Stingl: Packers fan from Eagles country finally gets to Lambeau for a game

The Bradley children grew up as Packers fans in the heart of Philadelphia Eagles country.

Edwin, the oldest at age 12, caught Packer fever in 1965 when Vince Lombardi's team was winning big, and he spread the bug to his sister Pamela and brother Kevin.

In 1972, the whole family piled in the Ford station wagon and drove from their town of Coplay to Green Bay — not to see a game but simply to witness two days of training camp.

"The Griswolds," Kevin said, referencing the movie family on a road trip to Walley World.

In the 45 years that have passed since then, Pamela has faithfully followed the Packers on TV but has never been back to Lambeau Field to see the team play.

Until now. She and Kevin have plane tickets and seats for the Packers-Ravens game Sunday. 

"I don't care if they win or lose. It's going to be one of the best days of my life," Pamela, now 56 and a teacher, told me. She lives in Glenside, a Philly suburb.

Kevin, 57, a civil engineer living in Northampton, Pa., has been to Lambeau for games a few times with friends. He is excited to see his sister finally get the opportunity. Edwin, 64, who lives in North Carolina now, is undergoing treatment for cancer and wasn't able to join his siblings on this trip. He has not seen a game at Lambeau. 

I wanted to hear more about their pilgrimage in July 1972 to watch the Packers practice.

"It was difficult for my parents to make ends meet, but somehow they managed to get us to Green Bay. Edwin was now old enough to drive and was given the privilege to drive us into the town of Green Bay. The song 'Venus' was playing on the radio as we entered," Pamela remembers.

"We drove 1,000 miles just to see a team at summer camp," Kevin told me. "That's the only reason we went. That my parents agreed to do that was pretty nutty."

They were able to meet Packer greats Ray Nitschke and Bart Starr and get both of their autographs on a single sheet of lined paper. Kevin has kept it as a prized souvenir, as well as the framed share of Packers stock that hangs in his green and gold basement.

During the trip home, the Bradley family learned that Starr had just announced his retirement.

"If not the last autograph Bart Starr gave as a player, it was certainly one of the last," Pamela said.

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Her parents, Edwin and Anna, both died of cancer in 1992. There's a story of Anna's final days that the family likes to tell. She was in the hospital and mostly unresponsive while her kids in the room watched the Packers play the Steelers on TV.

"The Packers won!" Kevin told his mother. "She put her hands together like she was clapping."

"This was the last display of emotion in her life," Pamela said.

There's no shortage of emotion when Pamela cheers for the Packers on TV. It was alarming to her own young kids. "I used to actually watch in the basement because I would scream so much that they would tell me I was scaring them," she said.

When you get to Lambeau for the game, I told her, look to the south end zone. It's the exact spot where Bart Starr plunged over the goal line to beat the Dallas Cowboys in the famous Ice Bowl NFL championship game of 1967.

"I have goosebumps just hearing you say that," she said.

Contact Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or jstingl@jrn.com. Connect with my public page at Facebook.com/Journalist.Jim.Stingl