The Story Behind The NC State Flag At Green Bay Packers Games

I saw something I didn't expect during a trip to Lambeau Field: A Wolfpack flag. Here's the story of why it's there for nearly every home game.

The Slobberin’ Wolf flag flying in the snow before Sunday night’s Packers-Chiefs game in Green Bay.

My dad has been a Green Bay Packers fan ever since he was a kid in the 1960s. He liked the colors. Then he idolized Bart Starr, and watched them win the first two Super Bowls ever. In all that time, though, he’s never been to Green Bay for a game, and so this year for his birthday, my brother and I surprised him with tickets for the Sunday night game against the Chiefs.

I’ll give you the highlights, of which there are many: We saw the Packers win. It snowed. We met former wide receiver Antonio Freeman on a tour, who said he knew that Green Bay would win the 1996 NFC title game over the Panthers once he saw Carolina’s defenders walk out before with bare arms, then come out later wearing sleeves (“The cold got into their heads, man,” he said.) We ate cheese curds and chili at Kroll’s West. We took a loop around the man-made snowtubing hill at Titletown, and got a selfie with the Packers’ kicker, punter, and long snapper. I did not see Taylor Swift at the game, although I did see Green Bay native Tony Shalhoub on the Jumbotron. I also spotted Simone Biles waiting at the gate at the tiny airport in Appleton (she’s married to Green Bay’s Jonathan Owens and got some amazing swag at the game).

Unfortunately, I did not have this experience:

My dad had one of the best weekends of his life. I loved every minute of it.

But that’s not why you’re here, dear reader of the NORTH CAROLINA Rabbit Hole.

You’re here for the thing about the NC State flag.

Kelly Fitzgerald noticed one of the pictures I posted during my trip, and invited my dad and I to his tailgate in the Lambeau Field parking lot. “Look for the slobbering wolf flag,” he said in response to my tweet. Kelly is a high school math teacher in Green Bay who gives tours of Lambeau in his spare time. He and his wife are also Packers season ticket holders—Kelly’s dad bought them when the stadium opened in 1957, and passed them down to him in 1990. Kelly was born and raised in Wisconsin, but wanted to get away for college. His sister went to NC State. He watched Jim Valvano and his team win the 1983 Men’s Basketball Championship. So he came down south, enrolled, and graduated in 1989 with two degrees—mathematics and education. Then he came back to Green Bay and created a Wolfpack mancave so hardcore that the university featured it in 2020.

Around 4:30 local time, my dad and I walked up to the tailgate party. Some of the food was covered up, because it had been snowing for hours and was still coming down. Kelly, his wife, and their friends fed us brats, burgers, spinach dip, cheesecake, and a mystery shot which, if I had to guess, was Kahlúa?

I also immediately spotted the Wilber’s barbecue sauce on the table. Kelly had it shipped in from Goldsboro.

Wilber’s Barbecue Sauce in the snow.

Kelly’s a hardcore sports fan, and tweets a lot about the Packers, the Wisconsin Badgers, and NC State, the three teams whose flags he flies over every tailgate at Lambeau. He’s also, it turns out, a Rabbit Hole subscriber. He heard one of the segments I did on the radio with Joe Ovies and Joe Giglio and signed up for this newsletter last year. When he saw me tweeting from Green Bay, he immediately invited us over.

Kelly and his friends couldn’t have been kinder. They fed us, told us about the best places to get warmed up in the stadium (kickoff temperature was 30 degrees), and talked to my dad and I about all things Packers and NC State. We saw Kelly later, and he handed me an extra beer. Just ‘cause.

We had a great time, but we had an even better time thanks to some new friends. Thank again, Kelly, and Go Pack Go! (I mean that both ways.)

The gang at the snowy pregame tailgate. My dad is third from the right, then me (in the red coat). Kelly Fitzgerald is on the far right.