As a public servant, the lessons of history are paramount for Tom Nelson.
Whether it’s understanding the impact of labor movements or even the wreck of the USS Edmund Fitzgerald on culture and politics, Nelson’s historical curiosities have spawned a full‑fledged hobby and the publishing of three books.
And when the Outagamie County executive‑by‑day, author‑by‑night set out to examine how the success of the Green Bay Packers’ unique business model could inform other aspects of business and society, he ended up finding something more: a surprising gap in the market.
“Why don’t you just write a history of the Packers?” came the publisher’s question.
Well, Nelson responded, because there are a million books on that.
“He said … there isn’t a complete long arc narrative of the team — you know, like you can crack open a book, sit down next to the fire and read it to get a really good understanding of the Packers,” Nelson recalls.
And that’s when “The Green and Gold Standard: A People’s History of the Green Bay Packers” was born.
Nelson’s latest book, published this year by Triumph Books, starts on a rainy Thanksgiving Day in 1922; winds its way back to Jean Nicolet’s exploration of Green Bay in 1634; travels forward to milestones like the team’s 1950 shareholder meeting and Reggie White’s final game as a Packer in 1998; and ends with an examination of the heavy expectations weighing on Jordan Love today as the team’s highest‑paid player.
“Here is a storied institution in the middle of the richest professional sport in the world, and they’re not surviving as a nonprofit, but they’re thriving,” Nelson says. “I wanted to tell that story, but at the same time talk about the real threat to the Packers in the coming years … It behooves us all to take a moment to really have an understanding of the Packers’ history.”
Nelson says research and writing have become a relaxing hobby. He wakes up at 4:30 a.m. to write in his designated corner of the family room. He is already working on his next history book: a deep dive into the largely unexplored but important relationship between the Oneida Nation and George Washington.
Nelson says he won’t live long enough to write about all the topics he wants to explore. And, he says, his hobby makes him better at his job.
“So many of our decisions today are informed by our decisions from yesterday,” he says. “The tap root of these ideas and books really goes to my public service.”
