‘Mean Gene the Dancing Machine’ shares what it means to be a Green Bay Packers superfan

The video and sound quality of Green Bay Packers games are a lot better now than when Eugene Greening first became a fan of the team. 

Known today as “Mean Gene the Dancing Machine,” Greening remembers how hard it was to see the ball on his TV. 

“We had the antenna on top of the house. Especially if the game was in Milwaukee, there would be so much interference it would look like snow on the black-and-white TV,” he said. “I was a trucker all my life, so I listened to a lot of games where I was on the road. And many times, you weren’t able to get a station where you had good reception, so you’re trying to tell by the crowd hollering who even had the ball.”

For the first time in Green Bay Packers history, the team kicked off its training camp the same day as its annual shareholders meeting Monday. 

And as a witness to decades of that history, Greening told WPR’S “Wisconsin Today” he couldn’t be more excited to see where quarterback Jordan Love leads the franchise next. 

Greening has been a devout fan ever since the legendary seasons of the 1960s with Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr and Head Coach Vince Lombardi. 

“The franchise has really changed,” he said. “We didn’t have all this money coming in and shared revenue and salary caps. And of course, the players were not leaving teams like they do now because of free agency.”

On “Wisconsin Today,” Greening talked about the legacy of the Packers franchise, how the game is changing and what he’s looking forward to in the next season. 

The following was edited for brevity and clarity. 

Rob Ferrett: You’ve been a fan of the Packers for a long time now, Gene. What is your first memory of the team? 

Eugene Greening: The first memory, when it really stuck with me that I was going to be a Green Bay Packers fan, is that last play of the game that I believe was the 1960 championship game with the (Philadelphia) Eagles. And (Packers running back) Jimmy Taylor catching the ball, running with it for probably 3 yards, and then a linebacker tackled Jimmy and held him down in the mud. He told him, “Now, Jimmy, you can get up because the game is over.” But the Packers put on such a courageous fight and Vince Lombardi said this would never happen again. And it didn’t. 

But that’s when I realized, because I grew up on a farm and we didn’t really have the Packers. Maybe baseball, but not the Packers. They were just 30 miles away, but that was far then. I can’t remember if I even saw that game on the TV or listened to it on the radio. But we should have won that game.

RF: What are your hopes for the team this year? 

EG: It’s going to be a lot of fun this year. We’re going to win a lot of games with Jordan Love. I had full confidence in Love from the very start. We still don’t know how good Love is going to be. But we didn’t know that about Aaron Rodgers. And I remember when Brett Favre had problems at times with interceptions and losing games. Some fans can’t handle that. They didn’t go through the 1970s. 

RF: You make a really good point. You’ve been a fan of the Packers, win or lose. Maybe newer fans are only used to the winning times. What is it about the Packers that made you stick with them, even in those lean times? 

EG: It was because of the playing of Bart Starr and how we protected the ball. And of course our running backs with Paul Harding and Jimmy Taylor and the whole rest of the team. We just had such a team back then.

The Packers played with all that heart. These money things we have now weren’t in the game. And the heart of the team and the fact that we had a team that was right here from Green Bay, the only team that was not owned by an owner. That’s why I was a Green Bay Packers fan.  

RF: I’ve got to ask before we let you go, Gene. I’ve never had a bobblehead made of me. What is that like to get a bobblehead, and it’s you? 

EG: I’ve seen other bobbleheads with players. But how they made it look so much like me? Incredible. And to have people buy the bobblehead. I have two of my doctors that had me sign the bobblehead. My regular primary doctor and my dermatologist both bought bobbleheads. Who has doctors like that?