By Tim “Shoe” Sullivan
I graduated from UWSP in 1972. Then for the next fourteen years, my buddies Mike Haberman, Randy Wievel, and I wrote columns for Ray Nitschke’s Packer Report .

Every year, Royle Publishing Company and Ray would throw a party for the staff at the Carlton West in Green Bay. We always attended that.

And so did the other Packer Report columnists like Lee Remmel, Shirley Leonard, Art Daley, and Chuck Lane. We loved talking to those folks.

Now fast forward to sometime around the early 1980s. UWSP Communications Prof. Jim Moe gave me a call. Jim used to umpire softball with us.

He said it was a long shot, but he wanted to know if I could line up a speaker for an event at UWSP. A Communications Department prof was retiring. (I think it was either Dan Houlihan or C.Y.Allen).

I told Mr. Moe that I’d give it a try.

Now let’s go back to Mr. Remmel.

Lee Remmel covered or worked for the Green Bay Packers for 62 years. In 1945, he was a sportswriter for the Green Bay Press Gazette. Remmel was the only sportswriter who covered all of the Packer coaches from the first (Curly Lambeau) to Bart Starr. He went to work in the Packers’ front office in 1974 as the Public Relations Director. He was one of twelve people honored by the NFL for covering the first 40 Super Bowls.

In 2004, Lee was named the first historian of the Green Bay Packers. He retired in 2007 at age 83.

Lee was inducted into the Green Bay Packer Hall of Fame in 1996. The Lambeau Field press box was named “The Lee Remmel Press Box” in 2003.

Mr. Remmel died in 2015. Brett Favre said “Lee is a Packer icon.”

Now let’s go back to that Communication Dept. event. You can see where this is going, right?

I picked up the phone and dialed Lee’s number in Green Bay. Back then, you could talk directly to the person you were trying to reach.

“Hello. This is Lee Remmel,” said Lee Remmel.

“Hi, Lee, Tim Sullivan from Stevens Point here.”

Lee said: “Hi, Tim. What’s up?”

I said: “Uh, I don’t know how to say this, but the Comm. Department at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point is having an event honoring someone in a few weeks, and I’m supposed to line up a speaker.”

Remmel: “What day and time is it, and when do you want me there?”

I said: “Uh, Lee, did I mention that the speaker won’t be paid anything?”

Lee replied: “Like I said. When do you want me there?”

That’s class, folks.

So Packer Legend Lee Remmel drove up from Green Bay, and he delivered a great speech which got a standing ovation. And he didn’t ask for a dime.

He used a bunch of hand-written notes on a yellow legal pad. And he told several Vince Lombardi stories. And after his speech, he let me have his notes.

And I still have the notes.

It’s like Brett Favre said. Lee Remmel was a Packer icon. And a wonderful man as well.