL champions twice, 1953 and 1957, and Schmidt played in 10 Pro Bowls and was a First Team all-pro eight times.  He was a member of the NFL's 1950's all-decade team, and was chosen a member of the NFL's 100th Anniversary All-Time Team in 2019.  He was voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the College Football Hall of Fame in 2000.  Joe Schmidt also was the head coach of the Lions from 1967-73.

Interestingly enough, as I was researching this post, I went through the back editions of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in the days following Schmidt's death of September 11, and could find no mention of his death, never mind a full scale obituary.  I admit that it was a cursory look on my iPhone, so perhaps I missed it, but if true, shame on the Post-Gazette for ignoring one of Pittsburgh's legendary athletes.

I have to say that Schmidt's salad days as one of the NFL's greatest middle linebackers, pretty much pre-date my days as a serious football fan.  He was mostly just a guy on a football card to me in my youth, but a couple of quotes of Joe Schmidt ring in my memory.

One tells of Schmidt's senior year at Pitt where he gave a pre-game talk prior to the Panthers game with Notre Dame.  "If you guys don't go out there and beat Notre Dame" Schmidt allegedly said, "so hep me, I'll come in here after the game and beat all of you."   Pitt won the game.

If that story isn't true, it should be.

In 1971, sportswriter Larry Merchant wrote a book about pro football called  "....And Every Day You Take Another Bite."  (I wrote about this book in this space back in 2011. Here is that write up.)  Schmidt was the HC for the Lions at the time and was quoted frequently throughout, and it can be said that Joe's use of the language could be described as both colorful and earthy.  In fact, the odd title of Merchant's book came from this philosophical tidbit from Joe Schmidt:

"Life is a shit sandwich, and every day you take another bite."

Even Mike Tomlin can't top that one.

RIP Joe Schmidt.

 

The Frozen Tundra

While we were planning the trip to Wisconsin described in THIS SPACE yesterday, the thought struck me that I was probably never going to be in Milwaukee ever again, and if I'm going to be there in September, then by God, I'm going to fulfill a lifelong wish and I'm going to go to Green Bay and see Lambeau Field.  Actually, the "lifelong wish" was to see a game played at Lambeau Field.  I knew that that wouldn't be possible, so a little bit of research on the interwebs revealed that the Packers offer tours of their stadium, as well as their Packers Hall of Fame, on a daily basis, so back in July we booked such a tour for Tuesday, September 10.  Obviously, on a gorgeous September day with temps in the eighties, the famed Tundra of Lambeau Field wasn't so frozen, but that took nothing away from the experience.

This post will be mainly just pictures from our tour, but a few fun facts before that.  As the 21st century dawned, the Packers found themselves in the bottom five of the NFL in terms of revenues, and they knew that something had to be done.  In 2004, Ron Wolf was hired as head of football operations, and his realization was that drastic changes had to be made to their Stadium Operations, or they might soon become the Oklahoma City or Las Vegas Packers.  So drastic renovations were undertaken, that included expanded seating with luxury suites, and a stadium atrium with dining facilities and a Packers Hall of Fame that could be open seven days a week, fifty-two weeks a year.

In the picture you see above, the lower bowl of the stadium are all bleacher type seats, and they have a capacity of 60,000.  With the renovations that Wolf effected, the stadium now seats 81,000.  The newer seats are all chairback seats and luxury suite seating.  The bleachers remain with each "seat" being eighteen inches wide.  To replace those with chairback seats (23 or 24 inches), the capacity would have been decreased by about 8,000 seats, all of them held by season ticket holders, so the bleachers were not going to go away.

So what the Packers now have in Lambeau Field is a facility that is open year round for tours, weddings, high school proms, business meetings etc, and the Packers revenues now rank in the Top Ten in the NFL.  Speaking of the tours, several millions of people have taken them over the years, from all fifty states and from over 140 foreign countries.  In our group on Tuesday, there was a gentleman from England and young couple from Switzerland who said the sole purpose of their trip to the USA was to come to Green Bay!  And ours was not the only tour group of the day. Two others were taking place simultaneously to ours, and we saw at least three others beginning by the time we left the stadium.

Also, you notice that there are no lines or markings on the field.  When the grass gets cut, and they cut it every two days, all painted lines and markings disappear.  The field is then repainted on the day before a Game Day.

So some vacation pics for your viewing pleasure.

These pics were taken from the "roof level" beneath the scoreboard in the one end zone.  People in the Suites can come out there to watch the game and pose for photos.  Not sure I'd want to stand out there on a really cold day.  As you can see, we wore the Steelers' road white jerseys.

When they take you onto the field, you go through the tunnel that the Packers go through, and they play recorded music of crowd noise.  Pretty cool.

Various photos from field level.....

(To be read in a Howard Cosell voice)

Surveying the very goal line where Jerry Kramer blocked Jethro Pugh, enabling Bart Starr to score the winning touchdown in the famous "Ice Bowl" game.

These walls are eight feet high.  

It ain't easy to do a Lambeau Leap.

Now on the the Packers Hall of Fame.....

There are Lombardi quotes throughout the place.

Yep, I am sitting at Lombardi's desk.  Probably the very phone 

he used when he told Art Rooney that Bill Austin 

would make a perfect Head Coach for the Steelers.

The "Lombardi Packers"

Taylor, Kramer, Gregg, Hornung, Starr.

Lombardi, Davis, Nitschke, Adderley, Wood

The 13 Below Theater shows about a 12 minute

film on the famed Ice Bowl game.

The statue you see has steam coming out of his mouth!

Yet another quote.  I told you that they were all over the place.

I wonder how many people coming through the place would "get" this cartoon.

The Packers four Super Bowl trophies.  

Only two of them are "Vince Lombardi Trophies"

I wonder how many Wisconsin 

TV rooms have this picture hanging in them?

A giant replica graces the Lambeau Atrium.

The only part of the tour that I did not like.

Finally, these statues of Vince and Curly grace the main entrance to the Stadium on Vince Lombardi Drive.

As all tours of just about any place you go do, this one ended at the entrance to the Packers gift shop, and we did our share to boost the Green Bay economy while there, although we took a pass on this item:

This full size Packers helmut in Swarovski crystal could have been ours for a mere $10,000.

Okay, I hope that I didn't go on too long and bore you with this.  I know that looking at other peoples' vacation pictures can be a drag, but if you are a pro football fan, I am hoping that you will forgive me.

Oh, one other question.  As you read this post, how many of you used a John Facenda voice in your head whenever you came upon the words "Lambeau Field"?  Be honest now.

On Wisconsin!

This past week, Linda and I returned from a wonderful week spent in the state of Wisconsin, a place that neither her nor I had ever visited.  The trip took us through six different states and covered over 2,000 miles, and it was a trip that exceeded all of our expectations in terms of joyful and fun experiences.

The main purpose of the trip was to attend the wedding of my great-nephew, Patrick Sproule and his bride, Emma Holly.  The wedding took place in the town of Oconomowoc, WI, and the setting could not have been more beautiful.  We had a wonderful time celebrating the marriage of Pat and Emma (is there any occasion in life happier that a wedding?), spending some time with them and with other members of the extended Sproule Family, Pat's parents, Kevin and Carol, and Kevin's sister and brother, Karen and her husband Chris Pike, and Bill and his wife Stephanie, and all of their children, my great nieces and great nephews, nine in total.

Patrick and Emma made one terrific looking couple, but it is not my place to post photos of them on social media, I will leave that up to them.  Take my word for it, though, they are one handsome and beautiful couple.

I will, however, post this photo of Linda and I taken at the reception.

I will share this moment from the reception.  When it came time to introduce the wedding party at the reception, the DJ played "Renegade" as he made those introductions.  Those Pittsburgh people in attendance began to yell and cheer and wave their napkins over their heads.  The other two-thirds or so were no doubt wondering, "What the hell is this all about?"  Way to go, Pat, for hatching this idea.

********

When we knew early in the year that we would be going to Wisconsin for this wedding, we decided that we would make a mini-vacation of the trip. So, without going into too great detail, here are some of the highlights.

To break up what would have been about a ten or eleven hour trip, we stopped on Thursday and stayed at the Four Winds Resort in New Buffalo, Michigan.

This is an absolutely gorgeous hotel resort and casino.  Our room was as nice a room as any hotel we've ever stayed.  I managed to win fifty bucks playing blackjack, so that paid for our dinner there.

From there we drove to Delafield, WI and the Delafield Hotel.  The hotel was located within a ten minute drive of all wedding venues (post rehearsal dinner get-together, the Church, and the reception), and it was beautiful and comfortable.

For dinner on Friday we went to a pizzeria/sports bar and watched some of the Packers-Eagles game....

....and we had breakfast in Delafield at an absolutely terrific place called the Lumber Inn, where we were told that T.J. Watt always comes to when he's back home in Wisconsin.  The town of Delafield, by the way was wonderful.  Looked like something out of a Hallmark movie, and we both wished that there was a similar place in proximity to Pittsburgh that we could frequent.

On Sunday, we left Delafield and made the thirty minute drive to Milwaukee where we spent Sunday and Monday.  On Sunday, we strolled the Milwaukee River Walk, visited with famed Milwaukee resident Arthur Fonzarelli, and had dinner at a great downtown restaurant called Onesto.

"The Bronze Fonz"

On Monday, we visited with our Littles pal Steve Ozbolt and his wife Laurie at his business, Emerald City Catering.

In case the term "Littles" is unfamiliar to you:

(Littles (definition) - A community of people from throughout the United States, and, indeed, all over the globe, bound together by their devotion, a devotion inexplicable to non-Littles, to a Washington DC based Podcast hosted by former sportswriter and Pardon The Interruption host Tony Kornheiser.  Also often referred to as Loyal Littles.

Steve, better know as "Oz", prepared a nice welcome for us....

As a happy coincidence, New York City Little Louis B. Crocco, better known as "Chuck" from the Chuck and Roxy team that hosts the Loyal Little Podcast, was in Milwaukee in his capacity as Stage Manager for the touring musical "Waitress" and was also able to join us for lunch at Emerald City as well.  It turned out to be a great meet-up of Littles in  the Wild from three different states.

That's Chuck in the blue shirt, and Oz on the right.

We spent late Monday afternoon and evening walking around the terrific Public Market in downtown Milwaukee, where we enjoyed a Wisconsin specialty, Beer and Cheese Curds:

Delicious!

All in all, we had a terrific time, and really enjoyed Milwaukee.  The people there were just terrific, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely.

We were left with one more special day in Wisconsin, but that day deserves a Grandstander post all of its own, so watch for that one in the next day or so.  A hint as to what that day involved can be seen in the photo below.

To Absent Friends - Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau

 

All deaths are tragic, but the deaths on Thursday of the Gaudreau brothers, Johnny, 31, and Matthew, 29, are tragic on so many levels as to be Shakespearean in scope. 

The New Jersey brothers played college hockey together at Boston College, and Johnny was drafted into the National Hockey League where he became a bona fide star, "Johnny Hockey", most recently with th Columbus Blue Jackets.   Both leave behind young wives.  Johnny and his wife have two young children and Matthew and his wife are expecting their first child later this year.   The brothers were together with all of the Gaudreau Family to celebrate the wedding of their younger sister, which was to take place Friday.  On Thursday evening, while Johnny and Matthew were on a bike ride, then were struck by a reckless and drunken driver and killed.

Thus, one of the happiest occasions that a family can celebrate, a wedding, turned into a family tragedy of epic proportions.   It is almost impossible to comprehend.

RIP Johnny and Matthew Gaudreau, and peace to all of their surviving family members.

Post Script - Please, please, PLEASE always think before you get behind the wheel of  car after you've been partaking in alcohol.