"Some free time on my hands:" Cedarburg man to write about every Green Bay Packers game ever played



CEDARBURG -- A Cedarburg man is ready to take on the task of writing about and detailing every Green Bay Packers game ever played. You'd think he would be a lifelong, die-hard fan -- but that's not the case.

Jim Rice has a passion for the Packers, but it wasn't always that way.

Jim Rice



"Really fell in love with the Packers in the late 80s, when they began to kind of come back a little bit... and then of course, Favre came along and since then it's been pretty easy to be a fan," said Rice.

Jim grew up in New York, and was a Giants fan from the start.

"Ironically, one of the first football games I remember were the Packers/Giants championship games in the early 60s, and being an eight-year-old at the time and a Giants fan, I was surprised that a team from Green Bay, Wisconsin, could come to New York City and beat the Giants," said Jim.

Jim went to college at Marquette University, and has been in Wisconsin ever since. Following a career in education, first teaching history and then being an administrator, he began what he calls a surprising new career.



"I did not retire thinking I'd be writing and talking about the Green Bay Packers," said Jim. "It just kind of happened spontaneously. Being retired, I just didn't have a lot of other things to do so I had some free time on my hands."



Jim started researching and writing about the Packers and the NFL, and his first book was about his two favorite teams.

"Started with the Packers/Giants relationship, went back as I mentioned before into the 20s, and Cal Hubbard and some of the other people that came from the Giants to the Packers," said Jim.

Three other books then were written, one on the NFL Championship games before the Super Bowl, another on the Packers 13-championship seasons, and a third detailing the Bears/Packers rivalry.





Now, Jim has a new Packers project in the works.

"It is a comprehensive look at every game they played; 1,074 games I want to say off the top of my head," said Jim.

That's right, Jim is looking to write about every game the team has ever played. He wants to do it to celebrate the team's upcoming 100th birthday, which will happen in 2019. But instead of book, Jim is looking to create an app.

Jim Rice





"The speed at which people can get information on the phone nowadays is something that I think it belongs there," Jim said.

Jim doesn't just want to use stats from the games. He plans to use stories about the games from several Packers Fan Hall of Fame members. He's also looking for help from other Packers' fans.

"I've started a GoFundMe page. It's called 'The Packers Century' and anybody that donates money, $5, $10, whatever, they get to put their own story in the app and in a sense I'm hoping we can kind of have a treasury of Packers' stories," said Jim.

There's sure to be a few stories for Jim himself, as his affection for the Packers might not have even started at an early age, but it has become a passion.



"It's been quite a ride for me in the short time that I've loved them as much as I do," said Jim.

Jim needs to raise $10,000 to get the app up and running.