We all assumed the last time we’d see Bart Starr at Lambeau Field was last Thanksgiving.
Starr, who has been in failing health for more than a year, returned to Green Bay on the night Brett Favre had his retired number unveiled inside Lambeau. Unthinkably, the Packers lost to the Chicago Bears with their three greatest quarterbacks in attendance on that night as well.
That embarrassment is beside the point, though.
It was questionable that Starr would even be able to make that trip. That night, on the field, he looked frail. There were stories about how his memory has faded.
But it appears Starr’s family isn’t counting him out just yet.
Could Bart return to Green Bay again?
His son suggested that it’s a possibility.
“I don’t want last year’s event to be the last time that he was in Green Bay,” his son, Bart Starr Jr., said this week. “If it was, it was an amazing experience. But I’d love to have him up (there) again. He got so much out of that. There was nothing like the feeling of being back in Green Bay, being in the presence of the fans, seeing the people within the Packers organization, seeing Brett (Favre) and Aaron (Rodgers) and what it’s like to be in an electric environment like that. I’d love to replicate that.”
Starr has undergone experimental stem cell treatments to improve his health as he recovered from a pair of strokes. The positive boost Starr got from reconnecting with Green Bay appears to be driving another potential reunion.
“He was so into the game (on Thanksgiving last year),” Bart Jr. said. “He stayed up later than ever (that night). When we got back home, the next several weeks he was lights out doing great until he broke his hip. I felt that really (was) if not the equivalent of another stem-cell treatment, it certainly was a boost to his psychology, his feeling for what matters, all those 78,000 people and to re-connect with the city he cares for so much, it definitely provided a positive boost.”
We’d love to see Bart back in Green Bay again. We have nothing but respect for the guy.
Bart Starr will always be the real QB1 in our book.
