Australian Packers and Badgers fan living his dream of attending all of teams' 2019 games

Richard Ryman
Green Bay Press Gazette

GREEN BAY – Two-thirds of the way through the 2019 football season, Jaz Singh is living his dream.

Singh moved from his home in Australia in August to live in Green Bay for the 2019 Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers football seasons. His goal was to attend every game for both teams. So far, so good.

"I've been to 24 games since the first preseason game," said Singh the week before the Packers' game in San Francisco, opening his wallet to display ticket stubs from the games he attended. 

"The next two weekends are really crazy, because one part of the country, then another part of the country the next day," he said.  

Which pretty much describes his time in, and out of, Green Bay since August. Madison one day, Dallas the next, or Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday and Kansas City on Sunday. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Jaz Singh, a permanent resident of Perth, Australia, and a temporary resident of Green Bay, has attended every Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers game this season, though Nov. 16. He plans on going to all of them in their 2019 seasons.

"It's a lot of hard work, and it's quite tiring," he said. "There's been a couple stressful moments with travel and tickets, but it's always come through in the end."

This week, he's adding a high school game to his itinerary, Bay Port's Division 1 title game Friday in Madison. He'll stay over for Wisconsin-Purdue on Saturday, then it's on to San Francisco for the Packers' game, which the NFL moved to Sunday night, giving Singh an unanticipated travel buffer. The jet lag is his own problem.

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Singh, a social studies teacher in Perth, took advantage of a deferred-salary program for school employees that allowed him to live on 80% pay for four years and take a sabbatical the fifth year. He also has a DJ business, so he socked away extra money, but has had to use less of it than expected.

He's attended the 24 games and spent a grand total of $300 for tickets. His use of Couchsurfing, a service that connects members to a global community of travelers to provide them with free accommodations, and Airbnb has kept his housing costs down.

From the beginning, he's benefited from the generosity of Packers and Badgers fans who are fascinated by his story, his outgoing personality and, lets face it, the accent.

Some of the tickets from Green Bay Packers and Wisconsin Badgers games Jaz Singh attended during the 2019 seasons for each team.

Singh isn't just living off the kindness of strangers, though.

A teacher in real life, he's volunteered at Bay Port High School, where among other things he's teaching students the rules of cricket, his favorite sport, and at Paul's Pantry food pantry. He served drinks at a VFW hall and shotskis to tailgaters in Lot 1 at Lambeau Field, where he has a legion of new mates.

"I've served shotskis to the UK and Irish Packers Group, to people from Denmark, Germany, South Africa, Mexico and Australia. The green and gold community reaches far and wide," he said.

"And we like to give opposing fans a similar experience to what Green Bay Packers fan have here. I've made lots of friends that way."

But football games are just a part of the story. Singh spends little time in Green Bay and devotes more time to  traveling the country between games.

Among the most moving was a civil rights tour of Alabama and Georgia.

"That was pretty emotional," he said. "As a history teacher, I was able to learn quite a lot that relates to Australian civil rights, which took place in the 1960s, and the struggles for rights and freedoms, which still continues today in both countries in very different and complicated ways."

On the flip side, he also visited Albuquerque to pay homage to his favorite television show, "Breaking Bad."

Australian Green Bay Packers fan Jaz Singh dreamed of seeing snowfall at Lambeau Field. He got his wish on Nov. 10, 2019, when the Packers hosted the Carolina Panthers.

If you want to learn more about his extensive travels and game experiences, he has a website, packersuperfanjaz.com.

When Singh decided on this adventure, he had no idea the Packers would have the kind of season they are having, given their sub-par, non-playoff records of the past two years. That didn't matter to him. He's pleased they've played as well as they have, although it's going to cost him some money.

Originally scheduled to return to Australia in January to begin the new school year, he applied for an additional six months leave at half pay. That will allow him to go to the Super Bowl, if the Packers get that far — he's ever hopeful.

There's also the possibility of a Big Ten championship game in Indianapolis on Dec. 7 if the Badgers win out, so he'll have to slip that into the schedule and figure out how to get back to Green Bay by noon the next day for the Packers-Redskins game.

He must leave the United States by the end of February, when his visa expires.

"I've got plans to go to Africa, to go and see family in India, watch cricket in Sri Lanka and do some traveling in Egypt," he said. "I'll just do more places in the world I haven't seen."

Scott Schwartz GreenBay, left, and Justin Sipla of Iowa City, Iowa, wish Jaz Singh a happy birthday in October. Singh, a Packers fan from Perth, Australia, is attending all the team's games this season and has a bunch of new mates in Lot 1 at Lambeau Field.

The only place this season where the reception was less than friendly was at Soldier Field in Chicago for the first game of the season. He and a friend were both wearing green and gold.

"We were just getting heckled and name calling, things thrown at us," he said.

Fortunately, for the sake of preserving Singh's otherwise positive view of opposing stadiums, the Packers played both Philadelphia and Oakland, whose fans are notorious for the welcome mats they roll up, at Lambeau Field.

"The best atmosphere, I think, was Arrowhead Stadium (in Kansas City). It got really loud and was a really good atmosphere, especially when (the Packers) came back," he said.

He will, eventually, return to his regular life as a teacher, but plans to come back to Green Bay once a year for a game. He'll reconnect with his new friends, "not just passing friends, but friends for life. The friendships and the memories will last a long time."

Contact Richard Ryman at (920) 431-8342 or rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at  @rrymanPG or  on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG/