Cows, football unite

GREEN BAY, Wis. — Football players wearing green and white cow-print jerseys stormed the field at the Resch Center in Green Bay June 6 in support of the dairy industry. Playing with a cow-print game ball after Alice in Dairyland did the coin toss, the Green Bay Blizzard went on to beat the Iowa Barnstormers 52-32.

The evening included players throwing snack-sized goat cheese from LaClare Creamery into the crowd when touchdowns were scored. Cow-print stress balls were also tossed around as prizes. That night, the team’s mascot, “Bruiser,” became known as “Bovine Bruiser.” In addition, the first 1,000 fans received a bottle of MOO’V Real Milk — a high-protein, lactose-free milk beverage.

This was the first time the Green Bay Blizzard, an indoor football team, hosted Dairy Night in celebration of National Dairy Month.

“It was really cool, and I could not have asked for a better first go of it,” said Ryan Hopson, director of sales for the Green Bay Blizzard.

Indoor football is played on a 50-yard field, and Hopson said they can go through up to 60 game balls a night.

“If you catch the ball, you keep it, and the Dairy Night ball was the hot commodity of that game,” he said.

The team partnered with Milk Source to help make Dairy Night a reality.

“I think it was a success on both sides of the equation,” said Avi Stern, director of public affairs at Milk Source. “Part of our philosophy in our family of farms is transparency and education. The modern person is so disconnected from how food reaches their table. Anything we can do to demystify and show people our connection to animal care, sustainability and food safety, is a win-win.”

Milk Source is not new to this type of relationship. For the last 10 years, the farm has partnered with the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, a minor league baseball team located near Appleton. The team celebrates June Dairy Month by temporarily changing its name to the Wisconsin Udder Tuggers, wearing cow-themed uniforms, and employing a cow mascot.

Milk Source has four dairies in Wisconsin, including Rosendale Dairy, New Chester Dairy, Tidy View Dairy, and Omro Dairy as well as MilkSource Genetics LLC, which is home to their show cattle.

“The owners have a well-earned reputation in the show side of the business,” Stern said. “They have had four EX-97 cows, and one reason I think it was a good partnership is because we have beautiful animals to share.”

On May 19, Hopson and six Green Bay Blizzard players spent two hours touring MilkSource Genetics LLC and Tidy View Dairy to learn more about the industry.

“If you’re going to do a dairy day, you really need to come out and meet the animals,” Stern said. “It was a very entertaining and educating morning. We had a quarterback milking a cow, and a lineman and a receiver feeding the cattle. The players also took turns leading a cow, and we had a good time teaching them about the state’s $46 billion dairy industry. They were a good class and asked lots of intelligent questions.”

Hopson agreed.

“The players were so inquisitive,” he said. “It was really neat to see their genuine intrigue and curiosity. We also got incredible promo images for the game.”

For most of the players, it was their first time on a dairy farm. The only Wisconsin native in the group was the Blizzard’s quarterback, Max Meylor, who hails from Whitewater.

“They were mostly city mice in a country mouse setting, but I think they had the time of their lives,” Stern said. “There are a lot of misnomers about cows and how gentle those animals are. When you let people lead a cow, touch a cow, and take pictures with a cow and they realize how gentle these creatures are despite their enormous size, it’s an eye-opening experience. It was a good educational download.”

Hopson said he enjoyed the tour and learned as much as the players did.

“Avi has been great and has taught me so much about the industry,” he said. “I could tell he loves what he does, and I feel like we hitched our wagon to the right group.”

Dairy Night was the vision of Green Bay Blizzard’s Cassandra Kiedrowski and Ryan Napralla.

“Cassandra is a Wisconsin girl through and through and has a real heart for dairy, agriculture, 4-H and FFA,” Hopson said.

Even though there is a famous professional team that plays across the street at Lambeau Field, Hopson said the Green Bay Blizzard has a good following.

“Indoor football is something else,” he said. “The sport itself is so quirky and weird and fast. It’s so different than the outdoor game and has become a special thing in the community with things like Dairy Night, which helps us build our fan base.”

On the day of the game, the outside of the Resch Center was transformed into “Dairyland” for pre-game festivities with live bovines at the center of it all, greeting fans.

“We have a reputation of pushing the envelope, and this was the first time live animals were involved,” Hopson said. “It was incredibly well received.”

MilkSource Genetics LLC brought a show cow and a newborn calf to the Resch. Stern said a lot of credit goes to the farm’s herd manager, Eddie Bue, who handled the cow and answered many questions.

“The chance to take a selfie and sit next to a baby cow born eight hours earlier is very impactful for people who’ve never set foot on a farm,” Stern said. “It was a high-impact, high-visibility, high-touch way to share agriculture in general and dairying specifically.”

Alice in Dairyland and other dairy royalty also welcomed fans to Dairy Night. They were accompanied by others from the industry, such as Pagels Ponderosa Dairy and BelGioioso Cheese.

“The Green Bay Blizzard is a great organization to work with, and we can’t wait to do it again next year,” Stern said.

The success of Dairy Night has led Hopson to believe there will be a repeat in 2026.

“We only have eight theme nights, so if we decide to do one, we have to get it right,” he said. “On my end, I could not be happier with the result.”