It's first-and-goal for Cd'A Packer superfan

People use moments to mark the significance of the world around them through their own lens, often remembering where they were the day history unfolded. The end of World War II. The moon landing. The fall of the Berlin Wall.

Bill Hughes’s fondest memory came on Jan. 2, 1966.

“To this day, I remember where I sat, where I lived, where I was during that game,” he said of the NFL Championship Game. “That was the very first game I can remember. It was really something.”

The game itself wasn’t particularly notable between the hash marks — Green Bay beat Cleveland 23-12. Its fallout would become important to football fans for a few reasons: The game was the last before the modern Super Bowl era would bloom the following season, and — unbeknownst to anyone watching — the game turned out to be Cleveland legend Jim Brown’s last before an abrupt retirement.

But for Hughes, the game was something that would begin a lifetime of fandom.

“That was the day I first fell in love with the Green Bay Packers,” he recalled Thursday.

That courtship received an unexpected 53rd anniversary gift as his beloved Packers listed Hughes as a finalist for the Green Bay Packers’ Fan Hall of Fame.

“It’s an honor,” Hughes said enthusiastically. “It really is. It’s the beginning of a dream come true.”

The Coeur d’Alene resident stopped short, however, of telling The Press it’s an honor just to be nominated.

“There was this coach,” he reflected slyly, “who once said, ‘Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.’ ... So I’m in this to win. I want to win.”

After quoting legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi, Hughes went on to explain how his bond with the team is personal and unbreakable, something that comes from Lombardi himself.

“Vince Lombardi was the first person in football I can remember who talked about the Packers and used the word, ‘love,’” Hughes said. “Those players and coaches loved one another, and the fans and players loved one another. We still do.”

While most NFL fans gravitate toward players on their teams, wearing jerseys with starters’ names and living vicariously through Pro Bowl passers and pass rushers, Hughes said it was Lombardi who established a new culture that disseminated through the league and manifested in future coaches like Don Shula, Tom Landry and — in today’s NFL — Bill Belichick.

“He’s my all-time favorite Packer,” Hughes said. “Him and [linebacker] Ray Nitschke.”

The now-67-year-old Coeur d’Alene resident said the unique nature of the team’s corporate structure invites a special kind of fan. The Packers are the only team in the NFL to be publicly owned by its community. Ticket holders aren’t just fans; they’re shareholders. It’s an arrangement the century-old franchise says gives it an edge.

“The Packers have been fortunate to have more than 100 years of outstanding fan support,” said Michelle Ratchman, partnership services coordinator for the Green Bay Packers. “Since Green Bay is the smallest market in the NFL and the only team that is community owned, we have always had a unique connection with our fans.”

Every year, the organization receives hundreds of nominations for the Packers Fan Hall of Fame. This year’s crop of nominees, like most years, is mostly from the Great Lakes region: Five hail from Green Bay’s home state of Wisconsin, another comes from Illinois, and a seventh comes from Michigan. This year’s nominees also include one from Virginia, another from Tennessee, and the guy from Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

“The team’s history, tradition of success and community ownership structure attracts many sports fans from near and far,” Ratchman said, “and Green Bay welcomes people from all over the world to be a part of this community. We know our fans’ love for the Packers runs deep and spans generations, unites friends and families, and creates special memories. We’re proud to share some of those stories through the Fan Hall of Fame.”

The nominating committee read essays from prospective finalists. Hughes’s included an undying pledge to his favorite team that bordered on a blood oath.

“Bill Hughes and the Green Bay Packers are synonymous in any part of this country,” he wrote. “As we all know, pilgrimages are made continually to fulfill some type of longing. For me, my pilgrimage was to a small town in Wisconsin. I was born in Wisconsin but grew up in California. When I was 10 years old, 58 years ago, I asked my mother what team should I root for? She said ‘YOU ARE A PACKER!’ Made sense, since I was born in Wisconsin. I’ve been obsessed since.”

That obsession included paying homage to his favorite team by naming his boat ‘Lambeau Leap,’ moments of holy blessing after the team chaplain gave him an unplanned tour of Lambeau Field — complete with an introduction and autographs from Packer legends Reggie White and Brett Favre — and sharing pizza with the first Super Bowl-winning quarterback, the late Bart Starr.

“A Packer fan never quits,” Hughes said. “A Packer fan never wavers. A Packer fan stays committed and perseveres.”

And where does Hughes say that perseverance comes from?

“Vince Lombardi,” he answered. “You know, his players and he had a love/hate reationship. They loved him for who he was, but they hated what he made them do. They used to hate practice. Hate. Because he would drill the same things over and over and over everyday. It’s that perseverance and that persistence that made him great.”

Hughes is hoping that persistence has found its way into his own cause. The Coeur d’Alene native is calling on everyone who knows him to go to www.packers.com/fanhof and vote for Hughes’s induction into the Packers Fan Hall of Fame. Fans can vote once a day, everyday, until Jan. 31. The winner will receive four club seats to a Packers home game, as well as two seats to an away game, plus airfare.

“My friends are going to hate me,” he admitted. “I’m bugging them everyday. Like Coach Lombardi said, ‘There is no second place. Either you’re first, or you’re last.’”

He added that regardless of the outcome, it won’t change how he feels about his team.

“When I die,” he said, “I’m going to be cremated. My wife will get some of my ashes, but three quarters of my ashes will go to my son. He has strict instructions to break onto Lambeau Field and spread my ashes around ...

“I will die a Packer.”

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Mike Patrick, a lifelong Bears fan, edited this story and is voting daily for Bill Hughes.