In case he’s wondering, Brett Favre can rest assured it’s safe for him to return to Lambeau Field. Legendary Packer fan Mary Schuh has returned her life-sized wooden Fathead to its righful place of honor in her super cool Packer basement.
The octogenarian great-grandmother had banned her beloved stand-up Brett to the corner, with a black shroud over his head, when the legendary quarterback misbehaved.
Recently, as a sign that all is forgiven, she removed the shroud and hauled him back into the light.
Mary and her husband Don rank as the two most devoted Packer fans I’ve ever met.
In 47 years, Don missed only four games — two when he served in Korea, one when a flash blizzard left him snowed in at deer camp, and one after he was run over and gravely injured by a hit and run driver. (He missed just one game after that accident, and remains, to this day, mostly miffed that the offender, later tracked down by Don and his brothers and apprehended by the police, made him miss a really good football game.)
Don and Mary not only attended the Ice Bowl, they own a piece of the goal post from that game and a wooden sign Don carried up from the field after the big win.
“As I carried it up, people broke pieces off it,” he said. What remains hangs proudly above a Packer Christmas tree with an Aaron Rodgers star.
Their basement rivals the Packer Hall of Fame for all of the memorabilia stored there: a 1936 game program, an enviable collection of Packer books, including Paul Hornung’s timeless classic “Football and the Single Guy,” and every newspaper celebrating each championship season.
A piece of the frozen tundra lies in state in the bar freezer, a bearskin from a real animal shot by Don hangs cheekily on the wall. Sheet music for “Go You Packers Go,” rests appropriately on a vintage organ.
The Schuhs raised nine children on good old Wisconsin values — God first, then the Packers. No one disturbs them on game day. Don tracks each game on a spiral notebook, and both he and Mary can recite impressive statistics.
I hereby nominate Don and Mary Schuh for induction into the Packers Fan Hall of Fame, and I think prodigal son Brett Favre should cast the first vote.
