Saturday, January 19, 2013

1983 Playoffs in Green Bay

Instead of playing in tomorrow’s NFC Championship Game, the Packers will be home watching it on television just like the rest of us. So, to give us a small taste of football involving the team, we’re featuring some selections from the game program of the 1982 first-round playoff between Green Bay and St. Louis (Cardinals, that is) in Lambeau Field. If you recall, this was after a strike-shortened season that saw the Packers wind up with a 5-3-1 record. Seven regular season games were lost to the work stoppage that year. 

Head coach Bart Starr and his staff of assistants for the 1982 season. 

And what American boy wouldn’t want to go to sleep under the warmth provided by all of the NFL franchises? 

Check out the little story on the Packers’ Domenic Gentile, who served as head trainer for Green Bay for 24 years.

Did anybody bring one of these to the stadium in the old days?

An ad for the fine radio team of Jim Irwin and Max McGee, who were fixtures in the homes of millions of Packers fans for decades. Sadly, they are both gone now. We have many of their games recorded on audio cassette to enjoy when we’re feeling nostalgic.

Offensive lineman Greg Koch endorses Bertrand’s Sporting Goods in Green Bay. Kock played for the Packers from 1977-85, and was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 2010.

Some game action from 1982. Players include C Larry McCarren, WR John Jefferson, and RB Del Rodgers.

 On this page, we see K Jan Stenerud, QB Lynn Dickey, T Tim Huffman, CB Mark Lee, and McCarren again.

 Here we see RB Eddie Lee Ivery (twice), TE Paul Coffman, and Jefferson again.

Lastly, DE Casey Merrill, RB Gerry Ellis, and Del Rodgers again, in action against Atlanta.

For all you youngsters, this is what we used before iPods.

In a story about NFL defenses, RB Harlan Huckleby is upended by the Bears’ defense — in color. 

The next three pages bring the 1982 Green Bay Packers back to your memory. These players experienced something that no others did in the 27 years between 1967 and 1994 — they played in a home playoff game at Lambeau Field.



 The full roster of the Packers in that year.

The starting line-ups and rosters for the playoff game. 

 The 1982 St. Louis Cardinals. That feels kind of funny to say, no?

 The Packers’ 1982 statistics.

 A bit of info about the 1983 Packers Hall of Fame enshrinees.

Unfamiliar Packers songs. Guess they didn’t stand the test of time. 

Finally, we end with QB Lynn Dickey behind C Larry McCarren in this issue’s “Packer Profile.” On this day, Green Bay defeated St. Louis overwhelmingly by a score of 41-16 in front of a Lambeau crowd of 54,282 on a 20-degree day. The fans stormed the field and tore down the goal posts, just like the old days (try that now and it’s about an $800 fine for stepping one foot on the grass). If you’d like to see the stats from the game, please click here.  The next week, they went to Dallas and fell to the Cowboys by a score of 37-26.