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.

To Absent Friends - Ron Masak

The news just came across  my Facebook newsfeed that actor Ron Masak died at age 86, and this is the classic case of why I do these Absent Friends posts.

Who is Ron Masak, you may ask?  Well, the news articles about his death highlight his role as Sheriff Mort Metzger in "Murder, She Wrote".

Ron Masak

1936-2022

Masak appeared in over forty episodes off that series over the years, and he is one of those guys who makes you say "Who is that guy and what else have I seen him in?"  His IMDB profile lists 120 acting credits spanning the 1950's up through 2018.  Name any major television series from that era, and he probably made an appearance on it.  He also made over twenty-five feature films, and, like many such actors, he made a killing doing commercials.   His obits refer to him as the "King of Commercials."

However, what I remember about Ron Masak is his appearance in a film called "Second Effort".

In it,  Masak plays a stumbling, bumbling salesman, who, in the opening scene of the film, fails to make a sale to an unseen guy across the desk from him.  That guy turns out to be Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, who asks, "Ron, do you know why you didn't just make this sale?"  Lombardi then uses the rest of the film instructing Ron in what it takes to be successful in sales, showing that the same principles that made him and his Packers such successes on the football field can be applied to any walk of life, being successful sales person, in this instance.

"Second Effort" was made in 1968, and it instantly became the most successful sales motivational film of all time.  If you made your living as a salesperson, chances are you have seen this movie.  I probably saw it a half dozen times over the course of a thirty-five year career.  My biggest takeaway from the film?  The concept of Lombardi Time.  If the schedule says the team bus leaves at 8:00 AM, Lombardi Time says you better be on that bus by 7:45. So, if your next business appointment is for 10:00, not only should you not be late for it, you damn well better be there at least - AT LEAST - ten minutes before 10:00.

I once read an interview with Masak wherein he says that more people had seen him in that film than in just about any other role he ever had.

Like I have said before, stars are stars, but you can't make movies or TV shows - or sales motivational films - without people like Ron Masak.

RIP Ron Masak.