by: admin

To Mr. Willie Wood,

Dear Willie,

I saw your story on television a while back.  I wish you the best.  I wanted to let you know how much I admired you as one of the Packer greats.  As a kid playing sandlot football, we argued who would be you versus Herb Aderley.  With our family nickname as "Willy," we always had first dibs being #24.  On offense, it was easier either being Taylor, Hourning or Starr while one of my favorites was Elijah Pitts, purely for his name and being a hard-nosed runner.

Although I'm almost 52 years old and have not lived in WI for over 28 years, football idols like you still pull my heart strings.  I even like Ditka, Butkus and Fran Tarkington - which took decades to finally soften my stance.

I grew up in Beaver Dam, an hour or so to the west of you and attended UW-Oshkosh back in the 70's.  I played high school ball but played linebacker or quarteback so I didn't have the honor to wear #24.

I wish you the best while living in Manitowoc; I'm still a quasi-Packer fan who will always remember you and the glory teams of the 60's.

Take care.