On September 9, the Green Bay Packers begin their 100th season of football.

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But even more impressive is the Packs, who have won more titles than any other team, are the only publicly-owned, non-profit professional sports team in America.

Rather than kowtow to wealthy owners who move teams around like chess piece pawns, this storied franchise is owned by 361,060 community members, many who still show up to shovel snow off bleachers on game day.

Here are five other quintessential Green Bay things you will find nowhere else:

1. Public funds that actually benefit the public. In the last two decades alone, NFL teams have received more than $7 billion in public funds to build stadiums. That would make sense if, like in Green Bay, the actual profits benefit the community. But in 30 of the 31 NFL franchises, while taxpayers shoulder a great deal of the cost and debt, the profits go straight into the private pockets of the already-wealthy owners. In Green Bay, 100 percent of the profits are invested back in the team, the stadium and the community. Its new Titletown District, for example, offers free daily yoga, dance, games and other activities.

2. An ad free stadium. It’s estimated that the average American is exposed to 500 ads per day. At least they get a break at Lambeau Field. Unlike most professional stadiums and arenas that are festooned with everything from insurance ads to viagra commercials, Lambeau Field is mostly ad-free starting with its name.
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Ergo, the Dallas Cowboys play at AT&T Stadium, the Minnesota Vikings at US Bank Stadium and Pittsburg Steelers not only strut their stuff at Heinz Field, but their Jumbotron features a pair of giant catsup bottles. Packers are able to honor their founder, Curly Lambeau, who started the franchise in 1919 with a handshake with an editor friend in the second-floor editorial room of the old Green Bay Press-Gazette.

3. Craft beer dominance. Anheuser-Busch is the NFL’s official beer sponsor, so while Lambeau Field, like its 30 stadium brethren, offers Bud Light (only difference, it’s cheaper here), it also sells a profusion of craft beers from Green Bay’s six craft breweries, the most per capita in any NFL town.

In fact, if you’re heading to Green Bay for the centennial celebration do not miss these oh-so-awesome craft beers: Green Chop Session IPA (Badger State Brewery), Wisco Disco (Stillmank Brewing Company), Packerland Pilsner (Hinterland Brewery), Dark Helmet Schwartzbier (Titletown Brewing Company), Platinum Coffee Blonde Stout (Copper State Brewery) and Midnight Confection (Noble Roots Brewing Company).
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4. Behemoths riding tiny bikes. For 60 years, Packers players have ridden kids bicycles to and from training camp practices at Nitschke Field. Youngsters line up outside their locker room at Lambeau Field and hope their favorite players, already suited up for practice, will choose their bike, streamers and all, and maybe, if they’re really lucky, autograph their banana seat. Sometimes the bikes (and the riders) are so miniscule, players simply pick up both and carry them. green bay 2

The heart-warming tradition began in 1958 when a couple brothers showed up to watch practice every day on their brand new Schwinn Jaguar bikes. One day, one of the brothers gathered up his nerve and offered a ride to John Symank, his favorite player. John accepted and the excited boy returned to the locker room to ferry as many players as possible back and forth.

5. An economy based on toilet paper. Green Bay, known as the Toilet Paper Capital of the World, didn’t invent TP, (you can thank the Chinese for that), but it was their Northern Paper Mills who, in 1901, issued the first ever “sanitary tissue.” Until then, “toilet paper” mainly amounted to corn cobs, grass, vinegar-soaked sponges or the Farmer’s Almanac that, at one time, was printed with a hole so it could hang off a nail or string in the outhouse.

By 1920, Northern Paper Mills was the world’s largest producer of bath tissue and between 1925 and 1935, toilet paper production doubled, staving off the worst of the Great Depression for Green Bay.

Not to mention that it paved the way for its prosperous citizens to create a fan-owned operation and an enduring relationship between team and community unlike any other in the NFL.