The photo for today comes from the 1961 Green Bay Packers Yearbook, the second year that it was published. We see head coach Vince Lombardi deep in thought on the sideline, smoking a cigarette to release the nervous tension. Green Bay ended up losing to the Philadelphia Eagles 17-13. This was the Packers’ first championship game under Lombardi, and he would not lose another championship or even a playoff game while in Titletown.
From the 1961 yearbook, in an article by Art Daley of the Green Bay Press-Gazette:
“There wasn’t a diehard in Packerland who didn’t think the Bays would pull it out in the final seconds. (Bart) Starr moved the team 57 yards in the last seven plays, only to fall eight yards short. ‘If we could have added a couple more seconds at the end of each half, we would’ve been all right,’ Lombardi quipped when it was all over... the Bays were just seven yards from a TD when ‘time’ forced Hornung to try for his ill-fated field goal before the half as well... playing in the title (game) was a great tonic. They hope to taste it in Green Bay in 1961.”
They would indeed.
