The 1980 season-opener against the Chicago Bears had an ending that is remembered yet today. Here is the original game coverage from the Milwaukee Sentinel:
Packers felt fate finally was on their side
By Bud Lea, The Milwaukee Sentinel
September 8, 1980
Green Bay — They came into this 60th league opener as the laughing stock of the NFL. Just a week ago they left Lambeau Field only to be told, "you stink." Just four days ago, their defensive line coach, Fred vonAppen, represented, in the extreme, all of the frustrations and quit the team. Still fresh from an 0-4-1 preseason record, the Green Bay Packers were patching and grouping and trying to put together something that would pass for a team. "Did you hear the latest?" a fan said in the parking lot. The story was that quarterback Lynn Dickey had suffered an injury in Saturday's practice and wouldn't play.
So the Packers, masters of adversity, were thrown into the breach against the archrival Chicago Bears Sunday. The only issue involved, a lot of people thought, would be the Bears' margin of victory. Think again. In one of the biggest turnarounds in pro football, the Packers jolted the unsuspecting Bears, 12-6, in overtime when Chester Marcol ran — not kicked — 25 yards for the winning score. The big play came six minutes into the overtime. There was an angel perched on Marcol's shoulder when he lined up for a 35-yard field goal attempt. There had to be. Marcol, who had kicked field goals from the 41 and 46, was low this time. The ball hit Bear lineman Alan Page in the face, bounced right back to Marcol, and Chester took off for the races while 54,381 fans and the Packers went crazy.
So in the Packer locker room, they talked about fate finally turning their way. "It was the most dramatic win I've ever been associated with," Coach Bart Starr said, forgetting for the moment his winning touchdown against Dallas for the NFL championship in the 1967 "Ice Bowl" game. "We were way overdue for a break," said an exhausted but happy Larry McCarren, trying to make himself heard over the din of excitement. McCarren started at center for the first time since undergoing hernia surgery, Aug. 14.
McCarren talked about a special player meeting last Thursday night at a local watering spot when 30 players got together and discussed the sorry state of the Packers. "It was a good turnout, and indicated that we have a solid corps of players who are together," McCarren said. "Almost everyone had something to say. We became banded together by adversity, and we were ready," Steve Luke, the veteran safety, said the meeting lasted three hours. He said the players were angry as they talked about the frustrations and disappointments that had strangled this team since training camp started. "We've got the kind of people you can win with," Luke said. "The meeting settled a lot of things." It was a gripe session, to be sure. But if the gripes sounded sour, the point is that the players came down hardest on themselves. The residual effects took hold quickly. Luke was so positive that the Packers could beat the Bears that he guaranteed a victory after Saturday's practice.
The customers, like the Bears, didn't know what to expect. Only a few bed-sheet signs were hung around the stadium. One read: "Bears can't catch poison Ivery." The author knew something. Eddie Lee Ivery, who went out for the season with a knee injury in the Bear opener last year, danced around all day — until he injured his knee again in the third quarter. Again, luck stayed with the Packers. Ivery came back in the fourth quarter and finished as the game's leading rusher with 73 yards on 15 carries, clearly overshadowing Chicago's renowned Walter Payton, who picked up 65 yards on 31 trips for a 2.1 yard average. It was the first time in years that the Packers have stopped Payton.
The Packers did some unusual things on defense. They kept the Bears guessing by jumping in and out of sets, and it worked. They swarmed all over Payton, stopping him on a crucial fourth and one play from the Packer 14 when Mike McCoy nailed Payton for a 10 yard loss. The Bears clearly showed they were concerned about Green Bay's defense when they ran seven-straight running plays with 4-1/2 minutes to play. They went into a shell and played for the tie instead of a win.
All summer-long, Starr has tried to keep a positive attitude. Only Friday he said, "we're going to play a very good game Sunday." A quote can't play a game. But the message stuck. So did Madame Fortune, for a change.
One footnote: The Bears got their revenge and beat the Packers later that season, 61-7.
