(This story has been updated to correct the spelling of July Villono’s last name.)
She was there in 1980 when lightning struck, instantly suspending play, and when it happened a second time in 2024.
She was there in 2016 when fans were sent home when the end zone paint wouldn’t dry.
From her seat in Section 3BB, Judy Villono has seen a lot of football at the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game.
On Aug. 6, the Plain Township resident will attend her 57th game to watch the Arizona Cardinals and Carolina Panthers at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. She’ll be accompanied by her daughter Ann Maddux and grandson, Sam.
Villono still has the tickets from her first game on Sept. 13, 1969, when the Green Bay Packers defeated the Atlanta Falcons 38-24. The first Hall of Fame Game, which now kicks off the NFL preseason, was played in 1962.
She bought seven tickets from her then-bosses, who had a block. They cost $5 each.
“Before they redid the seats, they just had bleacher seats,” Villono said. “I’m really glad they put in seats with backs.”
Villono, 82, is doubly excited this year because her favorite player, former New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees, is a member of this year’s class of Hall of Fame enshrinees.
Clad in Saints sweatpants and Brees’ white No. 9 replica jersey, her fandom is obvious.
“He’s a nice guy; a good guy. I’d love to meet him,” she said.
The Purdue University quarterback was chosen by the San Diego Chargers in the second round of the 2001 NFL Draft. He won the Associated Press NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award in 2004 and was a co-recipient of the 2006 Walter Payton Man of the Year Award for his post-Hurricane Katrina disaster relief efforts. In 2011, he won the NFL Players Association Alan Page Community Award.
Brees joined the Saints in 2006 and later led the team to a win in Super Bowl XLIV in 2010 when he was named MVP.
The league’s second-leading passer behind Tom Brady, Brees retired in 2021 after 20 seasons.
Villono loves collecting Hall of Fame Game items
In addition to being a Brees fan-girl, Villono is a Hall of Fame Game collector. She and her late husband, Chuck, who died in 2020, bought programs from every game. They also accumulated pennants, commemorative festival pins, drink coasters and “whatever else they had that year,” she said.
Of all her football artifacts, she most cherishes her pennant from Super Bowl XLIV, featuring Brees.
“I keep in it my room,” she said, laughing.
Villono, a 1961 graduate of McKinley High School and a retired lunch lady at Canton City Schools, said she attended only one Bulldogs football game.
“They got beat by Massillon really bad,” she recalled with a laugh. “I thought, ‘What is the big hoopla?'”
She got into football after getting married
Villono says she got the bug for football after getting married.
“He was watching all the time, so I learned the game and the players,” she said.
At one point, the Villonos lived on Cottage Place NW in Canton, a stone’s throw from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the stadium and the Grand Parade route.
“They used to have amazing Hall of Fame parties,” daughter Amy Cramer said.
The family used to walk to the enshrinement when it was held in front of the Hall of Fame.
“The players and celebrities used to be more accessible. You could get their autographs,” Villono said. “When they decided to put it inside, I started watching it on TV.”
Her collection also includes commemorative lapel buttons people used to wear while partying along the parade route the night before — an activity no longer permitted.
“The world has changed,” she said.
Villono and Maddux attended this year’s Balloon Classic at the Kent State University at Stark campus in Jackson Township.
Maddux, sporting her late dad’s Pro Football Hall of Fame golf shirt, she’s also taking her mom to the Unscripted & Tailgate on Aug. 8, which features a roundtable discussion by this year’s enshrinees, including Brees.
The Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce heard about Villono and offered the family some upgraded tickets.
“That’ll be the closest she’ll get to him,” Maddux said. “She’ll be able to hear him speak.”
Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @cgoshayREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Drew Brees superfan ready to cheer at her 57th Hall of Fame Game
Reporting by Charita M. Goshay, Canton Repository / The Repository
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Charita M. Goshay, Canton Repository | USA TODAY Network
