Welcome to the University of Wisconsin Platteville, Summer Home of the Chicago Bears Training Camp

Ron and I became friends at work. We both worked for Jewel Food Stores. He was an auditor working for the accounting department and came into our distribution center to audit the accuracy of our warehouse assemblers. He would often come upstairs, where I had my office, to work on his reports. There we met and had many interesting conversations. We both liked photography and the Chicago Bears. For years, in spring, I went to the Bear's mini camp. Ron and I decided that we should go to the summer camp in Platteville, Wisconsin.

Platteville is in the southwestern corner of Wisconsin not far from the Mississippi River. It is beautiful farmland, rolling hills, fields of corn, dairy farms with cows lazily grazing in pastures: a very peaceful quiet place to visit. Here in Tucson we have A Mountain as part of the University of Arizona. In Platteville they have an M on a hill which is part of the University of Wisconsin. The M stands for mining. The first college at the U of A was a mining college. I stayed in a Best Western in Lancaster which was a stones throw away. I loved that town. It was so crime free there the people didn't lock their doors and they left their keys in the ignition. Everone there is your neighbor in the true sense of the word.

I always liked this picture. When I was taking it, the wife of the farmer asked me why was I taking this picture. I told her it was because it is so beautiful. It reminds me of a scene from The Wizard of Oz right before the storm and tornado came. She turned around and looked where I was photographing and she said, "I guess you're right. I never thought about how beautiful it is. I'm too busy living here." Having breakfast in the local eateries you hear farmers talking about feed, seed, fertilizer, and the weather. This would be a nice place to retire.

The Bears coming every summer to this small town was a great boost to the economy and helped support the university. I was sad for the local people to hear the Bears no longer practice there. They worked so hard to make the Bears and the fans feel welcome.

Fans from Chicago, other parts of Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin and Iowa came every summer to watch the practices, get pictures and autographs, and meet the famous players that they watch on television.

There is not much that is entertaining that is free. Most fans only came up for a day. The university gave out a brochure that had the players listed by name and by number. There were more than twice the players that would make the team when they had to cut down to forty-three players. Each summer the university had a Shakespeare Fesitval and put on two Shakespeare plays. I enjoyed attending them.

You can see that you can get very close to the field. The university had refreshment stands and a dozen portable bathrooms.

There was a roped off area where the player left the practice field and went across the street to the weight rooms and showers. This was a good place to get autographs. A better place was over by the dorms.

Wilbur Marshall was wearing a nice cross.

Dan Hampton.

This is Walter Payton on his last time at training camp in Platteville. He was retiring this year. He stayed long past the other players and he signed every autograph of every fan that was there and wanted one. Walter was a good man. He was one of the best running backs in the history of the National Football League.