DETROIT – As we count down to the NFC title game, a lifelong Detroit Lions fan has quite a story to tell, and it starts in a locker room back in 1957.
Since the Lions made the playoffs in 2024, we’ve heard a lot about the last time they made it this far, which was in the early 1990s.
But some fans of a certain age remember even better days in the 1950s!
Local 4 met George Gembis, 75, on Thursday (Jan. 25). He witnessed the Lions last championship and returned with some incredible souvenirs.
Reminiscing on a photo book of the past, Gembis has been rooting for the Lions since he was nine years old, and it’s no different now.
“I like the new guys,” said Gembis. “They brought life. (Amon-Ra) St. Brown, (Jahmyr) Gibbs, (Aidan) Hutchinson, local guy.”
Back in 1957 is when his loyalty to the team started when he got the special chance to go into the locker room from his next-door neighbor at the time, defensive lineman Stan Campbell.
“He took me into the locker room after this (San Francisco) 49ers game, coincidentally, since they were playing the 49ers this week on Nov. 17, 1957,” Gembis said. “And I just walked around like a little kid with this program and getting autographs shaking hands. I mean, I just had free rein, and it was great.”
Later on that same year, he received his most prized possession.
“On Christmas, Stan Campbell gave me this autographed football, and that’s like, woah,” Gembis said.
The football has been autographed by every player on the team back in 1957.
The discussion has already begun about what will happen to the ball when Gembis is no longer here.
“Another friend of mine said, ‘No, this is really cool, we got to put this in a case,’” because I had it in a plastic bag and you have to protect it,” Gembis said. “And because he was really positive about that. I said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what, I’m not interested in selling it. I’ll just give it to you. You can have it when I die.’ So it is actually in my will and with his name that you can have the football, and I did tell him I talked to him about a week or two ago that I said I saw one that just sold for $4,000, but I’m not selling.”
Read: Rare piece of Detroit Lions championship gear is up for auction