Our journey through the Packer Yearbooks brings us today to the strike-shortened 1982 season. The 16 game season was reduced to nine games, with a gap of no games between September 20, 1982 and November 21, 1982. The games that were not played that year were versus Miami, Philadelphia, Chicago (twice), Tampa Bay (twice), and Minnesota. But, ironically, this mixed-up season resulted in the Packers finishing 5-3-1 for third place in the NFC Central Division, and appearing in the NFL Playoffs for the first time since 1972.
On the cover, we have a shot of receivers John Jefferson and James Lofton as they “happily jog off the field in unison after Lofton caught a touchdown pass against Seattle in Green Bay November 1.” The Packers won that game 34-24. This was the first of two seasons when the duo led the team in receptions, combining for 62 catches for 1,148 yards and 4 TD’s. Quarterback Lynn Dickey again started all the games and passed for 1,790 yards, 12 TD’s, and 14 INT’s. Eddie Lee Ivery led the running backs with 453 yards on 127 carries — resulting in 9 TD’s.
As mentioned before, the Packers qualified for post-season play, as all teams were grouped together as the “National Conference” standings. Washington was 8-1-0 and Dallas was 6-3-0. The Packers were next with their 5-3-1 record. In the NFC First-Round Playoff, Green Bay beat the St. Louis Cardinals at home, 41-16 on January 8, 1983. The following week, they travelled to Dallas and lost there, 37-26.
Some of the stories in the 1982 Yearbook were: “Packers on Verge of Somethign BIG”... “Lofton and Jefferson/Jefferson and Lofton”... “Don Hutson and James Lofton”... “Meet the New President — Judge Robert J. Parins”... “Linebackers — Heart of Defense”... “The Great Fan Comeback of 1981”... “A Good Feeling at Quarterback”... “Bart Starr Says: Players’ Motivation Unchanged”... “Eddie Lee (Ivery): I’ll Be a Smarter Runner”... “Your 1982 Packers”... “Jan (Stenerud)’s Secret: Concentration”... “Greg Koch: Thy Name is Loyalty”... “The Biggest First Choice” (Ron Hallstrom)... “James (Lofton), Jan (Stenerud) Set Records”... “The 1981 Season in Statistics”...
