Adam O’Connell doesn’t call himself a football guy, and he doesn’t spend his nights watching games. But once Packers training camp opens, he becomes a familiar part of the scene at Lambeau Field.
Around here, he’s known as The Bike Guy.
O’Connell, who lives in Greenleaf, sets up a tent in Lot 1 on the east side of Lambeau Field and offers free bicycles to kids who want to take part in one of training camp’s favorite traditions: riding alongside Packers players from the locker room to Ray Nitschke practice field.
“This is my football season. Once training camp is over, we're all done,” he said.
“This is so much fun. My daughter, every night she's like, 'What time are we leaving!
What time are we leaving!'”
He’s been doing it for 17 or 18 years, with help from his three kids. O’Connell admits he’s not exactly sure when it started, but he does know one thing: in all that time, only one bike has ever failed to come back.
“We found it at Kwik Trip,” he said.
The whole thing traces back to his now 26-year-old son, who started the idea when he was about 10 and attending school in Ashwaubenon. He noticed kids standing around and wanted to help.
“When he was about 10 - he went to school in Ashwaubenon - he'd see a lot of kids standing around and he'd say, 'Can I bring one of my old bikes with me because maybe we can get somebody else on there?' I said that's a good idea. We found another one at a yard sale, and then I went to three, to a pickup truck, to a small trailer.
“I think we have 35 bikes we've accumulated over time. As some of these kids grow out of their bike, they want to donate it.”
This year, the bikes have been getting plenty of use. O’Connell said the first two days of camp were packed with kids lining both sides of the route to the practice field, and the bike area was busier than he’s seen in years.
“I've never seen that. Yesterday and Wednesday was the busiest I've ever seen it.
I think we counted in the 430-450 range on Wednesday and yesterday it was just over 300 bikes in line. Today is was about 200,” he said.
The kids who end up at his tent don’t all arrive for the same reason. Some are regulars.
Some just stumble into it. Some show up with a problem O’Connell can solve.
On July 31, he loaned a bike to a kid from Manitowoc who got to Lambeau Field and found out the tires were flat.
“Most of the time, it's like grandma and grandpa bringing three kids. They can't bring three bikes.
Or it's out-of-state stuff. They didn't know what was going on.”
Eleven-year-old Isaac Boettcher is one of the kids who found out about the setup by chance. He didn’t learn about the free bikes until the second day of camp, when he came across O’Connell’s tent.
He borrowed a bike July 30 but didn’t get picked. The next day, he came back and got his ride with offensive lineman Donovan Jennings.
“I was just walking around and all of a sudden saw the free bikes,” said Boettcher, who has attended five training camp days over the last two years. He figured he might as well try.
Boettcher said he enjoyed the ride down, but he wasn’t planning to escort Jennings back. He knew the best time for autographs was after practice, so he made sure to get a good spot where the players come off the field.
For O’Connell, the little moments are what keep him coming back. He said there’s a story every year that makes the effort worth it.
Last year, he said, a grandfather and his 12- or 13-year-old grandson came to camp without realizing how much was going on, including the bike tradition. They borrowed a bike and the grandson got picked by a player.
The grandfather didn’t have his phone, so they couldn’t record it. O’Connell used his phone to film the moment and sent the video to the grandmother, who was at home.
“The kid goes by, he has a big smile, he's grinning and grandpa's running on the other side. It was the best,” O’Connell said. “She sent me a text later that day saying 'it was so cool.'”
O’Connell tries to make it to every public practice, but he still works full time, so sometimes he can’t be there or can’t line up someone to cover for him. That usually happens later in camp, when the crowds thin out. But when joint practices bring the energy back - including Aug. 26 - he and his bikes are there.
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