Today we continue our journey through the Phil Bengston years with the cover of the 1969 Green Bay Packers Yearbook. Pictured on the front we have a photo of running back Donny Anderson trying to elude a Detroit Lions’ defender during the previous year’s 23-17 loss in Green Bay. Anderson played for the team from 1966 to 1971, playing in 84 regular season games. In 1972 he moved to the St. Louis Cardinals, where he played his final three seasons in the league. In 1969, the Packers would finish with a 8-6-0 record, but it was only good for third place in the NFL Central Division. 1969 was the first year since 1958 that Bart Starr was not the leading passer for the team, as quarterback Don Horn led in passing statistics.
While with the Packers, Anderson originated the concept of hang time in punting. Until Anderson, punters typically strived for maximum distance, with the NFL's leaders usually averaging 45 or more yards a punt. Punt returns varied, with an average of perhaps 5 yards per return. In 1967, Anderson worked instead at punting the ball higher, shortening the distance traveled but increasing the ball's time in the air, allowing better coverage by his team on the punt return. Green Bay punted 66 times that year, 63 of them by Anderson; opponents were able to return only 13 of them, for a total of 22 yards or about 1/3 yard per punt. It was Anderson's coach, Vince Lombardi, who explained the concept to sportswriters who questioned why Lombardi didn't try to find a better punter than Anderson, who averaged only 36.6 yards per punt that year. Lombardi pointed out the lack of return yardage. Other punters soon followed Anderson, working for greater hang time. Eventually the NFL changed its rules governing punt coverage, to restore the ability to return punts.
Some of the stories in the 1969 Yearbook (“The Packers’ 50th Season — and the Yearbook’s 10th!) were: “The Pack Will Be Back”... “Green Bay’s Finest Hour”... “Phil (Bengston) Takes Over”... “The Day Lombardi Left Green Bay”... “The Greatest Packer Games in 50 Years”... “(Donny) Anderson & (Jim) Grabowski”... “Willie Wood — Safety First”... “Gale Gillingham — Just Another Farmer?”... “Bart Starr — The Grand Daddy of All Packers”... “Honor Roll of 615 Players Who Competed for Packers in NFL since 1921”... “Don Horn — The Next Bart Starr”... “Year-Round Football”... “The 1968 Story in Statistics”... “A Year of Transition — The 1968 Packers”... “Your 1969 Packers”... “That Kicking!”... “Merger Complete — NFL Takes on New Look in 1970”...
