My question is that about 6 years ago or so (around 1998 or so) I heard about a guy flying his plane either to or from a Packer game with his cheesehead hat on. His plane went down and his cheesehead hat is what helped saved his life. I did hear Al Michaels make a brief mention on a Packer/Viking game. Could you shed some light on this matter? - Eddie, Salt Lake City, Utah
Eddie, your memory has served you well about the story of a Packers fan being saved from a dire fate while wearing a "cheesehead" on a flight from a Packers game during the 1990s (the 1995 season, to be more exact).
The man who credited a foam rubber cheesehead for helping him to survive a light plane crash as he returned from Green Bay to Superior, Wis., described himself as lucky as a result of the incident, The Associated Press reported via the Green Bay Press-Gazette at the time.
But, the AP story then quoted Frank Emmert of Superior as saying he still wishes it had not taken place.
The incident actually was the subject of a 30-second segment produced by NFL Films that was carried during a nationally televised Packers-Detroit Lions game Sept. 28, 1999.
"I've gotten to go pretty much everywhere telling people about this," Emmert said. "I'm, lucky that way, I guess."
But he said he still had pain from an ankle injury sustained in the crash.
"I'd trade it all to have my ankle back the way it was," he said.
The segment that aired was sponsored by Miller Lite, but it was not a beer commercial Emmert said.
"I don't drink," he said, "but as long as it was for the NFL and for a good cause, I did it."
The segment included a photograph of the crashed plane, and then showed Emmert walking through the Lambeau Field parking lot.
Emmert showed how he buried his face in his foam hat when he knew the crash was imminent, near the Stevens Point airport.
A week after the Nov. 1995 crash, The Associated Press noted, Emmert's story was splashed in newspapers and on television screens across the nation.
He reportedly was wearing it when his ultra light plane crashed, and he credits it with protecting his face and forehead, sparing him possible major injury or worse, when the impact of the crash sent him and the cheesehead headlong into the instrument panel.
An instant celebrity, Emmert was invited to ride a motorized cheesehead cart on national television's The Tonight Show.
A self-employed photographer, he had been hired three months earlier to do public relations for Foamation, a company that makes cheesehead hats.