O.K... yesterday was too nice of a day to be inside, and then by the time I was inside I was too tired to update the ol' Blog.
Anyway, for today’s posting, we have a photo of the spontaneous celebration immediately after coach Vince Lombardi’s first victory — defeating the Chicago Bears 9-6 — on September 27, 1959. Why was everyone so excited? Did they know that Lombardi would eventually lead them to be the “Team of the Decade” and that this victory was the start of it all? Were they anticipating the five World Championships in nine years? Probably not.
The season before, with Ray “Scooter” McLean as head coach, the Green Bay fellows posted a record of one win, ten losses, and no ties — that’s 1-10-0, folks. According to one reporter, “the Packers overwhelmed one, were overwhelmed ten times, and whelmed none.” I think that in this first game of 1959, the fans and players were just happy to win one at all.
Seen in the photo around Lombardi are #85 Max McGee, #44 Bobby Dillon, #83 Bill Quinlan, #33 Lew Carpenter, #42 Don McIlhenny, and #5 Paul Hornung. The player actually carrying Lombardi cannot be confirmed exactly.
