A Tailgate to Remember
All it took was a couple of Grilled Pork Chop Sandwiches with Caribbean Slaw to bribe the groundskeeper in exchange for a memory I will never forget.
I remember being scrunched into the corner of the couch, grasping the cushions, my eyes as wide as a pair of whitewall tires. The TV showed Cowboys-17 Packers-14 with a measly 15 seconds remaining in the 1967 NFL title game. It was 15 degrees below zero in Green Bay, and I was consumed by “The Ice Bowl”, the coldest title game in NFL history!
Getting a first down on the Dallas one-yard line, Green Bay’s halfback Donny Anderson lost his footing on the frozen turf during the next two running plays. The tension was palpable. Bart Starr went for a quarterback sneak behind Jerry Kramer and Ken Bowman’s double team on Dallas’s defensive tackle, Jethro Pugh. Touchdown! I breathed a sigh of relief as the Packers won their third consecutive NFL title, 21-17!
Cut me and I bleed green and gold, as my formative years were spent tirelessly watching the Lombardi Packers, and it has been a relationship that knows no end.
Flash forward a quarter of a century, I got a call from a fellow chef in Tucson, Janos Wilder, asking if I had any interest in being one of six chefs to come up with a menu for an NFL team’s skyboxes. The perks were access to tickets and media plugs. When he told me it was for the Green Bay Packers, I knew it was the perfect opportunity for me, a lifelong cheesehead.
Chefs sent in their recipes and we met at Lambeau Field for the first home game of the season on September 9th, 1996, playing the Philadelphia Eagles. As we were checking our recipes in Lambeau Field’s commissary kitchen, David, our host and creator of the culinary program, asked us if we wanted to attend the game that evening or go out to dinner in Green Bay. I looked at him and said sarcastically, “Hmmm, dinner in Green Bay or the opening home game of the Packers... What do you think?”
We tied things up in the kitchen and David took us on a tour of the stadium and outer grounds before the game. The parking lot was filled with tailgaters shrouded in thick bratwurst smoke as far as we could see. David smiled and started shouting, “Anyone need tickets for tonight? Box seats for face value!” The tickets were gone in a blink. He said, “I love doing that. We have these tickets and can sell them for face value—even though we could get 10 to 15 times as much!” We were smiling about helping some fans get great seats until David said, “So where do you want to go to dinner?”
“Dinner?” I said, “We want to go to the game!” He looked mortified. “I thought that chefs would be more interested in food than a Packer game! I just sold our tickets!” David pulled some magical strings and was able to get us back in the stadium where we watched the game from various standing locations. Any spot is fine when you get to watch the Pack—especially their second victory in that 1996 Super Bowl season!
Dreams really do come true, as the next day David allowed Janos and I to barter our way onto the hallowed playing field at Lambeau for pictures. And all it took was a couple of Grilled Pork Chop Sandwiches with Caribbean Slaw to bribe the groundskeeper in exchange for a memory I will never forget. Go Pack Go!
