DE PERE, Wis. (NBC 26) -- There's Lambeau Field, Lombardi Avenue and The Ray Nitschke Memorial Bridge.
And then there's, in one fan's mind, something missing.
"Gee... the Walnut Bridge doesn't have a special name," Lifetime Packers fan and De Pere resident Lou Seiler said. "Let's share the happiness. How about the 'Bart Starr Memorial Bridge'?"
So why did Seiler come up with the idea? He has admired Starr since he was 10 years old, when he met the former quarterback in 1959.
"He got out and he reached behind the [car] seat and there was a box and here was this football," Seiler said. "And he kind of tossed it over to us."
Many years later, Seiler might be an average Packers fan, but he came up with the not-so-average plan to name the Walnut St. Bridge after a football legend. Two years ago, he mentioned it to Green Bay alder Mark Steuer, who took the idea to state legislators.
"It just happened that I mentioned it to Mark," Seiler said. "And he was getting into city government and he brought it up and so it looks like it's going to happen."
"He put a bug in my ear and said 'Hey, Mark, you know we got the Nitschke Bridge [and] the Tillman Bridge," Steuer said. "You know, [we should have the] Bart Starr Memorial Bridge. How about it?' And I thought, 'Fantastic.'"
Seiler knows he's played a big part in the potential renaming of this bridge. But he says he doesn't deserve too much credit. He was just talking to the right person at the right time.
"I think that there's 20,000 other people in this city -- this area -- that may have thought the same thing," he said.
Though there's no exact date for the bridge to be renamed if the bill is passed, Seiler hopes to show that same football he got many years ago to Starr's wife Cherry when and if the day finally comes.
"I will bring the ball and I'll show it to her with just an immense amount of gratitude," Seiler said.
This Monday, state legislators reintroduced the bill that would rename the bridge. Four representatives, with bipartisan support, brought the proposal to the forefront this week.
The idea was originally written in 2019, but failed to gained traction at the state level. Republican representative David Steffen, who covers the Green Bay area, says it wasn't because it didn't have support from both political parties.
Steffen plans for the bill to be signed and passed by the beginning of the Packers' preseason.
