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Birth of a Team and a Legend
George Calhoun |
On Aug. 11, 1919, a score or more husky young athletes, called together by Curly Lambeau and George Calhoun, gathered in the dingy editorial room of the old Green Bay Press-Gazette building on Cherry Street and organized a football team. They didn't know it, but that was the beginning of the incredible saga of the Green Bay Packers.
Lambeau and Calhoun struck the initial spark a few weeks before, during a casual street-corner conversation. It was apparently a "Why not get up a football team?" remark, but once they were interested, they wasted no time.
First they talked Lambeau's employer -- a war-time industry called the Indian Packing Company, where he worked as a shipping clerk for $250/month -- into putting up money for jerseys.
Curly Lambeau |
Because the company provided jerseys and permitted the use of its athletic field for practice, the club was identified in its early publicity as a project of the company. With this tie-in, the name "Packers" was a natural, and Packers they have been ever since, although the Indian Packing Company had practically faded out of the picture before that first season was half over.
That first season the team won 10 and lost only one, against foes from Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. Games were played in an open field with no fences or bleachers, and interested fans "passed the hat." But the team was so successful by 1921 that Lambeau was backed by two officials of the packing plant in obtaining a franchise (Aug. 27, 1921) in the new national pro football league that had been formed in 1920. Cash customers didn't quite pay the freight and the team had to be forfeited at year's end.
This was the first in a long series of troubles that the now famous team overcame, for in 1922 Lambeau gained other backers and bought the franchise back for $250, including $50 of his own money. Troubles continued during that season. One game was rained out and the insurance company wouldn't pay off because the official amount of rain was one one-hundredth of an inch short of that required in the policy.
However, another storm late in the season, when the Packers were scheduled to play the Duluth Kelleys, threatened to throw Lambeau further into debt. But A.B. Turnbull, Green Bay Press-Gazette general manager, advanced Lambeau the Duluth guarantee. He then lobbied town businessmen ("The Hungry Five") behind the team, and formed the Green Bay Football Corporation.
From those modest and somewhat tenuous beginnings, the Packers have gone on to earn national stature and virtual world-wide recognition by winning more championships (12) over the intervening 80-plus years than any team in pro football.
These achievements, while representing a town of approximately 100,000 in competition with the country's largest markets, have endeared the Packers to the nation. The David vs. Goliath concept and the team's unique status as a publicly owned corporation has intrigued generations.
The Packers' colorful saga spans 89 years from the "Iron Man" period of the first decade under founder Lambeau, to the present day, which finds Mike McCarthy presiding as the team's 14th head coach.
Green Bay Packers - 1919
| Chapter 1: The Iron Man Era |
Clarke Hinkle |
With good financial backing, Lambeau picked up college stars from all over the country, plus some unknowns who turned out to be "greats." In 1929, tiny Green Bay won the first of three straight national professional football championships, pacing stalwarts from New York and Chicago in league standings (the playoff system began in 1933). The 1929-31 title teams featured all-time pro greats like Red Dunn, Verne Lewellen, Cal Hubbard, Bo Molenda, Jug Earp, Mike Michalske, Johnny (Blood) McNally, Bill Kern, Arnie Herber, Clarke Hinkle, Lavvie Dilweg, Tom Nash, Milt Gantenbein and Hank Bruder. In many games, players would play for almost the full 60 minutes. These teams were hailed all over the country as some of the greatest ever.
| Chapter 2: The Hutson Period |
Trouble flared again in 1934, when a fan fell from the stands, sued and won a $5,000 verdict. After their insurance company went bankrupt, the Packers went into receivership and were just about to fold when Green Bay businessmen came to the rescue again, raised $15,000 in new capital and reorganized the club.
About this time (1935), a rather slight, lanky end by the name of Don Hutson came to the club. He actually signed two contracts, with Green Bay and the Brooklyn Dodgers. But commissioner Joe Carr awarded Hutson to the Packers, because Green Bay's postmark was earlier.
From his first game on, Hutson became the terror of the league and the secret of Green Bay's next three championships. His arrival and corresponding attendance increases allowed the team to buy itself out of receivership in 1935. With Herber and Cecil Isbell passing and Hutson catching anything they threw at him, despite any kind of a stop-Hutson defense, Green Bay won championships in 1936, 1939, and 1944.
After Hutson's retirement, Packer fortunes again declined. The disastrous pro football war, between the NFL and the new All-America Football Conference, brought on another financial crisis after the 1949 season. From 1946-48, the financially strapped Packers lost two of their three No. 1 draft choices to the AAFC, unable to bid with the rival league. Desperate for new income, the Packers held an old-timers game and intra-squad scrimmage on Thanskgiving Day, 1949, and raised $50,000.
In the midst of the turbulent times, Lambeau lost an internal power struggle -- which ultimately began when he used $25,000 to purchase Rockwood Lodge for training camp. Lambeau resigned, Jan. 31, 1950, ending his 31-year run in Green Bay, to become the Chicago Cardinals' head coach.
| Chapter 3: Ronzani Regime |
Gene
Ronzani |
Jack
Vanisi |
To replace Lambeau, the Packers hired Gene Ronzani of the Bears, the most significant step in yet another major reorganization and rebuilding effort. Nearly $125,000 was raised in a giant 1950 stock sale all over the state. Under Ronzani, Green Bay's best season was 1952; the Packers were in the thick of the title chase until the season's last weeks. In 1953, the team played erratic ball and Ronzani resigned with two games remaining.
Before he departed, though, Ronzani hired Jack Vainisi as full-time talent scout. Vainisi would receive credit for discovering the six Packers Hall of Famers drafted from 1953-58: C Jim Ringo, T Forrest Gregg, QB Bart Starr, HB Paul Hornung, FB Jim Taylor and LB Ray Nitschke.
| Chapter 4: Blackbourn Takes Over |
The Packers overhauled their front office and coaching staff in 1954, hiring Verne Lewellen, all-time Packers great, attorney and businessman, as general manager. Reaching into the college ranks, Green Bay named Lisle Blackbourn, of Marquette University, its third coach. The Packers were 17-31 during Blackbourn's four years (1954-57).
On April 3, 1956, voters approved a referendum to fund construction of a new stadium. The Packers dedicated the facility (renamed Lambeau Field in 1965), on Sept. 29, 1957.
| Chapter 5: McLean Moves Up |
Likable Ray "Scooter" McLean moved up from being an outstanding assistant coach to guide the destiny of the Packers for 1958. McLean resigned in December after a 1-10-1 record, the worst in Packers history, in his lone season as head coach.
| Chapter 6: The Lombardi Era |
The Packers took their time after McLean's resignation choosing a new coach. Vainisi conducted Phase II of the 1959 draft by himself, as the team debated whether to hire a general manager as well as a coach, or one person for both positions. The search spanned from the CFL to the college ranks, and even included a GM application from Lambeau.
On. Jan. 28, when team president Dominic Olejniczak recommended to the committee a little-known New York Giants assistant, longtime committee member John Torinus replied, "Who the hell is Vince Lombardi?"
Dominic Olejniczak |
The committee, and the world, quickly found out. Within hours after his arrival on Feb. 2, Lombardi told the committee, "I want it understood that I am in complete command here." Two days later, the Packers officially gave Lombardi both titles.
In his first season, 1959, Lombardi went 7-5, winning unanimous 'Coach of the Year' recognition. Then in 1960, the Packers captured the Western Division title, only to lose the NFL title game at Philadelphia. However, Lombardi rebounded to win world championships in 1961, '62, '65, '66, and '67.
His teams finished no lower than second from 1960- 67 and became the standard of football excellence. In nine years, Lombardi went 98-30-4 (.758), including 9-1 in postseason, winning his final nine playoff games.
| Chapter 7: Bengtson Period |
Phil Bengtson |
Following the third consecutive title in 1967, Lombardi turned over the head coaching duties to Phil Bengtson and one year later announced that he was leaving Green Bay to become coach-GM of the Washington Redskins. Bengtson coached the Packers from 1968-70, compiling a 20-21-1 record. He resigned in December, 1970.
| Chapter 8: The Devine Days |
Dan Devine, one of the nation's three most successful college coaches, succeeded Bengtson as head coach and general manager in January 1971. After settling for a 4-8-2 record during his first year, Devine and the Packers appeared on the road to new heights when 1972 produced a 10-4 record and the team's first Central Division title since 1967. But the Packers' Super Bowl hopes dissolved in the second half of 1973 and they slipped to 5-7-2. They continued their recession in 1974, going 6-8, and Devine resigned.
| Chapter 9: The Starr Trek |
The most successful field general in pro football history, winning five world championships from 1961-67, Bart Starr accepted the challenge to lead the Packers out of the NFL wilderness, agreeing to a three-year contract as head coach and general manager, Dec. 24, 1974. Starr asked for "the prayers and patience of Packer fans everywhere...We will earn everything else."
Although he had a 4-10 record in 1975, the baptismal season of a massive rebuilding project, Starr gave fans new hope by assembling a sound organization and restoring a positive attitude, underscored by three victories in the last five games of the '75 season. He continued the resurgence in 1976, leading the Packers to a 5-9 record, highlighted by a three-game, mid-season winning streak. Major and key injuries slowed the comeback in 1977 but a strong finish produced a 4-10 mark. Hopes soared in 1978 when the Packers posted their first winning slate since 1972, an 8-7-1 record, only to be temporarily dampened in 1979 by a record rash of injuries which spawned a 5-11 mark. Another injury epidemic, one which saw 27 players on injured reserve during the course of the season, struck in 1980, forcing the Packers to settle for a 5-10-1 record. .
Rebounding strongly in 1981, they rallied from a disappointing 2-6 start to mount one of the most dramatic comebacks in team history, closing with a 6-2 rush (an 8-8 mark), one win shy of the playoffs.
The Packers continued the upsurge in 1982, when they qualified for the playoffs for the first time since 1972 by going 5-3-1 during the strike-interrupted season. They then embellished that performance by routing St. Louis 41-16 in the first round of the NFL's Super Bowl Tournament, before bowing to Dallas (37-26) despite a record-setting, 466-yard offensive effort. Starr was relieved of his head coaching duties Dec. 19, 1983, after the Packers finished the season 8-8 and missed the playoffs on the season's final week.
| Chapter 10: The Gregg Era |
On Dec. 24, 1984, Forrest Gregg, a former Starr teammate and one of the premier offensive tackles in football history, became the Packers' ninth head coach. Gregg had led Cincinnati into Super Bowl XVI following the 1981 season. Gregg, whose 19-6 Cincinnati record over the 1981-82 seasons was the best in pro football, received a five-year contract.
In taking over, he declared, "I took this job to field a winning team. That will happen."
Gregg's prediction began to bear fruit in the second half of the 1984 season when the Packers rebounded from an injury-ridden 1-7 start to win seven of their last eight.
Because of injury and other complications, however, 1985 followed the '84 script, the Packers getting off to a 3-6 start before mounting a strong finish to again close at 8-8, winning five of their last seven.
Gregg, convinced the time had come to rebuild a team that was 8-8 three straight years, and was "starting to get old," made sweeping personnel changes in 1986. The young Packers, their task complicated by injuries to key performers, got off to an 0-6 start, then began to mature in midseason and finished 4-12.
Following the 1987 season, when the club finished third in the NFC Central (5-9-1), Gregg resigned (Jan. 15, 1988) to become head coach at his alma mater, Southern Methodist University.
| Chapter 11: Infante Signs On |
Nineteen days later (Feb. 3), Cleveland Browns offensive coordinator Lindy Infante, recognized throughout the NFL as a brilliant innovator, signed a five-year contract. Plagued by turnovers and kicking problems, Infante's first team, in 1988, was 4-12, but left fans with hopes for the future by winning its last two games.
Building on that positive note, Infante in 1989 led the Packers to a 10-6 record -- their best in 17 years -- and within one game of the playoffs, spicing that turnabout with a league-record four one-point victories.
In 1990, subsequent high hopes for the team's first postseason berth in a non-strike year since 1972, evaporated when the Packers -- with a contending, 6-5 record after 11 games -- ended the year with five straight losses.
The Packers' continued to decline in 1991 (4-12). New executive vice president/general manager Ron Wolf dismissed Infante Dec. 22. Green Bay had hired Wolf, Nov. 27, with full football operations authority.
| Chapter 12: The Holmgren Era |
Wolf named Mike Holmgren, offensive architect of San Francisco's four-time Super Bowl champions, to succeed Infante, Jan. 11, 1992. Holmgren, sought by five other clubs, got a five-year contract.
In his first season, 1992, the former USC field general directed the Packers to a 9-7 record and within sight of the playoffs. He became only the third Packers head coach with a winning record in his first season, punctuated by a six-game winning streak, the team's longest since 1965.
Holmgren took his team to the playoffs in 1993 -- despite losing four starters to injury. Forging a second straight 9-7 record -- against a considerably more demanding schedule -- Green Bay got its first playoff berth in 10 years. In the first round, the Packers came from behind in the last minute to eliminate Detroit, 28-24. They then fell at Dallas, 27-17, in the divisional round.
In 1994, the Packers registered a third consecutive 9-7 mark and second straight playoff trip -- the first time that had happened since the Titletown days of the '60s. Riding a three-game winning streak into the postseason, they parlayed a record defensive performance and a turnover-free offensive effort into a 16-12 victory over Detroit -- their first home playoff game since the 1982 season -- holding the incomparable Barry Sanders to minus-1 yard in 13 attempts. The Packers advanced without the services of All-Pro receiver Sterling Sharpe, whose neck injury, diagnosed after the regular-season finale, ended his brilliant Green Bay career. For a second straight year, the Packers' run ended in Dallas, 35-9.
Closing ranks with great results following Sharpe's loss, the 1995 Packers put together one of the hallmark seasons in their history. Winning six of their last seven games, they captured their first NFC Central Division crown since 1972, then made their best postseason showing in more than 28 years, forging all the way to the NFC Championship Game.
En route, they closed the regular season 11-5 -- their best mark since the 1966 NFL championship club (12-2) -- and followed by dispatching the Falcons, 37-20, in a first-round playoff at Lambeau Field. Building on that triumph, the Packers mounted one of the premier performances in their postseason history, formally dethroning the defending Super Bowl champion San Francisco 49ers in their own stadium, 3Com Park, 27-17. Again, however, dreams of a Super Bowl floundered in Dallas, 38-27, in the NFC title game, after leading 27-24 at the end of three quarters.
Putting nearly three decades of disappointment emphatically behind, the Packers rewarded their long-patient faithful in 1996. Shunting aside eight of their first nine foes, they swept to a 13-3 record and their second straight division championship. Then, they captured their first NFL title since 1967, dispatching New England, 35-21, in Super Bowl XXXI at the Louisiana Superdome.
Displaying impressive consistency on both sides of the ball, they documented their superiority, outscoring three opponents 100-48 in a postseason sweep. Appropriately, the first two wins were before their Lambeau loyalists -- a 35-14 divisional triumph over the 49ers and a 30-13 win over the upstart Carolina Panthers in the NFC title game.
In winning a 12th NFL championship, extending their own league record, the Packers joined an elite group of teams with three-or-more Super Bowls (Dallas, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Oakland and Washington).
The Packers thus entered 1997 with an opportunity to win back-to-back Super Bowls for a second time -- and came breathtakingly close to achieving their objective. Sweeping to a second consecutive 13-3 mark, tying a club record with 13 wins, they primed for the playoffs by ending the season with five straight wins. After a third consecutive division title, they launched their bid at Lambeau Field in workmanlike fashion, turning back Tampa Bay in the divisional playoff, 21-7. The win padded their all-time home-field postseason record to 12-0, extending the longest such winning streak in pro football history.
Forced to win on the road for a return to the ultimate game, the Packers smothered the 49ers on a soggy, rain-swept afternoon in San Francisco, 23-10. Garnering a berth in the Super Bowl, Green Bay held the Niners without an offensive touchdown.
In a see-saw affair, Super Bowl XXXII in San Diego found the Packers trailing Denver at halftime, 17-14. Hopes of a repeat were high, however, when quarterback Brett Favre engineered an 85-yard drive, knotting the contest, 24-24, early in the fourth quarter. But the Broncos later scored with only 1:45 remaining and a last-minute Packers drive fell short when Favre's pass for tight end Mark Chmura fell incomplete inside the Denver 20, with only 28 seconds left, sealing the Broncos' 31-24 win.
A third straight Super Bowl trip, a realistic goal at the outset, eluded the Packers in 1998, their 80th season. Historic accomplishment, however, did not as they advanced to the playoffs for the sixth year in a row, a team record, while posting a seventh consecutive winning season. Green Bay overcame multiple injuries, including the loss of Pro Bowl running back Dorsey Levens (out nine games) and center Frank Winters (stretch run and postseason), each with a broken leg. They set another team record by stretching their Lambeau Field winning streak to 25 games -- the second-longest in NFL history -- before falling to the Minnesota Vikings Oct. 5. They finished 11-5, equaling another team standard by posting a double-digit victory total for the fourth consecutive year (11-5 in 1995, 13-3 in both 1996 and 1997). The only other time Green Bay had strung together four seasons of 10-plus wins was 67 years earlier -- Lambeau's triple NFL champions of 1929-32 (12-0-1 in 1929, 10-3-1 in 1930, 12-2 in 1931 and 10-3-1 in 1932).
In the wake of these considerable achievements, the Packers' season came to a dramatic and painful end in an NFC Wild Card game at San Francisco, when a 27-23 lead abruptly dissolved into a 30-27 49ers victory. Steve Young's 25-yard touchdown pass to Terrell Owens sealed the game with just three seconds left.
Only five days later, Holmgren resigned to become head coach and direct football operations for the Seattle Seahawks.
Related Information:
Mike Holmgren's first Packers coaching staff, in 1992, contained five future head coaches: Jon Gruden, Dick Jauron, Steve Mariucci, Andy Reid and Ray Rhodes.
| Chapter 13: Rough Rhode(s) |
Moving swiftly, Wolf tabbed Ray Rhodes, former Eagles head coach and Green Bay defensive coordinator, as the Packers' 12th head coach, Jan. 11, 1999. The Packers launched 1999 under Rhodes in breathtaking fashion, literally winning three of the first four in the last minute. Fate, however, suddenly stopped smiling as Green Bay (8-8) missed the playoffs for the first time since 1992, ending seven straight winning seasons. Saying the Packers lacked the needed toughness and fire, Wolf relieved Rhodes soon after the season finale.
| Chapter 14: The Sherman Tenure |
After searching more than two weeks, Wolf surprised many NFL observers by naming Mike Sherman as the Packers' 13th head coach, Jan. 18, 2000. Sherman in 2000 surmounted multiple injuries, including Favre's prolonged bout with elbow tendinitis, and finished 9-7, inches from the playoffs.
One month after a stirring finish -- a four-game winning streak -- Wolf retired as the team's executive vice president and general manager, Feb. 1, 2001, and president Bob Harlan quickly named Sherman to replace Wolf. Sherman became the first head coach with the GM title since Starr in 1980.
Wolf's impressive nine-year tenure included 101 total victories (including eight in the playoffs) and the NFL's best regular-season record (83-45) since the 1993 advent of free agency.
Now with full authority over football, Sherman answered in 2001 by returning the Packers to the playoffs, improving his winning percentage to .656 (21-11), best ever over a Packers coach's first two years. Behind Favre and explosive Ahman Green (1,981 yards from scrimmage) the Packers went 12-4, but couldn't grasp the division title, despite sweeping the division champion Bears. The Packers knocked off the Niners in a Wild Card playoff, but couldn't get past eventual NFC champion St. Louis.
In 2002, Green Bay overcame an injury-plagued season to tie for the league's best record, 12-4. Despite injured starters missing 63 combined games, the Packers clinched their division, the inaugural NFC North title, on Dec. 1. Favre finished two votes shy of a fourth MVP, and defensively, behind Pro Bowler Darren Sharper, the team ranked third in the NFL against the pass and led the league with 45 takeaways, six more than any other team. But Michael Vick and the Falcons became the first team ever to beat the Packers at home in the playoffs.
A return to the NFC Championship slipped painfully through the Packers' fingers in 2003. Donovan McNabb led the Eagles to a come-from-behind, 20-17 overtime win to end an emotional Packers run in the Divisional playoffs.
The loss snapped a memorable five-game winning streak. The stretch included changes to three of the most-revered records in Packers history (Forrest Gregg's 33-year-old consecutive-games streak, broken by Favre; Jim Taylor's 41-year-old season rushing record, Green; and Don Hutson's 58-year-old career scoring mark, Ryan Longwell). Green Bay captured an improbable division title in the last two minutes of the season, when Arizona upset Minnesota and the Lambeau Field crowd broke the news to the Packers.
Green spearheaded the best running offense in Packers history, as the club captured nearly every franchise rushing mark. Favre led the NFL in TD passes a fourth time to tie a league record, throwing 19 of his 32 scores with a broken right thumb.
Adding to the hallmark of Sherman's tenure, the Packers overcame a 1-4 start in 2004, the club's roughest since 1991, to finish 10-6 and win a third straight division title. The 9-2 stretch run featured four wins on last-second field goals by Longwell, including a 34-31 division-clinching win in Minnesota on Christmas Eve.
However, just two weeks later the same Vikings avenged the loss with a 31-17 win in a Wild Card playoff at Lambeau Field.
On Jan. 14, 2005, Harlan restructured the team's football operations, naming Ted Thompson general manager, with full authority over football decisions. Harlan said he based the decision on his belief in a preferred structure -- separate individuals for the GM and head coach positions.
Only 37 minutes into the 2005 regular season, the Packers lost leading receiver Javon Walker (knee). In the ensuing weeks, the team also lost starting halfback Green (quadricep) and several other key offensive performers, contributing to a 4-12 mark.
Following the season, Jan. 2, saying it was time for a new face to lead the team, Thompson dismissed Sherman.
Thompson underwent a grueling nine-day search to tab Mike McCarthy the franchise's 14th head coach (Jan. 12, 2006).
McCarthy guided the Packers to a resilient four-game winning streak to close his first season as head coach with an 8-8 record, keeping the team in contention for the playoffs until the final weekend of 2006, when mere percentage points dubbed the Giants the NFC's last postseason qualifier.
McCarthy was disappointed the Packers just missed the playoffs, particularly because the team was as healthy as it had been all season and was playing its best football the last month. But the NFL's youngest club carried that momentum into 2007, winning its first four games and ultimately tying the franchise record for regular-season victories with a 13-3 mark.
With Joe Philbin taking over as offensive coordinator for Jeff Jadodzinski (who left to become head coach at Boston College), Ryan Grant emerging at midseason as a feature back, and Favre enjoying a brilliant final season, the offense finished second in the league, its highest ranking since 1983.
Receiver Donald Driver and defensive end Aaron Kampman both went to the Pro Bowl for a second straight year, while McCarthy tied Sherman's team mark for the most wins by a head coach in his first two seasons (21).
Grant then posted franchise playoff records of 201 rushing yards and three touchdowns in a 42-20 snow-filled NFC playoff triumph over Seattle at Lambeau, but the club's quest for a fifth Super Bowl appearance came up agonizingly short.
In the third-coldest game in NFL championship history, with a temperature of minus-1 and wind-chill of minus-23 at kickoff, Green Bay fell at home 23-20 in overtime to the New York Giants in the NFC Championship Game.
Six weeks later, Favre announced his retirement, ending a Hall of Fame career with virtually every significant NFL passing record. The torch has now been passed to Aaron Rodgers, and when Favre's jersey is retired in the 2008 season opener at Lambeau Field, a quarterback other than Favre will start a game for Green Bay for the first time in 16 years.
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