If you were a football player with the potential of participating at the professional level back in 1964, the N.F.L. sought to convince you to play with them instead of with “that other league” (the A.F.L.), or even the C.F.L. north of the border. You would receive this fine booklet (90 pages) which extolled the many virtues of playing in the world’s oldest and finest organization of professional football franchises.
N.F.L. Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who was in his fifth year on the job, had this to say in the booklet’s introduction.
Before the write-ups on each N.F.L. team, you would’ve read this piece convincing you of what a great opportunity it was to play pro football.
All of the teams that existed in 1964 (14 of them) were given a four-page summary of where they’ve come from and where they’re going in 1964. Here is the section on our beloved Packers, which was marked up by a zealous Green Bay native who corrected some of the data that he thought slighted the town, apparently.
Some of the teams played in different stadiums than they do now, and the Vikings section featured this aerial photo of old Metropolitan Stadium during a Vikings-Packers game in 1963.
The booklet also featured some testimonials from current players, and here is one from Packers quarterback Bart Starr.
And then towards the back there was a section on how playing in the N.F.L. could be a springboard to your post-football business career. Two old-time Packers were featured — Don Hutson (above), and Tony Canadeo (below).
This was a nice page which featured a Packers photo with a listing of all the N.F.L. franchises and their addresses. The Bears were the league champions the previous year, but we see they chose to feature Green Bay here. A fine choice by the league.
The Pro Football Hall of Fame opened its doors the previous year also, and this article tells us a little about it and lists the few players at the end who were enshrined there.
Finally, the back cover was a nice collage of each franchise’s logo as they were in 1964. Some teams should go back to what they had back then, in our opinion.
