1961 Championship Beer Guy

After a series of photos showing the days and weeks leading up to the 1961 NFL championship, today we switch to photos taken during the contest. It’s New Year’s Eve in Green Bay’s City Stadium, and the caption to this photo reads: “Harold Baker, a vendor at City Stadium, sits on his case of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and watches part of the NFL championship game against the New York Giants on Dec. 31, 1961. A bottle of Pabst went for 35 cents.”

Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette archives

The Day Before the Game

Today we have another in our series of photos from the Green Bay Press-Gazette that depict the days and weeks leading up to the 1961 NFL championship game at City Stadium. The original caption for this photo read: “From left, New York Giants president Jack Mara, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle and Packers president Dominic Olejniczak (the man who hired Vince Lombardi) examine the playing field at City Stadium on Dec. 30, 1961, the day before the NFL championship game between the Packers and the Giants.”

Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette archives

Practice Before the 1961 Championship

Today’s posting is another in our series of photos from the week leading up to the 1961 NFL championship game, played in Green Bay’s City Stadium on December 31st of that year. The original caption that ran with the photo is: “Tight end Ron Kramer, center, and defensive back Jesse Whittenton, right, walk with their teammates from City Stadium to their practice field along South Oneida Street shortly before Christmas 1961.”

Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette archives

Before the 1961 NFL Championship

After a few days off, including a weekend in Green Bay for the Packers-Chargers game on Sunday, we’re back with another in our series of photos from the week and days leading up to the 1961 championship game. The caption for this photo read: “Arnold DesJardins stands in the knee-deep hay under the goal posts in the south end zone in early December 1961. The hay was put on the field to preserve it for a month before the NFL championship game, which was played on Dec. 31.

Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette archives

The Night Before the 1961 NFL Championship

Another in our series from the Green Bay Press-Gazette archives of the preparations before the 1961 NFL championship game held at City Stadium.

The original photo caption reads: “Crews brush snow from the playing field before the NFL championship game against the New York Giants on Dec. 31, 1961.”

Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette archives

Two Days Before the 1961 NFL Championship

Here’s another in our series about the City Stadium efforts to ready the facility for the 1961 NFL championship game. According to the original photo caption:

“Jack Orde paints the words ‘Green Bay’ in the south end zone at City Stadium on Dec. 29, 1961, two days before the NFL championship game between the Packers and New York Giants.

Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette archives

Two Days Before the 1961 NFL Championship

Today we present the second in a series of images from the Green Bay Press-Gazette that depict the days of preparation before the 1961 NFL championship game at City Stadium (now Lambeau Field).

The original caption for this photo was: “The bunting and ‘Titletown U.S.A.’ banners are up along the railing and the tarp is rolled back as the finishing touches are applied to the south end zone at City Stadium on December 29, 1961, two days before the NFL championship game between the Packers and New York Giants.”

Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette archives

Ten Days Before the 1961 NFL Championship

Today we start a series of images from the Green Bay Press-Gazette newspaper’s archive. The photos are of the Lambeau Field preparations from the week and days prior to the 1961 NFL championship game between the Packers and the New York Giants. The original newspaper caption that ran with the photo stated:

“City Stadium’s seats are filled with snow in December 1961, about 10 days before the NFL championship game against the New York Giants was played there on New Year’s Eve — December 31st.”

Source: Green Bay Press-Gazette archives

Charlie “Choo Choo” Brackins

Black quarterback Charlie “Choo Choo” Brackins played in 1955 for the Green Bay Packers. Drafted in the 16th round of the 1955 draft by the Packers out of Prairie View A&M, where he was a four-year starter and led his team to 33 victories in 37 games. He was a big tall passer at 6'-2" and 205 lbs.

Brackins became the fourth black quarterback to play in an NFL game. He played in the closing minutes for the Green Bay Packers in a blowout game against the Cleveland Browns on October 23,1955. Green Bay won the game 41-10 and Brackins had two incompletions.

His career only lasted seven games and the Packers placed him on waivers after he had broken curfew before a game in Chicago and other unnamed problems. After the “violations,” Brackins never got a chance to return to the NFL. He had tryouts, mostly as a defensive back, but never caught on again and injured his knee before leaving the game. He died of cancer in 1990 at the age of 58.

Packers vs. Giants

As the Green Bay Packers head to New York this weekend to play the Giants on Sunday, we thought we’d post an page of images from an NFL book that was published after the 1962 championship game. This was the game played in Yankee Stadium on December 30, 1962 in which the Packers won their second straight title 16-7 — thanks in large part to the field goal kicking of guard Jerry Kramer. We’d like to see Daryn Colledge or Jason Spitz try kicking field goals these days.

Bart Starr’s Favorite Play (in 1966)

Bart Starr describes his favorite play:

“We have a pass in Green Bay we throw against everyone and all defenses and make it go. Against the Lions in Detroit, we used it several times very effectively in ’65, once for a real long gain that got us started after we were down by some 20 points.”

“It’s a crossing action type of pass not easily covered by a defense and is known in our play book as ‘Right Formation, Flare Wide L & R, Wing Trail.’ L & R merely denotes L (left end) and R (tight end) are crossing. Wing trail is just that. The wing, or flanker, trails across.”

“I like the pass specifically for three reasons: 1) it can be thrown against any defense very effectively; 2) there are four good choices of receivers, depending on how the defense covers; 3) there are easy take-off or companion routes the wing can run off this basic move to keep his defender completely off balance.”

“The blocking is very sound and simple. Big linemen on big defensive linemen. The center is responsible for the middle linebacker. The remaining back, the left halfback, is responsible for the linebacker to his side. If the linebacker on the fullback’s side comes, the ball is released quickly to the fullback flaring.”

“Optional blocking is to delay flaring the fullback, in which case he takes the linebacker on his side if the red dog (blitz) is on.”

“This play was part of our (1965) championship game plan against the Browns and we completed it a couple of times for crucial gains.”

Source: “The Pro Quarterback” by Murray Olderman (1966)

More Bart Starr

The photo for today’s Blog posting is another fine Bart Starr image, in a snapshot from the 1965 NFL Championship game. On this day, the Packers defeated the Cleveland Browns 23-12 in Lambeau Field. According to the photo caption from the book “The Pro Quarterback” by Murray Olderman (1966), “In the championship game... on a snowy, muddy day, Green Bay’s Bart Starr never fumbled.”

Travis Williams & Fans

Today’s posting features a photo of Packers’ running back Travis Williams being hoisted and carried off the Milwaukee County Stadium field after the 1967 Western Conference championship on December 23, 1967. The Packers defeated the Rams 28-7 in that game, which was played in front of 49,861 fans in 20-degree weather.

According to the Milwaukee Journal’s original coverage, “Rookie halfback Travis Williams continued his impressive work with Green Bay’s regular running backs mostly wounded. He scored two touchdowns — one on a 46 yard burst through right tackle and then around the outside, the other on a two yard squirm over right guard.” Williams finished with 88 yards on 18 carries. He also had one catch for 8 yards.

The Focus of Packerville

As we await the dawning of the 2007 NFL season, we at Packerville have taken a couple of days this week to re-think and re-energize the main focus of our “Blog.” We realize that there are literally hundreds of places on the internet to get the latest news, commentary, opinion, and sometimes useless blather regarding the Green Bay Packers.

We have decided that our focus should be directed towards the historical trivia of the Packers’ past, showing things that many or most Packer fans may never see. We have a rather extensive collection of printed Packers’ material — yearbooks, media guides, game programs, magazines, photos, books, etc., and we will be digging backwards in Green Bay history most of the time to entertain those who have interest in such things.

The image today shows two of our Packerville staff members in the electronic archival section of our headquarters. Their job is to scan, organize, and archive many of the things we’ll be sharing with you in the coming months and, hopefully, years.

We hope you’ll be interested and sometimes intrigued by the things we’ll share.

Five Days Until NFL Season 2007

Our posting for today is an image of our own Green Bay Packers starting quarterback showing the textbook throwing form that makes coaches around the League use film of his technique for young QB’s to study.

In five days, we get to see what our 2007 team is made of. We’re not sure if anyone — other than those of us who study such things — noticed that the Packers have only two genuine quarterbacks on the 2007 roster so far. Behind Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers, the team has receiver Carlyle Holiday listed as the third QB. Holiday is a former Notre Dame quarterback who made the transition to full-time receiver as a fifth-year senior with the Irish. He played in eight games in 2006, four with Arizona and four with Green Bay, making all nine of his catches as a Packer. A final note of trivia: Holiday caught Brett Favre's 4,968th completion, breaking Dan Marino's career NFL record.

Six Days Until NFL Season 2007

Instead of today being the Monday after the season-opening games of the National Football League, as it was for many years, we are still six days away from Week One and a visit from the pesky Philadelphia Eagles (4th and 26 anyone?).

We at Packerville are still mystified about how our offensive backfield is going to operate, about how our rookie kicker is going to fare in the heat of regular season battle, and about how our defense will handle things — are they as seasoned and improved as they tell us they are?

We will feel like we have a better handle on things after next Sunday’s Noon contest than we do right now, that’s for sure. But we’re ready. Bring it on, already.

Bart Starr in the News

Today, as we head into the Labor Day weekend, we feature a bit of news about legendary Packers quarterback Bart Starr. As we all probably know, Starr was drafted in the seventeenth round of the NFL Draft in 1956 out of the University of Alabama. He was a backup to Tobin Rote and Babe Parilli until 1959, Vince Lombardi's first year as Packers coach. In that season, Lombardi pulled starter Lamar McHan in favor of Starr, and he held the starting job henceforth. In just two seasons, Starr would lead his team to NFL Championships in 1961 and 1962, 1965, 1966, and 1967. Starr was responsible for calling plays when he was quarterback, as was the norm at the time.

But Starr is in the news again these days in what is hoped to be the last act of a sad drama that we've been following for months. This type of individual proves that even if you're a 73-year-old former football player trying to enjoy retirement, you still have people trying to “sack” you. This is illustrated by the following news item from last Friday’s Associated Press:

“Woman gets probation in Starr extortion case”

“An 82-year-old Texas women who pleaded guilty to trying to extort $2 million from Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr was sentenced to one year probation in San Antonio. A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Ruby Y. Young to not have any contact with Starr or his family or contact the media about an alleged relationship she had with the two-time Super Bowl MVP in 1960. Court documents show Young sent a 3½ page letter to Starr in October that read, in part, "And now, the time has come for you to pay — to pay for the many injuries you caused me."

“The letter continued, "I am going to be vindicated one way or another. You know very well that any and all tabloids, TV newscasters such as ABC, CBS, NBC would simply devour this story." Young pleaded guilty in June. Starr, 73, who played at Alabama, was MVP of the first two Super Bowls for the Green Bay Packers.”