BONDUEL, Wis. — Voting is now closed for this year’s Packers Fan Hall of Fame finalists, with the winner announced later in February.

One nominee helped get legendary Packers coach Vince Lombardi on a United States Postal stamp.


What You Need To Know

  • Life-long Packers fan Regan Buchholz has one of his most prized possessions in his basement
  • A retired mail carrier, Buchholz played a vital role in the petition drive to get Vince Lombardi on a stamp

  • The stamp set came out in 1997 featuring three other NFL coaches: Paul “Bear” Bryant, Glenn “Pop” Warner and George Halas

  • Buchholz put his two children on the Packers Season ticket holder list. Both are now season ticket holders

Lifelong Packers fan Regan Buchholz has one of his most prized possessions in his basement. It’s a replica of the 1997 commemorative stamp that has more than 20 signatures of historic Packers players, many of whom have now passed away.

Buchholz listed the names of the autographs fondly. 

“Willie Wood, Max McGee, Ron Kramer, Doug Heart, Herb Adderly, Zeke Bratkowski, Willie Davis, Ray Nitschke, Jery Kramer, Boyd Dowler, Fred ‘Fuzzy’ Thurston, Bart Starr, Marv Fleming, Bob Skoronski, Bob Long," he said.

(Spectrum News 1/Geno Perez)

A retired mail carrier, Regan played a vital role in the petition drive to get Lombardi on a stamp. He said at first, he was only going to volunteer a few hours, but after he saw how much momentum was building, he knew he couldn’t stop. Pretty soon, he and the other volunteers presented nearly 27,000 signatures in favor of the stamp idea.

“I'm proud of what I did,” said Regan. “[I] had a lot of help from my family, my wife. My kids were all small at the time, so whenever I went to endeavor and trying to get autographs or signatures, she was there watching the kids for me.”

Regan was nominated to the Packers Fan Hall of Fame by his son, Tyler Buchholz. Tyler is thankful to his father for many reasons, including putting his name on the Packers season ticket holders list as an infant. At the age of 29, Tyler was finally fortunate enough to become a season ticket holder himself.

(Spectrum News 1/Geno Perez)

“There's hundreds of millions of Packer fans out there, right? And everyone collects stuff,” said Tyler. “Everyone goes to games, and anyone can say that, right? But who can say that they collected over half the names of the petitions for Lombardi to go on the stamp. It’s a one-of-a-kind story.”

Regan said he is glad to see all of his work and fandom mean something, even if he doesn’t get inducted into the Packers Fan Hall of Fame.

(Spectrum News 1/Geno Perez)

“I was tickled pink, it meant a lot to me, all the work I did,” said Regan. “Yeah, that's the reward.” 

Regan’s love for the Packers has been impactful for him and his family. Now, he waits to see if he will be forever enshrined in the green and gold, just like the Packers' legend he helped get onto a postage stamp.