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'Titletown West' fandom
Green Bay, Wis., is known at "Titletown." Its professional football team, the Green Bay Packers, have won more NFL championships than any other team in the league.
Sunday night, it added one more, with Glenns Ferry's Korey Hall starting for the Packers.
The celebration of his achievement and the pride of his home town in its favorite son turned Glenns Ferry into "Titletown West" in the week leading up to the Super Bowl.
There were more people in Cowboys Stadium, where the game was played, than live in Green Bay, and more people in the stadium's VIP boxes alone than live in Glenns Ferry.
But for the little town in Elmore County, where roughly 1,500 people live, it was the biggest event in half a century for the community.
Last Wednesday, at her Potpourri Beauty Salon in downtown Glenns Ferry, Karen Hall was putting the final touches on Thelma Christiansen's hairdo.
The front window of her downtown Glenns Ferry shop was decorated with Green Bay Packers paraphernalia.
The gold and green theme was carried throughout the town as the community geared up to watch hometown celebrity Korey Hall and the Green Bay Packers face off against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV.
Excitement had swelled in Glenns Ferry after the Packers beat the arch-rival Chicago Bears for the NFC Championship and a chance to play in Sunday's game. Mayor JoAnne Lanham had proclaimed Feb. 6 as Korey Hall Day and Carmela Winery issued a special label for one of it's Merlot wines, celebrating Hall.
In the downtown area plastic banners bearing Hall's No. 35 jersey number hung from green lampposts wrapped with yellow ribbon. The U.S. and POW/MIA flags, usually reserved for national holidays, flew from light poles.
A Packers flag hung outside JW Electronics while bouquets of green and yellow balloons sprouted along 1st Avenue.
A "noise parade" from the Elmore County Fairgrounds to the high school was quickly put together for Friday afternoon. Following the parade, fans, friends and family members, old, young and in between, gathered for a community photo at the high school football field. Many of those in the photo sported specially made green and gold T-shirts (300 were sold) with the words "Go Pack Go" on the front and "Hall 35" on the back.
Karen and her husband, Dan, missed Friday's festivities. By then, they were already in Dallas.
"I am so excited," Karen said, on Wednesday. "I don't know if it's my dream come true, but it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Karen and Dan flew down to Dallas on Thursday and planned to spend the evening with Korey and his fiancé, Jenny Zimmerman. The couple plan to marry this April in Mexico.
Karen was looking forward to participating in a number of activities arranged for team member families in the days leading up to the Super Bowl.
Karen recalled that special day back in 2007 when Hall was drafted by the Packers in the sixth round.
"We went out to (Carmela) winery and had the all-you-can-eat ribs," she recalled.
Korey comes from a family of football players. Dan's father was a college coach and his brother played for Boise State. Dan played football at Cerritos Junior College in California then went on to play as a linebacker for the Idaho State University Bengals. He was the athletic director and football coach for Glenns Ferry High School until one year after Korey's graduation and continues his association with the Glenns Ferry School District as a middle school history teacher.
Although a fan of football, Dan did not allow Korey to play until he reached middle school.
A student at Boise State University, where he earned a degree in Construction Management, Korey also starred on the BSU Bronco football team.
Originally, he had no aspirations to play professional football. During his sophomore year he began to reconsider that position.
After gaining some confidence (he earned first-team All-Western Athletic Conference honors as a BSU linebacker three straight years and helped his team win the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, 43-42, against Oklahoma State), Korey figured he might just have what it takes to play in the National Football League.
The Green Bay Packers agreed.
Instead of continuing as a linebacker, the Packers converted Hall to a fullback. According to his biography. posted on the Packers' official website, he "displayed ability to move well as a fullback and catch the ball out of the backfield in workouts for scouts."
As a member of the Packers, Hall has been a star on special teams, excellent in blitz pickups and the best receiving fullback out of the backfield.
"Dan is really excited. He's hoping Korey can do a full game," Karen said during last week's interview.
Like most mothers whose children play sports, Karen worries about injuries, and this year her son has suffered a few setbacks, including a recent knee injury that kept him off the field for several weeks.
During last Wednesday's interview, Karen's cell phone rang. It was Korey. "He says he feels great," Karen said after hanging up.
Karen said Korey was "just giddy with excitement" about playing in the Super Bowl, and she and Dan were looking forward to some of the scheduled activities planned for team parents, including a tour of Fort Worth, a visit to the JFK museum and a pregame tailgate party at their hotel.
Some of the pre-arranged activities for team families scheduled for Thursday, however, had to be postponed due to weather. It was actually colder in Dallas than in Green Bay, Wis., that day.
"We mostly hung out with the parents, friends and players," Karen said. Thursday's scheduled tours were held on Friday.
On game day, a quick call to Karen revealed that the family was enjoying their trip. "It's the most wonderful experience ever," she declared.
When asked how Korey was doing, Karen responded, "He's feeling great. He's ready to play the game."
Korey was listed as one of the starters in Sunday's game, and Karen and Dan were looking forward to seeing their son play in his first Super Bowl -- and getting the chance to go down onto the field after the game.
Team parents were given a police escort to the game. The Halls' tickets were on the fourth level on the 40-yard line.
Karen was happy with the location, explaining that the view from higher up is much better than from the lower levels.
Sitting with them were Korey's grandparents, Dick and Cindy King.
Meanwhile, in Glenns Ferry, families were glued to their television sets. Some residents had gathered at Stew's Bar for a "tailgate party" that began well before the game and lasted well afterward.
On Sunday evening, Korey Hall and his Green Bay Packer teammates beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 in Super Bowl XLV, and as the cheering in Stew's Bar could be heard almost as far away as Dallas, Hall and his family celebrated on the field, taking pictures of him holding the silver Lombardi Trophy, presented to the winners of the Super Bowl and named after the legendary Packer coach.
The team returned to Green Bay Monday in anticipation of a parade and celebration in "Titletown" on Tuesday.
His parents were scheduled to return to "Titletown West" (Glenns Ferry) on Tuesday.
Each of the last several years Hall has held an off-season football clinic for high school players throughout the region at Glenns Ferry High School. This year, he'll be bringing a world championship ring with him.