Land that became Lambeau Field in Green Bay was the Vannieuwenhoven farm
Like most Packers fans, Don Vannieuwenhoven will clear time to check out Sundays divisional grudge match between his beloved Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions.[img_r]http://packershome.com/zGraphics/OldLambeau001.jpg[/img_r]
Hell probably hunker down in a comfortable chair or couch. Hell for sure fire up his brand new, 32-inch high-definition flat screen. And hell gladly burn away the ensuing three hours cheering or, heaven forbid, jeering the team splashed in forest green and yellow.
But hell also reminisce. For while the game will be staged in the Packers historic home, the plat of earth on which the concrete and steel of Lambeau Field now sits was once his home, too.
When I drive by the stadium or see it on TV, I get a lot of good feelings, said Vannieuwenhoven, 74. It brings back some good, old memories.
It was Vannieuwenhovens folks who, in August 1956, paved the way for the jewel of professional football to be built, peddling 50 acres of their coveted farmland to the Green Bay City Council for the grand sum of $73,305 serious coin in those days, and the equivalent of about $582,000 in today's dollars.
Thirteen months later, a crowd of more than 32,000 scurried to what had been the Vannieuwenhoven spread to christen new City Stadium, as the $960,000 venue was then dubbed, and rally the Packers to a 21-17 season-opening triumph over George Halas and his despised Chicago Bears.
A promising new beginning, to be sure. But no one could have foreseen the brilliance that was to come.
Lombardi. Holmgren. Starr. Favre. Titletown. A cathedral.[img_r]http://packershome.com/zGraphics/OldLambeau002.jpg[/img_r]
What once was an unassuming, family-operated dairy farm was suddenly transformed into a slice of Americana, a shimmering centerpiece for a hallowed franchise whose imposing history even recognizes the Vannieuwenhoven name.
Its there, on Page 560 in the teams 2009 media guide, in a breakout that details the timeline of the stadiums original construction. Vannieuwenhovens parents, Victor and Florence, are noted to forever link the Packers proud tradition to an equally proud family.
They come in and start digging for the stadium, and its no longer your farm, Vannieuwenhoven said. You realize its going to be used for something else. But as far as Im concerned, it was the perfect spot.
From pasture to Packers
Before Lambeaus sacred soil started sprouting legends, it was used to grow corn and hay and oats and as pasture land. So the next time you see the clip of Bart Starr slithering across the goal line in the Ice Bowls waning moments, imagine cornstalks standing in place of the Dallas Cowboys Doomsday Defense.
Victor and Florence started farming the area in the late 1930s, although the land had been in family hands since 1901.
It belonged to my dads parents at one time, Vannieuwenhoven said. And they gave him 15 acres to start out.[img_r]http://packershome.com/zGraphics/OldLambeau003.jpg[/img_r]
By the time county officials inquired about purchasing 20 acres for the construction of Brown County Arena a deal cemented about a year before the city approached with its offer Victor and Florence had turned those initial 15 acres into a 73-acre expanse that bordered Ridge Road to the west, Lombardi Avenue to the north, Valley View Road to the south and almost out to Holmgren Way to the east.
To city and county planners and Packers brass, the property was untapped potential and progress. To Victor and Florence, it was location, location, location.
The price of land was just skyrocketing, said Vannieuwenhoven, a retired plant maintenance manager who lives on Roberts Lake near Wabeno. The farmers around there at that time were getting up there in age and said, To hell with it. Were going to sell. Id say 90 percent of the farmers in that area did that. And it was really the start of a big boom in that area.
That was some really big bucks at that time. But considering what that place is worth now, its peanuts.
According to the Packers media guide, the parcel was chosen because the stadiums architect, Green Bay-based Somerville Inc., liked that it was sloped, which would make it ideal to construct the famed bowl.
Fifty-three seasons, six NFL championships, 280 consecutive sellouts and a handful of Hall-of-Famers later, the old piece of farmland is among the most revered in all of sports.
Only the Boston Red Sox (98 years) and Chicago Cubs (96) have longer active home-field tenures in professional sports. In 1999, Sports Illustrated rated Lambeau Field as the eighth-best sporting venue of the 20th century.
Thats quite a thing they built, and then Lombardi came two years later, and that was an unbelievable time, said Art Daley, 93, a former Green Bay Press-Gazette sports editor and a longtime Packers observer.
I live on the west side, about a mile from the stadium, and back in 51, when we built my house, I could look down five, six blocks and see no houses. There was a lot of picnic land stuff was hardly built on it. I always think I should have gone into the real estate business and bought some of that. Its amazing.
A real good feeling
After selling the 50 acres, Victor and Florence semi-retired and moved to a small hobby farm five miles away.
Vannieuwenhoven, an only child who was working full time at the plant and helping out on the farm on evenings and weekends, stayed back with his wife and then two children and tended to the remaining unsold three acres that included the single-story, two-bedroom farmhouse he grew up in, a barn and a few other buildings, a garden and a small apple orchard all along Ridge Road, across from where Krolls West Restaurant now stands.
Those final three acres were sold a few years later at a more robust $15,000 per acre as stadium expansion was planned and more parking was needed. The end of one era, you could say, but the continuation of another.
My folks would sneak over in the evenings and visit us during the construction, Vannieuwenhoven recalled. And theyd really reminisce and say things like, This is where the cows were, or This is where the corn was. Theyd just take a walk and see what was going on when they had the bowl dug out. They made quite a few trips, when no one was around. They still followed the progress.
Despite that interest, Vannieuwenhoven said neither of his parents his father passed away in 1979; his mother in 2002 ever attended a game at the famous stadium they in essence helped build.
They probably could have gotten three lifetime tickets, he said with a chuckle. But my dad said it was too much noise. They just enjoyed listening to the games on the radio and watching them on TV.
As for Vannieuwenhoven, he figures he hasnt attended a game at Lambeau Field in about 12 years, but he considers himself a faithful member of Packers Nation, dutifully following the team from week to week, season to season, legend to legend.
On those occasions he is able to make it back to Green Bay, hell swing past the old homestead, marvel at the fortress rooted in familiar ground and know the land he and his parents once worked, land that still carries their sweat and love, was nurtured into something mind-boggling, Vannieuwenhoven said.
To me, Lambeau Field is a monument to my parents.
And thats a real good feeling when you can actually say you are a part of it.