The Green Bay Packers recently paid homage to one of the franchise' all-time greats in the form of a weekend ceremony inducting former quarterback Brett Favre into the team's Hall of Fame and retiring his vaunted No. 4 in front of a packed Lambeau Field. If another Packers legend has his way, Favre's emotional honoring won't be the only one held at Lambeau in the near future.
"I am pleased to tell you that thanks to your many heartfelt prayers, well-wishes, letters and phone calls, dad has begun turning the corner in a significant way," Bart Starr, Jr. said Saturday, via Packers.com. "And I've been dangling out to him three things that will take place. No. 1, he wants to walk out onto midfield and give Brett Favre a hug and tell him how much he loves and admires him."
That's right, Packers fans. Beloved Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr, 81, is feeling well enough that he's hopeful of being able to return to Lambeau sometime in 2015 in order to offer proper thanks to Favre, who, along with current quarterback Aaron Rodgers, are the only two men in Packer history to throw for more yards and touchdowns as members of the franchise than Starr himself.
But that's not all.
"No. 2, he wants to tell the same thing to all of you because you cannot imagine how strengthening it is to get all of your messages and all of your well-wishes. You have made a difference in his recovery and therefore in my mom's well-being also," said the younger Starr. "And No. 3, he will spend a good bit of the time during that day, before that night game, meeting with the Gage family, thanking them for all they did, for all that Mr. Gage did for over 20 years of service to the Press-Gazette and an equal level of dedication and class and character to how he handled this Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame."
Starr originally joined the Packers in 1956 and would remain with the franchise until 1971, during which time he was named the MVP of the league's first two Super Bowls, was selected to the Pro Bowl four times and won the league MVP award in 1966. He threw for 24,718 yards and 152 touchdowns during his career.
He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the Packers team Hall of Fame in 1977.
In late Jan. 2015, Cherry Starr, Bart's wife, indicated that her husband had been making a "very, very slow recovery" after having two strokes, four seizures and a heart attack, so the revelation from Bart Jr. that his father's health is improving is likely very welcome news for the Packer faithful.
Mike Gage was the Packers Hall of Fame board president and the third publisher of the family-owned Green Bay Press-Gazette. He died in Feb. 2013 at the age of 75.
