Wayne Larrivee - Green Bay Packers: Stories from the Green Bay Packers Sideline, Locker Room, and Press Box

In the course of covering a pro football team, one works weekends and holidays because that is when the games are played. Weekends and holidays arefamily time for most people. I missed a lot of those times over the years covering NFL football, but my wife, Julie, and sons, Scott and Bryan, were extremely understanding and accommodating. I cant thank them enough.

Wayne Larrivee

To my children, Madison and Miayour growth provides me with pride and joy each and every day.

Rob Reischel

Contents

Prologue

Why Green Bay?

T he Packers were one of the two teams I loved as a kid. The other one was the New York Yankees.

I grew up in Lee, Massachusetts, in the 1960s, and the Yankees and Packers were my teams. I became particularly enamored with the Packers during the Lombardi years, thanks in part to the Ice Bowl and Jerry Kramers book Instant Replay , which detailed the historic 1967 season.

I always thought it would be pretty cool to broadcast games for a team that I followed as a kid, so I had that in the back of my mind. If you are going to do NFL football on the radio every Sunday, what better place to do it than Lambeau Field? That was always my thought. It still is.

Ill never forget this: my first NFL broadcast as a Kansas City Chiefs announcer was in 1978. It was a preseason game at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. And it was the old Lambeau Field. The Pabst scoreboards were the only scoreboardsone on the north end, one on the south end.

It was a thrill to be there. Every time I work with James Lofton today, I remind him that 1978 was his rookie year with the Packers and I called his first game, which was also my first NFL game. Here I was in Green Bay, this place I had heard so much about but had never seen. My eyes were just dilated.

Green Bay was always my destination job. So when Jim Irwin announced his retirement following the 1998 season, I inquired about the position. I had a job broadcasting the Chicago Bears back then, so my inquiry was done very quietly. Many people in the business were telling me, You dont want to do that.

By 1998, the Packers were goodwinning division titles, making the playoffs, playing in two Super Bowls and winning one. Still, people were asking me, Why would you want to do that? Why would you leave Chicago to go there?

Id say, Well, its not a business decision. Its one of those things that you just feel like you have to do. I said to myself, Youve been telling yourself and everybody that matters that this is what youd like to do for a long time now . If I didnt try and do it at that point, I knew I would go to my grave thinking, You should have done that .

So I did. I inquired about the Packers opening at WTMJ radio. And Ill never forget what happened after. I was doing the Chicago Cubs at the time, as well. I was filling in for Harry Caray, and we had a series in Milwaukee. While I was in town, I met with Jon Schweitzer, the general manager at WTMJ; Rick Belcher, who was the program director; and Paul LeSage, who ran the radio network.

So we met at Turners, right across the street from the Bradley Center. We were having lunch, and at one point Jon said, So youre doing the Bears, youre doing the Bulls, and youre doing the Cubs. Why do you want to come here? And he kind of looked at me incredulously like, Whats wrong with you? But I explained why I felt I wanted and needed to broadcast Packers football.

So we broke up and Jon and Rick headed off. LeSage and I were standing in front of the restaurant, and I was waiting for a cab. LeSage said to me, I have someone in mind I would like to hire, but hes tied up with a national job. And I thought, Well, that lunch interview went really well, didnt it? How about that?

So this process went along during the entire 1998 season. Jim and Max (McGee) were leaving. They needed someone to pair with Larry McCarren, and they were looking at a bunch of candidates. It kind of went back and forth, and Jon called one day in late October and asked if we could meet. And I said, Listen. Where is this going? Because if its not going anywhere lets not even meet. But he said, Yeah, its going somewhere. So we met at a McDonalds on Interstate 94 at the Lake Forest Oasis and talked about the job. That meeting actually went well, and I really enjoyed visiting with Jon.

Weeks later, after being offered the job, I was starting to struggle with the decision. I knew that this move just didnt make any sense professionally. I was doing all this stuff in Chicago, I was in a market that appreciated me, and even the media people were great friends of mine. It was a wonderful situation.

At the station I was working for, WMAQ, the station manager, Wheezie Kramer, and program director, Lorna Gladstone (whom I had worked with at WGN), were really good to me. So were the Bears. Team president Mike McCaskey brought me into his office and promised that if the games changed stations, I would be protected, just as I was when they moved from WGN to WMAQ.

All of those years I thought if someone ever offered me the Packers job, it would be a slam dunk. Id take it right on the spot. But there were a lot more factors involved. Everyone was really trying to get me to stay. The station and the team had really stepped up to the plate and let me know I was wanted. I was talking to myself a lot in those days, and I said, I dont know if I can do this.

I talked it over with my wife, Julie, and sons, Scott and Bryan. At one point Scott said, Dad, you always tell us to follow our dreams. If you dont do this, youre not following your dream. Maybe that was something I needed to hear.

That conversation, and the relationship I had started to build with Jon Schweitzer, ended up being the keys to convincing me to take the job. As I mentioned, I was working for terrific people in Chicago, but I felt very comfortable with Jon. I really wanted to work for him. He is just such a terrific person.

So in the end I just couldnt say no to my family, who knew this was what I had always hoped to do, or to Jon, who had gone through a long process himself to get to that point. Those people helped convince me in the end that this was what I had to do.

After the announcement, I got a lot of blowback from Chicago people. I still do today. I did not realize my impact in that market and that it would matter to people if I left, because I dont think in those terms. I didnt realize until I was halfway to Kenosha that there was somewhat of an uproar, and I thought, Really? Im just a play-by-play guy who left for another job. Whats the big deal?

Chicago is the greatest sports town in America. The fans make it the greatest. Chicago people follow their media almost as much as they love their players. They know a lot about the writers and the broadcasters, and it all becomes very personal with Chicago sports fans. Thats different from every market that Ive been in. Very different.

In the end, though, I made the move and its been great. My son Scott went to the University of WisconsinMadison and met his future wife, Rachel Allen, while working for the late Marc Marotta at DOA. My younger son, Bryan, became my spotter working in the booth on Packers games for a decade. When I first brought Bryan in the Packers radio booth, some thought I was looking for a father-son bonding experience. That was not my original intent, but became a nice fringe benefit. Bryan was very professional and did an outstanding job of spotting the games. Within a few weeks, everyone understood and respected his important role on our broadcast team. He too went to UWMadison and now works in Los Angeles. Our family has enjoyed Wisconsin. And for me, my childhood dream came true when I got to call the play-by-play for the Packers in Super Bowl XLV.