My Life with the Green & Gold: Tales from 20 Years of Sportscasting

by Jessie Garcia

Overview

Ever wonder what it’s like to interview famous athletes and coaches? For twenty years, sportscaster Jessie Garcia has done just that. In My Life with the Green & Gold she brings fans to the sidelines at Lambeau Field, inside the locker room, aboard the Packers bus, and into the host’s chair at The Mike McCarthy Show.

A self-proclaimed “terrible athlete” born without sports in her blood, Garcia reported on Wisconsin’s beloved Green Bay Packers during the Holmgren, Rhodes, Sherman, and McCarthy years. She’s been a Packers sideline reporter for preseason games and covered the team during their Super Bowl showdowns against the Patriots, Broncos, and Steelers. She’s traveled with the team to Tokyo and the White House and to schools and retirement homes, where the gridiron heroes interacted with their fans. She’s visited the hometowns of players and coaches, she’s met their proud parents and their pets, she’s interviewed the team trainer about their strength exercises. My Life with the Green & Gold also features up-close and personal stories about other teams and athletes she’s covered, from the Badgers and Brewers to Wisconsin Olympians such as Bonnie Blair and Casey FitzRandolph.

Garcia’s expertise is capturing behind-the-scenes, human-interest stories. In My Life with the Green & Gold, she shares a personal and humorous insider’s look at many Wisconsin sports heroes from the perspective of a female sports journalist who has ridden the adrenaline rush to be on the air at 5:00 a.m., 10:00 p.m., and any hour in between, while also juggling the many demands of family life. Not many parents can say they’ve changed their child’s diaper in the tunnel at Lambeau, but Jessie Garcia can.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780870206191
Publisher:	Wisconsin Historical Society
Publication date:	10/09/2013
Edition description:	1
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Madison native Jessie Garcia has been a TV sportscaster for twenty years, first with WISC in Madison and currently with WTMJ in Milwaukee. A graduate of the Boston University College of Communication, Garcia was one of the first women in the country to host an NFL coach’s show. When not reporting or anchoring for WTMJ, Garcia can be found teaching journalism at Carroll University in Waukesha, writing her next two books, or enjoying time with her husband and their two sons.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

1 Girl Reporter 7

2 Super Bowl XLV, February 2011 27

3 Super Bowl XXXI, January 1997 47

4 The White House, April 1997 59

5 Super Bowl XXXII, January 1998 63

6 Brett Favre 67

7 Mike Holmgren 79

8 Sideline Reporting 87

9 Mike McCarthy 109

10 The Team Plane 133

11 The Team Bus 137

12 The Team Photographers-and Other Standout Packers Personalities 147

13 Other Wisconsin Sports 159

14 Being a Woman in This Field 188

15 Women in the Locker Room 193

16 Packers and Play-Doh 197

17 Changes 209

Acknowledgments 215

Index 217

About the Author 224