September 26, 2018 at 4:54 p.m.
Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport to unveil massive trove of football memorabilia
Exhibit highlights '60s-era Packers, other noted athletes
Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport to unveil massive trove of football memorabilia
The collection, donated by Bill and Pat Spars and featuring limited edition photos, etchings, paintings and other items, will be officially unveiled at 10 a.m. Thursday, airport officials said, adding that the exhibit space has been hidden under a shroud of black plastic for the past few weeks while workers put the finishing touches on it.
After it is officially unveiled, the exhibit will be open to the public during airport hours. No admission will be charged.
While the majority of the collection consists of Green Bay Packers memorabilia, there are some items recognizing Chicago sports stars such as Michael Jordan and Sammy Sosa, a nod to the collectors' years in the Windy City.
Legendary NFL quarterbacks Joe Namath, Terry Bradshaw, Dan Marino and Tom Brady also share the exhibit space with former Packers greats.
Bill Spars spent the better part of 40 years collecting the sports treasures.
"I've been retired for 22 years. I retired when I was 48 years old. One of the things people always did was ask 'what are you going to do when you retire?' Well, those 22 years, I don't know where the hell the time went because of the involvement of time in this collection," Spars told the River News.
"The era that I concentrated on was the '60s," Spars continued. "Everybody talks about the veterans. That's the big thing in today's world: the veteran police, the veteran fire people, veterans who served. But what about the veterans of the National Football League, they're getting treated so badly? They get no money; they get less than Social Security gives an average individual. They live in nursing homes."
Spars noted that he feels especially connected to the players of the '60s who suffered brain injuries from repeated concussions, having suffered a concussion himself two years ago.
He then rattled off a list of Packers greats from the '60s who have suffered health challenges.
"Paul Hornung, for all the cards he signs, he's in real bad shape," Spars said. "Forrest Gregg is another one who is in really bad shape. Look at Bart Starr and all those strokes and stuff. These are the players right now that we should be concerned about, not like Aaron Rogers with his $140 million. It's just not fair."
As for how the collection came to find a home at the airport, that was the work of three recently retired community leaders - former Rhinelander mayor Dick Johns, former airport director Joe Brauer and former airport commission chairman Bob Heck.
The trio have been quietly working on the project for over a year and are proud to note it was accomplished without a penny of taxpayer money. The nearly $40,000 cost to build the exhibit space came entirely from private donations, they said.
The seed for the project was planted after Johns met Bill and Pat Spars on a casino bus trip.
Bill Spars told the mayor about his collection and explained that he and his wife don't have anyone to leave it to and selling it wouldn't bring anywhere near what it is worth.
"He had worked his whole life on this and didn't really want it broken up," Brauer explained.
Spars asked Johns if the city would be interested in housing the collection. The mayor went to the appropriate city committees, only to see the idea shot down.
He then turned to Brauer, thinking the airport might be interested in hosting the collection.
"You never know, someone's collection they might think is kind of cool, but it's not really kind of cool, it depends on what it is," Brauer said.
He contacted Heck, who was still chairman of the airport commission at the time. Heck gave the go ahead to at least look at the collection.
"Now I grew up in the '50s and '60s as a huge Packers fan, and I walked in that room and I was just taken back," Brauer said. "Because once you start to look around and you see the autographs from Vince Lombardi, Paul Hornung, the Jim Taylors and all those players from that era. I was just in awe."
He took pictures of the Spars collection and showed them to Heck.
"Bob said, 'what are you waiting for?'" Brauer said. "That's typical Bob Heck."
"Why wouldn't you want to put it here at the airport?" Heck asked. "The tremendous amount of usage and viewing it would get would be unmatched."
Heck took the idea of building the exhibit space to the airport commission, which approved the idea unanimously. With the city adamant that no public funding would be spent on the project, Heck began fundraising for the just under $40,000 needed to build the exhibit cases, light them and provide adequate security.
"We ended up with three major donors, and that was Printpack, Robert and June Heck - no surprise there - and Ripco Credit Union, and there were some other monies," Brauer said.
Because this is the Packers 100th season, Brauer said the possibility of a tie-in was explored, but nothing could be worked out.
Spars said he originally considered giving his collection directly to the Packers.
"Green Bay refused to take any of my stuff; they said they had too much. Well, somebody tells you that, that tells you why should Bart Starr give his rings or his watches or his car and all the other footballs and everything that people have had for 20 years that simply didn't want them to destroy it. They wanted to keep it as a memento of that specific era," he said.
Heck said the exhibit is designed to be open and inviting and give passengers something to do before boarding their flights.
"I think it is going to be a home run for the airport," he said.
"Airports are boring. They are hurry up and wait, they really are," Brauer added.
Brauer's successor, Matthew Leitner, disagreed with the assessment of airports as being boring.
"I was thinking, when you go to Yellowstone, there is an arch at the entrance that says 'for the benefit and enjoyment for the people,'" Leitner said. "And I think this is going to add to the allure of an already beautiful airport. And it will be for the benefit and enjoyment of the public."
And as impressive as the collection at the airport is, it is a good thing it was designed with future expansion in mind.
"There is Phase II of this collection which is still at my home," Spars said. "When the time comes, you will have a massive collection that will probably be equal to anything in Green Bay. Green Bay, right now, just has the bare essentials. I went further, I got the pictures, I got the prints, I got the history. They wouldn't invest in all that, artists creating pictures. There were just things that I liked, one-of-kind things, 500 pictures, that's it, there will be no more. How many will be destroyed, I don't know, but you will have one of 500 or one of 200. Some of those etchings that you have are just impossible to find. Some of those autographed etchings, the 8x10s, they call them the William's Prints, they made that in '66 or '67, and they are etchings of the ballplayers. My collection at home has them all autographed, and I didn't want to give those up because there is a tremendous amount of value in it."
Spars took a tour of the nearly finished exhibit last week and was overwhelmed by what he saw.
"Anyone involved with putting this thing together, it just blew me away," Spars said. "When it's free and nobody is there, I will come back and I will look at it with different eyes again. This is probably the fourth time (the collection's) been moved and it will be the last time it is moved."
He was equally impressed with the museum quality display cases that the airport installed to house the collection.
"I'm just amazed at the work, the money that was spent," Spars said. "The only other thing that I can say is I am sure glad that Rhinelander, Mr. Heck and all you people here have this, because Green Bay just lost something that probably nobody will be able to give them, because they didn't care. You cared, and that's one of the most important things because Dick and Joe, when I talked to you, I could sense the caring. Joe said it the other day; you're part of our family. I used to live in Arbor Vitae and Woodruff area, and nobody has ever said to me. Even when I left Chicago and came up to Mercer, nobody said 'well, you're part of the family.' And when Joe told me that, Pat nearly cried. We've never had that closeness."
Spars also talked about how Lombardi famously focused on the importance of family.
"My wife told me not to say this, but I will. I was an un-rostered player from 1965 to 67," Spars said. "Being an unrostered player means you tried out for the team, you're around the team; you're like the movie 'Rudy.' 'Rudy' really brings tears to my eyes because he was like me. I really wanted to do as much as I could to be part of it. And I knew that a championship and a ring meant a lot. And I tried out and I didn't make it. I was just like anybody else; I was 20 years old, out of Chicago. They said 'go to Green Bay, they're looking for guards.'"
"I feel that all I accomplished was getting the history, and instead of playing, you got the history," Spars added.
Spars said the two Super Bowl rings in the collection were given to him by a lady in Green Bay named Shirley Leonard. In addition to the '66 and '67 Super Bowl rings, the collection also includes a 1965 championship ring.
Like the collection itself, the collectors have also found a new home in Rhinelander.
"We're prepared to stay here the rest of our lives," Bill said. "I've been as far north as I want to go and now I'm coming down south. This is it."
The couple has no children nor do any of their siblings, Pat noted, "so the Spars name will never live on. Now it lives on (through this collection)."
After hearing about the need for financial donations to build the display cases, Veronika Baron, vice president of Human Resources at Ripco, said she didn't hesitate to go the credit union's board.
"Bob (Heck) and I have a strong relationship. And when he first approached me about it, it took me a minute to comprehend all that he was saying," Baron said. "I was honored that I was even approached. And then having to go through the proper protocol for a donation of that amount has to go to our board of directors. I was so touched that they just immediately said yes; the way it was presented to them, they were all on board right away, and that means a lot."
Pat Marquardt, Printpack plant manager and current airport commission chairman, said he can't wait for his customers who fly into town to do business to see the new display.
"I get to double dip," Marquardt said "I get to donate to get the cases built but, since I took over for Bob, I get to see it from the other side, too. My job was easy, I just had to go to the Love family (owners of Printpack) and ask them for money. That was the easy part; these guys did a heck of a job putting it together.
Bill Spars said he envies new airport director Leitner.
"He has a bad day, all he has to do is walk in here and look at it," Spars said. "To me, he's the ideal person to watch over it and take care of it for me and still take care of the airport. I know when I worked, there were days I just wanted to walk around and clear my head. And you can do that now because you have something to see."
"He's the new caretaker," Pat added.
Like a lot of collections, Bill Spars' assortment of treasures started small and grew over time.
"When we left Chicago and we had to pack up, my wife asked 'where the hell did this all come from?' And I had said I wanted to make a Packers room in the house and down in my basement I had a gigantic room there," Bill said.
"He was collecting those little 3x5 cards and he'd have tracks like a train track all the way around the room," Pat interjected.
"All I got to say is a lot of those cards, I gave to kids because they didn't know the '70s and '80s Packers," Bill said. "Nobody wanted to be a Packers fan then. If you lived here in the '80s, you know that Green Bay was the worst place anybody could end up. When you went to Green Bay, your career was over. They had some management problems and the players didn't want to play. They wanted to go anyplace else but Green Bay."
Now, that's all changed," he added quickly.
"This is something I want to stress, this is your collection," Spars said. "It is your property, and it is for the memories of ballplayers that played here. I like it because I can go around and say Rhinelander has something even Green Bay can't do, and they're the town. So what do they think of their memorabilia if they're not willing to show it to the public?"
Johns said the breadth of the finished product was a real surprise to him, surpassing even his grandest hopes.
"I didn't expect what they did with it," Johns said. "I said to Bill and Pat today, 'we got it in the right place.'"
"I know having all that around the Heisman statue is a dream that Bob (Heck) has had for a long time," Johns added, referring to the bust of John Heisman, namesake of college football's Heisman Trophy, on display at the airport. "I know Bob tried many, many years ago, to get the Heisman Trophy people to start coming into Rhinelander and supporting Heisman because he's buried here. And it kind of fell by the wayside."
Over his years as mayor, Johns said he would take anyone who inquired about Heisman to his grave in Forest Home Cemetery. Heisman never lived in Rhinelander, however his wife had ties to the community and chose to bury him here.
"I can't say how pleased I am with all this, Pat and the commission and the other people who have supported it," Johns said.
Spars said he hopes school classes will visit the exhibit and it will increase the number of non-traveling visitors to the airport.
Leitner said he and the board were all for getting more people to visit the airport.
"The airport got two great upgrades in 2018," Marquardt said. "We got the collection and we got Matthew."
Brauer has ideas for the future as well. Eventually, the Spars Collection at the airport could be but one stop on a football-themed tour of Rhinelander, he said.
The other stops being Heisman's grave, Mike Webster Stadium, named after the late Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Steelers center and Rhinelander native Mike Webster, and Sarocka Field where the Packers held what many believe to be their first preseason practice in 1935.
"Every mayor has to have something to represent his legacy as a mayor, and when I thought of it, that (the collection) would be a good legacy for (Johns) to have," Spars said.
Jamie Taylor may be reached via email at [email protected].
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