Weidner Center hosts Jackie Nitschke screening


The Weidner Center played host to the public screening Monday night of an important new local documentary. An audience of several hundred turned out to see “Champion: The Legacy of Jackie Nitschke.” Jackie was the wife of NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, the larger-than-life star of Lombardi’s 1960s Packers title teams. While she helped her hard-partying husband eventually settle down into a family-man lifestyle, she fell victim to substance-abuse problems herself. She later went public with her story and became an advocate for recovery programs; the Jackie Nitschke rehabilitation center in Green Bay is named in her honor. The documentary by Arketype includes interviews with other prominent figures and Packers touched by alcohol abuse. For more on the film, and a trailer.