Packerland selects, part 2

Here are more stories I wrote for Packerland Pride magazine. It's a long list, so let's get to it.

- Over 6,000 words on the life, death, and return of the Hotel Northland to downtown Green Bay.

- On an original member of the 1919 and 1920 Packers, Gus Rosenow, a receiver with one hand.

- Remembering the late Packers great, Fuzzy Thurston.

- A breakfast with Martha's Coffee Club, the group of fans who've met since 1947.

- On the wide receivers of Green Bay's past, present, and future.

- Looking at Matt Flynn's weird little spot in Packers history.

- A three-part series on a possible Super Bowl being played in Lambeau Field and hosted by Green Bay and Wisconsin. The chances, pitfulls, opportunities, and whether or not the area should even want one at all:  Part 1 || Part 2 || Part 3

- The journey from Wautoma, Madison, Green Bay, and beyond for Jared Abbrederis.

- The inevitable greatness of Jordy Nelson.

- And lastly my series, Northern Hostilities, on the history and current standing of each of the Packers' divisional rivalries:  The Vikings. || The Bears. || The Lions.

---

There you have it. Feel free to email (griffingotta [at] gmail [dot] com) with any questions or comments. Thanks for reading, as always.

Packerland selects, part 1

Now that I'm a few months removed from being buried underneath a season of Packers football, editing and writing Packerland Pride magazine, I wanted to share a few select pieces from the past couple of months.

- I wrote about the Piccadilly, a former Green Bay club that was eventually banned by Vince Lombardi, and its owner, Bob Harrill.

- A profile of Green Bay Packers team historian and longtime Wisconsin sportswriter Cliff Christl, who never stops working through history.

- Looking back at Super Bowl II, the sometimes-forgotten title with an interesting place in Packers history.

- Before his induction, the case for former Packers general manager Ron Wolf to be a Pro Football Hall of Famer.

- And a recent essay, on the Packers' increasingly long lineage of insane and heartbreaking losses in the playoffs.

More updates soon-ish. Thanks for reading.

Is this thing on? [UPDATE: YES IT IS.]

So, that was an extended break from updating the old website here. I'll give you an update of where I'm at, and what I've been doing.

- I was in Auburn, Ala., for this year's Iron Bowl. And, for The Classical, here's my dispatch from one of the craziest sports-things I've ever seen.

- Also, since we last spoke, I've become editor of Packerland Pride magazine and curator of its website, packerlandpride.com.

There you can find selected stories from each issue of the magazine -- we've been around since August -- as well as game previews I've been writing throughout the season.

For the sake of catching up, here are a few pieces I've done for the magazine.

- I traced the Packers' radio and television presence through history, and made the case that hometown radio teams will always be relevant because they're fans too.

- I chronicled the Packers' long lineage of great wide receivers, basically from the team's start.

- As former Packers linebacker Dave Robinson was set to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, I spoke with him about his career in Green Bay and more.

Packerland Pride is a fan-focused magazine at heart, and here are three features I did on the incredible things Packers fans do:

- This is on Patti Schroeder, who turned her barn into a memorable billboard during the tumultuous Packers/Brett Favre saga a few years ago.

- On a group from Wausau, Wis., and their longtime tailgating traditions which also serve as perfect ways to showcase Wisconsin hospitality at its finest.

- And, after the highly-controversial Fail Mary against the Seattle Seahawks in 2012, on how a small T-shirt company made up of friends in Iola, Wis., turned the misfortune into a great way to vent, which turned into the best business decision they could've made.

That's sort of caught up, for now, and I'll be back to update again after the January issue is released. Thanks, as ever, for reading, and feel free to email me at anytime at griffingotta [at] gmail [dot] com.

Until next time.

Latest at The Classical

On the eve of Game 7 of the NBA Finals, I wrote, at The Classical, an appreciation of the incredible Game 6 and the mystery of the season's last game. It lived up to whatever I wanted it to be, that's for certain.

It is always a blast to write for that site.

Arena football in Auburn

This week I did a longish feature on the Chattahoochee Valley Vipers, an arena football team with wishes to move to Auburn. They've got a ways to go, but the right mindset to potentially pull it off.

Here's the story.


Until next time.

The month of May at the Auburn Villager

Hello,

Here's some of what I did in May at the Villager:

- I wrote about Auburn AD Jay Jacobs and his optimism about the future of the school's athletic programs.

- I did a feature on Auburn's 1913 football team, which went undefeated and are thought by some to be the national champions, and maybe the school's best team ever. (Update: This story won first place in the 2014 Alabama Press Association awards for Best Sports Feature Story. So that was cool.)

- Auburn High's baseball team made a run to the state semifinals; here's a look at how and why they got there.


Questions or comments about anything? Feel free to email me at griffingotta[at]gmail.com. Thanks for stopping by.

Newest batch of Villager stuff

Hello --

Here's a roundup of what I've been working on the last few weeks at the Auburn Villager.

- First, I wrote that while the Auburn Tigers may not have many concrete answers after spring practice, they're getting closer to finding them.

- This week, I covered Auburn High school's baseball team and their recent comeback playoff victory.

- And here are the last two week's worth of Mad Men discussion/recap posts: "To Have and to Hold." "The Flood."


Thanks for being here.