Editor’s note: The author grew up in Wisconsin and is a Chicago Bears fan.
Fans of the Green Bay Packers will give several reasons their team is—beyond comparison to any other team—the best in the National Football League. They have more championship titles than any other team in the league, and were a professional football “dynasty,” (generally regarded to mean a team that dominates a sport for an extraordinary length of time, at minimum three years), twice—with back-to-back championships from 1929 to 1931 and five championships in seven years from 1961 to 1967.
As if these facts couldn’t make a Packer fan any prouder, the team is also the only one in all of American professional sports, (including football, baseball, basketball, and hockey), that’s publicly owned. This means that anyone can buy stock in the Green Bay Packers. The team also has the smallest market of any NFL team, being the last from the hometown teams (Green Bay, Wisc., is roughly the size of Santa Maria).
And there’s one thing about the Green Bay Packers fans that absolutely cannot be ignored: It’s hard to escape them because they’re everywhere, including here in abundance on the Central Coast. In the land of Raiders, Chargers, and 49ers fans, it’s hard to not notice a Packers bumper sticker or T-shirt here and there. Driving through Santa Maria, a Packers banner hangs from the second story balcony at 1106 S. Broadway.
The person who hung it is none other than Jose Corona, owner of Corona Marketing, and a Packers shareholder.
As a 45-year-old Santa Maria native, Corona’s been a Packers fan almost his entire life. How can this be? It’s a simple story, really.
Corona said he was around 7 years old and with his brother at a flea market somewhere in the San Fernando Valley, where he grew up. According to Corona, his brother bought a Green Bay Packers sticker, gave it to him and said, “This is going to be our team now.” And it was.
Years later, he bought one share of the Green Bay Packers, costing him $200. Shareholders hold a special meeting in Green Bay each year to discuss company business and hold votes, although Corona’s never been to a meeting. For him, it’s just a novelty and the ultimate token of his fandom.
But he still keeps track of the Pack. In a half-serious tone, Corona told the Sun how many times the Packers will play in California this season.
“Three times,” Corona said. “They play the 49ers and the Raiders at home, and they’re coming to the Superbowl.”
This echoes the general winningest sentiment of all Packers fans. What Corona does know for sure is that he loves Wisconsin.
“Everyone in Green Bay was super nice,” he said.
Packers fans may also remember Corona from the news. He’s appeared with his family in several widely circulated sports photographs, and several times in news clips in the past as that guy from Santa Maria, Calif., who is a huge fan.
Corona went to Lambeau Field for the first time on Jan. 11, watching the Pack beat the Dallas Cowboys 26-21, and then following the game in Seattle to watch the Pack play the Seahawks in the National Football Conference Championship Game. The Packers lost that game 28-22 in overtime.
Another Packers-Seattle game holds a (not-so) special connection to Santa Maria. For Corona and every other Packers fan, the game was a bitter reminder of the Monday night game played at CenturyLink Field on Sept. 24, 2012.
In the final play of the game, Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson threw a Hail Mary pass to wide receiver Golden Tate, but both Tate and Packers defender M.D. Jennings had possession of the ball, although it was infamously ruled a Seattle touchdown. It was a controversial play because two referees gave conflicting calls in what is known in NFL lore as the Inaccurate Reception.
One ref called a touchdown while the other called a touchback. NFL referee Lance Easley, who was a full-time banker from Santa Maria at the time, ruled it as a touchdown.
As noted before, Packers fans are everywhere on the Central Coast. Yet Corona said he has a hard time finding new Packers gear in the local shop in the Town Center Mall and in San Luis Obispo.
The Sun went a little deeper and found Nancy Gruenberger a Wisconsinite who moved from Milwaukee to Santa Maria in 1977. Now in her 70s, she runs a pet sitting business called Critter Sitters. Her Packers fandom begins in the years shortly after the Lombardi era.
She remembers becoming a fan in 1972 after receiving a book with a title to the effect of “a woman’s guide to football.”
Gruenberger goes way back. She talks of the “dark days” following Lombardi’s reign up until the signing of Brett Favre, the legendary coach George Halas, and the Packers’ epic rivalry with the Chicago Bears.
According to Gruenberger, the rivalry goes back as far as 1922, when Halas scandalized the Packers by illegally using college players during their regular season games.
Gruenberger has remained a fan of the Pack throughout her years in Santa Maria. At first, it was hard for her to find a place to watch the games around town until a place called Stinky’s Grill opened on South Broadway. Both Gruenberger and Corona fondly remember this as being “The Packers Bar” in Santa Maria until it closed in 2014.
Because NFL teams can only have 11 players on the field during a play, the fan is often referred to as “the 12th man.” No matter where the Packers play, there’s always a 12th man, it seems. According to Gruenberger, fans tend to gravitate toward each other no matter where they are.
“When you see someone wearing Packers stuff, you always acknowledge them,” Gruenberger said.
Contact Staff Writer David Minsky at dminsky@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Sep 3-10, 2015.
