Welcome to Cheesehead Origins, an offseason series geared toward showcasing Packer fans with interesting fandom origin stories! CheeseheadTV is devoted to Packer fans worldwide, and we want to hear (and share) your stories. 

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Growing up in England, Mark Oldacres didn't have frequent opportunities to catch NFL football. The relative lack of exposure combined with the time difference doesn’t make it all that easy to be a European fan.

Mark knew a bit about the game just from being a sports fan in general, but one year the BBC just so happened to have the rights to the Super Bowl for the first time in years and Mark decided he’d give it a watch.

It was Super Bowl XLV between the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers.

“I’m not really able to watch sports and not have a rooting interest, so before the game I decided arbitrarily that I wanted the Packers to win,” he recalled. “I had school the next day so I recorded the second half, avoided the score all day then watched the rest when I got home.”

A friend at school had actually done the same, but had wanted the Steelers to win.

“I remember arguing about that with him when I’d supported the Packers for all of about 12 hours,” Mark said. “That’s pretty on brand for me. Obviously the Packers won, and they were my team from then on.”

Mark joined the Packers fandom just in time to catch most of Aaron Rodgers’ Hall of Fame career as a starter. Of all the memorable games over the years, two that stick out the most are the divisional round game against the Cardinals in the 2015-2016 playoffs and the 2016-2017 divisional round game against the Cardinals.

“When Aaron Rodgers hit the Hail Mary to Jeff Janis, we were trying not to be too loud because my parents were asleep, so we were just kind of holding on to each other and silently screaming,” Mark said.

The Cowboys game, of course, is memorable for the Rodgers-to-Jared Cook connection and Mason Crosby’s game winner. 

“I still remember Joe Buck’s call, ‘The Packers are moving on!’” said Mark.

This season, for the first time ever, Mark finally had the opportunity to travel to Wisconsin and attend a game at Lambeau Field; a Sunday Night Football game against the Chicago Bears, to be exact. He described the feeling of visiting Green Bay and Lambeau as a “surreal experience.”

“I’ve had such a connection to the place for so long, yet I’d never been,” he said. “I was almost surprised it was actually a real place… Seeing Aaron Rodgers actually throw a touchdown pass in person and Rasul Douglas get a pick six as the Packers beat the Bears on a cold nigh tin Lambeau is something I’ll never forget.”

I met Mark at the home of CHTV co-founder Corey Behnke before the game and talked with him a bit about his background following the team before heading over to the stadium and walking around the parking lots with him. We walked into the stadium together but were seated in different parts of the stadium. However, knowing how far Mark had traveled to have his first Lambeau experience, I wanted to capture him walking into the bowl for the first time.