And then the decline began. On February 1, 1968, head coach Vince Lombardi announced (after much speculation in the media) that he would step down as coach and retain the general manager position. His longtime defensive coordinator, Phil Bengston, was Lombardi’s choice to succeed him.
Today’s Packer Yearbook is from that 1968 season when the success that the team and the fans had become used to — and had taken for granted — came to a screeching halt. The players from the “Glory Years” were becoming old, and they struggled through the 1968 campaign to a 6-7-1 record, good for only third in the NFL Central Division. Lombardi would instantly regret his decision to stop coaching, and would be in Washington by the time the next season rolled around.
Some of the featured stories in the 1968 Yearbook were: “Double Barreled — Challenge” (the attempt at a fourth straight NFL championship and to continue winning in general)... “Vince Lombardi — He Came and Left in Triumph — on the Shoulders of His Players”... “Vince Lombardi Career Retrospective”... “Phil Bengston — Instant Image”... “Three Straight”... “Starr Didn’t Tell Anybody He’d Keep Ball on Winning TD”... “13 Below — What This Team is All About”... “Third Straight in a Nutshell”... “The Second Super Bowl”... “The First Two — Central and Western Titles”... “Meet the First Choices — Fred Carr and Bill Lueck”... “Travis Williams — The Road Runner”... “Here’s the Team That Made It Three Straight”... “Your 1968 Packers”... “The Artful (Boyd) Dowler”... “Ray Nitschke — A Survival Type of Thing”... “The 1967 Story in Statistics”...
