If you’ve ever been to the Packers’ season opener in the last 15 years chances are you may have seen Packer Bob, the man who arrives to Lambeau Field in style each year riding in a horse and buggy.
Bob Retzlaff, known to many just as Packer Bob, is from Tomah and originally from New London, and that’s where he be departed from Friday morning.
“This happened, I don’t know 11, 15 years ago when his first wife passed away,” Deb Olesen said of her brother, Packer Bob. “He decided to take a horse from Tomah to Green Bay for the first Packer game. He’s continued it ever since, but since then he has made an Amish buggy into a Packer buggy.”
Bob is a veteran of three wars and it was after he got out of service that he decided he wouldn’t miss an opening game.
“He was in the service for 29 or 30 years and when he got out he said he wasn’t going to miss a Packer game and he pretty much probably hasn’t missed a Packer game,” Olesen said. “He just wanted to do it and he carried it on.”
Bob is joined on his journey by his second wife known as Packer Maren.
They’ll attempt to reach Seymour on Friday after departing in the morning at 8:30 a.m.
The two will then leave for Lambeau Field Saturday from Seymour.