Former Green Bay Packers president Bob Harlan. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Tributes to Bob Harlan, the retired Green Bay Packers president/CEO who died Thursday at the age of 89, continue to pour in.
Even billboards in the area are honoring his legacy.
Harlan may have had a background in public relations, but anyone you ask will tell you he really was an architect.
“This place wouldn’t be here without him, and I know Mark Murphy took it to the next level. Ed Policy is going to take it to the next level. But it started with Bob,” said Bill Jartz, the voice of Lambeau Field and a Packers board member.
Harlan is credited as the visionary who helped to make Lambeau Field and Titletown what it is today. It started when Harlan ended the Packers’ playing days in Milwaukee and worked to get the stadium referendum passed.
According to Drew Smith, former sports director at FOX 11, “Now, we look at that whole Lambeau district and really, that’s thanks to Bob. I mean, Bob was the one who said, ‘Hey, let’s take this legendary area and let’s make it the best one in the NFL.’ And that’s exactly what he did. Really going about it with logic and compassion and just love for the folks who are there in green and gold in the whole Green Bay area.”
Harlan was all about the people — from those he brought in to run the football side of the organization, to how he interacted with everyone, from executives to fans.
Smith said, “Bob answered his phone. I mean, answered his phone. If there was ever anything. I remember calling over there myself, being skeptical and being like, ‘I don’t know, let me see if I can get Bob on the phone.’ I had a question for him and boom, there he is.”
Accessible, caring and attentive. Just about everyone you talk with has a Bob Harlan story.
“He changed my life. He did. I mean, really, as one of those guys, when I look back, one of the guys who truly made a huge difference in my life,” said Jartz.
And he wasn’t alone. Harlan meant so much to so many.
“When you see him, you smiled. You’re like, ‘Oh man, I’ll get to chitchat with him for a little bit.’ And he always had time for you. I mean, it was just, like I said, it was just, I know he’s done so much, but he was Bob,” said former Packers safety Johnnie Gray.
While it’s been more than a decade since Harlan was the public face of the Packers and Lambeau Field, his legacy will live on for generations to come.
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