Stem Cells, Bart Starr's Brain, and Twitter

Tweet

Nov 12, 2015 In 1967, at age 23 or 24, I was a young mother of two children ages 4 and infant. I didn't care about football, except to detest the Cowboys. It had been only 6 years since I graduated high school and because I was in the band in junior high and high school, I'd been to every school football game since the 7th grade; plus in '67, we had only a black and white television. I was burnt out on football, to say the least, and certainly not interested in watching it in black and white. So when my husband sat down at his mother's house to watch the Ice Bowl with his dad, I wasn't involved at all. Until the last few seconds of this 35th NFL Championship game, that is. The Green Bay Packers were playing the Dallas Cowboys in Green Bay, Wisconsin. It was December 31. It was cold, –15°F and the turf heating system had failed, leaving the field sheeted with ice. It was a very close game—Cowboys ahead 17–14. With 16 seconds remaining on the clock and no timeouts left for Green Bay, the Packers, after driving from their own 32 yard line, had the ball on the Cowboys' two-foot line. It was third down and make or break for the Packers. The rest is history. The Packers won on a quarterback sneak. The quarterback was Bart Starr and I was instantly a Packers fan for life. And took up watching football again. I thought about the Ice Bowl today because I saw an article on Twitter (via @gbpressgazette, one of the "people" I follow there) about Bart Starr. He's been going to Tijuana for stem cell treatments. This is his second trip for the treatments that will, if all goes well, help his brain recover from two strokes and his heart heal from a heart attack. Starr, 81, hopes to be well enough to walk onto the field with Brett Favre when Favre's jersey number is retired at halftime on Thanksgiving. No mention was made of what Starr had for lunch.