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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Packers Fans Never Tire Of Waiting On The List

Associated Press

In NFL lore, “The Drive” is the thrilling comeback John Elway engineered in leading Denver to a dramatic playoff victory over Cleveland in 1986.

Pittsburgh has its “Immaculate Reception” - Franco Harris’ miraculous touchdown off a deflected pass in the 1972 playoffs against Oakland.

In Green Bay, folks call it simply “The List” - a ranking of nearly 30,000 rabid Packers fans, some of them babies, some yet to be born, wanting to buy season tickets.

Just the five top names got tickets last year as only 16 became available in this football-crazed city. Packers ticket administrators guarantee some people languishing at the bottom of the list can’t possibly live long enough to get tickets.

Still, the list, already containing people who have been on it 30 years, grows daily.

Kathy Kohlbeck’s letter adding her 8-month-old son, Luke, arrived at Packers ticket offices Friday, joining a stack of about 600 others in recent days.

“We are hoping by the time he is 30, if he isn’t playing for the Packers, he will at least be able to go to Lambeau Field and experience the excitement firsthand,” the Sheboygan mother said in a telephone interview.

For 5-year-old Michael Adriansen of Green Bay, his name is No. 11,458 - thanks to a present his godfather gave him when he was 2.

The godfather, Rob Coleman of Green Bay, got on the list when he was in high school in 1975. He’s up to No. 1,640.

At the current rate, if no other names were added, it would take 6,000 years to empty the list.

Also, the team, founded in 1919, allows families to hand down the tickets from one generation to the next, making them family treasures worthy of being put in wills. There were 300 such transfers last year.