As the title of this blog entry states, most modern Green Bay Packers fans have no idea who Emlen Tunnell was. Well, sit back and we’ll tell you. Former Iowa Hawkeye Emlen Tunnell was one of the first black players of the NFL's modern era and the first black man to play for the New York Giants. But in his career as an outstanding defensive back, he played a key member of a defense that introduced what became today's 4-3. He played 14 years in the N.F.L., 11 with the Giants and the last three with the Green Bay Packers. With the Giants, he played on one New York N.F.L. title team, including the 1958 so-called “Greatest Game Ever Played," in which the Giants lost to the Baltimore Colts in the first use of sudden-death overtime in NFL history.
Following that season, when it became clear to him that he was no longer in the Giants' plans, he asked for — and got — his outright release. Not longer after, he was contacted by Vince Lombardi, who had been the offensive coach of the Giants and had then been named head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers (Tunnell denied any prior arrangement between him and Lombardi). Lombardi wanted Tunnell to join him in Green Bay.
It took some persuading by Lombardi to get Tunnell, who loved the city and loved city life, to leave New York for Green Bay. Tunnell remembered when he was a young player and Giants' coach Steve Owen would holler, "All right, Tunnell. If you don't start working, I'm going to send you to Siberia.” Anyone who had ever spent any time in the N.F.L. knew “Siberia” meant Green Bay.
Right from the start, as an 11-year veteran familiar with Lombardi's ways, Tunnell played a major role in Lombardi's turnaround efforts. Wrote David Maraniss, in "When Pride Still Mattered," his great biography of Lombardi, Tunnell brought with him "an intimate knowledge of the defensive system Lombardi wanted to implement with his new team. Tunnell became an informal coach on the field, and as the first black star to play for the Packers — and a player who greatly respected the new coach — he also made it easier for Lombardi to bring in many more skilled black players over the next few years." In the 1990’s the Packers’ Reggie White provided the same influence for players throughout the league.
As one example of Tunnell's many uses to Lombardi, Maraniss told how the coach once ran Tunnell off the practice field for his lack of hustle. From that example, the rest of the Packers realized that if Lombardi would run off an all-time great, a trusted fellow ex-Giant, he would run off anybody. Only years later was it disclosed that it was an all an act. So highly did Lombardi value Tunnell's experience that he covertly paid Tunnell's rent.
As Lombardi added more black players, part of Tunnell's role was to help them adjust to life in 99 per cent-white Green Bay, and to serve as liaison between them and the coach. "At Tunnell’s suggestion," Maraniss wrote, "he allowed the black players to leave the St. Norbert training camp twice during the preseason for quick trips down to Milwaukee, the closest city where they could find barbers who knew how to cut their hair."
In his three years at Green Bay, Tunnell would play on Lombardi's first N.F.L. championship team. When he left, his legacy lived on in his replacement, Willie Wood, who would himself become a Hall-of-Famer. Wood attributed much of what he knew to Tunnell's mentoring of him: “I used to sit around and quiz Em all the time," Wood told David Maraniss. “What do you do in this situation? How do you know when your man's coming inside?' He taught me how to anticipate what would happen. Em was a very bright guy who helped me tremendously. He had been around so long, one of the first black stars in the league, and for me just to have the opportunity to hang around him, I was awed by that. Em was so cool.' ”
At the time of his retirement following the 1961 season, Emlen Tunnell was the N.F.L.'s all-time leader in interceptions and punt returns. For 14 years he was one of the best safeties in the game. He was named All-Pro six times, and played in nine Pro Bowls. His 79 career interceptions and 262 punt returns (for 2217 yards) were N.F.L. records at the time of his retirement. When he entered the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1967, Emlen Tunnell was the first black man to be inducted. And since Eagles' linebacker Chuck Bednarik, who entered with him, was considered to be the last of the N.F.L.'s two-way players, Tunnell was also the Hall of Fame's first purely-defensive player.
After his playing days were over following the 1961 season, he became a scout and assistant coach with the Giants, where he passed away from an heart attack during a practice session in 1975.
Tunnell (#45) poses in the 1961 Green Bay Packers team photo.
