Rich Nitschke has a lot of his fathers possessions. His Minocqua home is stocked with Ray Nitschke jerseys, rings, jackets and plenty of items with a Packers logo on them.
And he decided it was time for some of it to go.
A live auction will be held in Dallas today for 16 items owned by the Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker, who died in 1998 after winning five NFL championships, including Super Bowls I and II, with the Packers from 1958 to 1972. Online bidding, which ended Thursday night, ranged from about $300 to $7,000 for game-worn jerseys, his Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame ring, autographed game programs and other memorabilia.
I was just going through a bunch of my stuff, Rich Nitschke said. I just had a bunch of excess stuff. Not really excess, I just had nowhere to put it up. Rather than storing it, it seemed like a really good time to auction it off with the Packers winning (Super Bowl XLV).
I dont want to call it spring cleaning. Well, yeah, maybe. Just cleaning out the excess and letting people enjoy some of the things that I have that I really have no place to display.
One of the items Nitschke couldnt part with is a 1965 Packers championship ring and some other jewelry items.
It was just too hard to give up the other rings, Nitschke said. Right at the moment I have enough stuff to decorate what I need.
Rather than storing it and just having to worry about it getting flooded in a basement or something, its just better to have people enjoy some of those things.
Nitschke said it wasnt easy to say goodbye to some of the items. There were two trophies from the Washington D.C. Touchdown Club, the Packers Hall of Fame induction plaque and two NFL alumni jackets included in the auction.
It is (hard), Nitschke said. Ive been holding onto it since he died pretty much. Its just time.
It means a lot to me, but when you have these kinds of things everybody has these kind of things when their parents go, they keep things my dad just had a lot of unique things. There are some memories to some of them.