Peterson: Packers fans' first game a dream come true, even in defeat

GREEN BAY, Wis. — I had not missed the Iowa Basketball Coaches Association annual weekend clinic in Des Moines since 1999.

But this year I had a good excuse.

Earlier this fall my wife Deb told me something she'd heard on a Des Moines radio station about a bus trip planned for the Dallas Cowboys game in Green Bay on Oct. 16.

I hesitated for a moment, because I knew East Tennessee State coach Steve Forbes was a presenter at this year's basketball coaches clinic, and I had covered his Southwestern teams in the early 1990s. It would be a good reunion for him with the likes of former SWCC colleagues Bill Taylor, Ron "Fox" Clinton and Bill Krejci, and former players such as Jesse Cox, now the coach at Lenox.

What an evening of stories that dinner engagement after the clinic would have been!

But I'd been dreaming of watching the Packers play at home since I was a 10-year-old boy fascinated with the NFL championship game in 1967 — the famed Ice Bowl victory over the Dallas Cowboys. When Bart Starr scored behind Jerry Kramer on a quarterback sneak in the final seconds with the temperature at 15 below zero in the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field, I was hooked.

Coincidentally, Kramer was signing autographs Sunday afternoon at the tailgate function our group attended near the stadium.

We signed up for the trip along with longtime Creston friends Paul and Leslie Goldsmith, now of West Des Moines. Paul and I often talked Packers when we got together, as he grew up a fan of the team in northeast Iowa.

Bart Starr was my idol as a team leader. That is, until Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers came along to lift me out of doldrums of those Lynn Dickey and Don Majkowski years in the 1970s and 1980s.

But until last weekend, I could only imagine what it must be like to attend a game in Lambeau Field, after decades of only seeing them on television.

Despite a dismal four-turnover performance by the Packers in a 30-16 loss to the Cowboys, it was a great bucket list experience for all four of us. (That is, except for the excruciating trip back as the bus was lodged in a postgame traffic jam. I nearly saw sunrise driving from Des Moines to Creston, pulling in our driveway at 5:35 a.m. Monday.)

Our tour guides led us on a journey to the Lambeau Field area Saturday afternoon, where we stopped in at Brett Favre's Steakhouse and a couple of other watering holes before taking a look at the Packers Hall of Fame and the obligatory shopping excursion in the Packers Pro Shop.

We arrived at the big tailgate function at noon Sunday under sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s. In October in northern Wisconsin, that was a stroke of incredible luck.

In walking up the steps to the Lambeau Field concourse, and looking back down at the throng of green-and-gold clad fans — with a healthy mix of Cowboy fans interspersed — it all started to hit me. This was real. This was an actual game day where I've dreamed of going for 49 years.

We sat down in Section 136, just 15 rows up from the field, in the southwest corner of the end zone where Dallas scored on its first drive of the game covering 75 yards. It reminded me of Kinnick Stadium, in just how close the fans are to the field.

Mount Ayr ties

I sent a message on Twitter to Dawn (Huff) Elliott during the game about how popular her son, Cowboys rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott, was among the Cowboy fans in attendance. Many of them wore the No. 21 jersey of the first-round pick out of Ohio State. I had covered his mother's incredible athletic career at Mount Ayr in the late 1980s. She was the Des Moines Register's female high school athlete of the year in 1990.

For their family, I'm happy that Ezekiel is off to such a strong start. His 157 yards rushing on 28 carries and 247 yards passing by rookie quarterback Dak Prescott were too much for the Packers to match on this day. Rodgers accounted for two turnovers with an interception and a fumble on first-and-goal at the Cowboys 1-yard line with 1:10 left in the third quarter.

By that time, there were some boos echoing through Lambeau Field, which is a bit unusual. There's some frustration with the lack of offensive consistency this year.

Favre ceremony

But we were not among those booing or leaving early. We soaked in every second we could of this rare opportunity. And it was a fortunate twist to be there for the halftime ceremony honoring Favre with the unveiling of his name on the stadium facade for his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year.

Yes, it was Green Bay's worst defeat at home with Rodgers as the starting quarterback since a 37-20 loss to the Giants in the 2011 NFC divisional payoffs.

But, for three hours late Sunday afternoon, a couple of old boys from Iowa were living their childhood dream. To have our wives along for a weekend of special memories made it even better.

The loss didn't taste that bad. I was sitting only a few yards away from the goal line Bart Starr crossed in the waning moments of the Ice Bowl.

My long, long wait was over.

Contact the writer:

Twitter: @larrypeterson

Email: lpeterson@crestonnews.com