Radio broadcaster Jim Irwin stepped out of the car at San Francisco International airport after the Green Bay Packers' 1998 football season came to an abrupt end. A feeling of loneliness engulfed him.
He watched as his longtime broadcast team of Max McGee and statistician Jim Palm of Wausau pulled away. The trio responsible for covering games since the late 1970s had decided to retire -- together -- at the end of that season.
"Walking through the doors of the airport, it was hard to comprehend the end," Irwin, 76, said Wednesday during a phone interview from his home in Irvine, Calif.
This week, Irwin stood alone again, 12 years after that playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers. Palm died Sunday after a struggle with Alzheimer's disease, three years after McGee died. Palm was 81.
"It reminded me how much I think about those times and how I remember Max and Jim," Irwin said. "You don't think about these two guys being dead. You think about them being at home, and I'll see them when football starts."
Palm began working with the Packers in 1959 when new coach Vince Lombardi asked him to coordinate travel plans for the team on a part-time basis.
That connection led Palm into a spotter position during Packers games. Soon after, he joined Irwin and McGee in the booth, where he handled game stats for the broadcast.
"I just think he liked doing it. He liked being in the limelight," said his wife, Glorianne Palm. "Even in the nursing home, he was called the social butterfly. He was charismatic."
When they could, Glorianne and the couple's three sons, Peter, Bill and Patrick, would go to the games but often sat in the stands.
Patrick Palm, now living in Colorado, remembered one time getting to sit in the booth and watch his dad in action. There was no talking.
"You just sat in the back, and the amount of stats -- the way they did it back in the day -- was incredible," Patrick Palm said. "They had books and grease boards and would call down to coaches and get background information."
Jim Palm might not have made it on the air, but Irwin said he was integral to the production, largely because of the bond they forged.
"I want to emphasize that Jim was an important part of the broadcast," Irwin said. "It's not so much that he kept the stats, but we were a group. We were comfortable."