Clean-Shaven Packers

We were looking through some non-football related materials today and came across this Norelco ad from LOOK magazine in 1964. The Packers as a team are seen endorsing Norleco — The comfort Shave. We’re not sure how this all came about, but we’d like to hear the story sometime.

Watch Out for Mr. Nitschke

Back in the glory years, we’re pretty sure that ball carriers on teams who played the Packers didn’t have to be told who Ray Nitschke was... they probably dreamt about him all week before the game. This fellow was probably in some pain a second after this photo was taken.

The current issue of Sports Illustrated features center Scott Wells and quarterback Aaron Rodgers, highlighting their Pro Football 2010 issue — depending on where you live, that is. The issue with this cover came to the Packerville, U.S.A. offices over the weekend. There are several different covers that are distributed to other sections of the country.

The 1960 Green Bay Packers

Your 1960 Green Bay Packers team is seen above in their “official” photo for that year. This Packers season was their 40th season in the National Football League. The club posted a 8-4 record under coach Vince Lombardi, earning them a first-place finish in the Western Conference. They ended the season by losing to the Philadelphia Eagles 17-13 in the NFL Championship Game. It would be the only championship game loss the Packers would suffer under Vince Lombardi.

Sep. 25, 1960, Chicago Bears, L 17-14

Oct. 2, 1960, Detroit Lions, W 28-9

Oct. 9, 1960, Baltimore Colts, W 35-21

Oct. 23, 1960, San Francisco 49ers, W 41-14

Oct. 30, 1960, at Pittsburgh Steelers, W 19-13

Nov. 6, 1960, at Baltimore Colts, L 38-24

Nov. 13, 1960, Dallas Cowboys, W 41-7

Nov. 20, 1960, Los Angeles Rams, L 33-31

Nov. 24, 1960, at Detroit Lions, L 23-10

Dec. 4, 1960, at Chicago Bears, W 41-13

Dec. 10, 1960, at San Francisco 49ers, W 13-0

Dec. 17, 1960, at Los Angeles Rams, W 35-21

Chandler Punts

Packerville, U.S.A. features former Packers kicker/punter Don Chandler today, because the staff is visiting family in Oklahoma this weekend. Chandler, although born in Iowa, attended high school in Oklahoma. He first attended Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and then transferred to the University of Florida. He was selected in the fifth round (fifty-seventh pick overall) of the 1956 NFL Draft, and played with the New York Giants (1956-1964) and Green Bay (1965-1967), where he helped the team win three straight N.F.L. titles. He was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1975, along with tight end Ron Kramer, defensive end Willie Davis, guards Jerry Kramer and Fuzzy Thurston, and coach Vince Lombardi. In 2002, he was named to the Oklahoma Team of the Century by The Oklahoman and in 2003 to the list of Oklahoma's Greatest Athletes by the Tulsa World. He currently resides in Tulsa.

40th Anniversary Reflection

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the death of Vince Lombardi. The Packerville, U.S.A. staff is traveling this holiday weekend, but wanted to present something special to mark the occasion. We have assembled a selection of photos courtesy of Sports Illustrated’s website, which this week posted a gallery of Lombardi images that are not seen too often.

1933: After graduating from St. Francis Prep in Queens, New York, Lombardi went to Fordham University in the Bronx, where he played offensive line for the Rams.

1952: After graduating from Fordham, Lombardi coached high school football in New Jersey before returning to Fordham as an assistant coach in 1947. He left Fordham after one season for an assistant's gig at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he stayed until 1952.

1955: Lombardi's first N.F.L. coaching position was with the New York Giants, where he served as an assistant on a staff that included Tom Landry. The two helped lead the Giants to a championship in 1956.

1959: The 45-year-old Lombardi was named head coach and general manager of the Green Bay Packers, inheriting a team that went 1-10-1 the previous season. The squad showed immediate improvement and finished with a 7-5 record, earning Lomabrdi Coach of the Year honors.

1965: Much of Lombardi's success at Green Bay can be attributed to quarterback Bart Starr, who threw for nearly 25,000 yards and won two Super Bowls under the coach.

1964: Lombardi was offered the head coaching job of the New York Giants following the 1960 season, but turned it down to stay in Green Bay.

1965: Lombardi, ever the motivator, hung this sign in the Packers' locker room.

1966: Lombardi takes a hands-on approach during a blocking drill. He compiled a career coaching record of 96-34-6 and never endured a losing season.

1967: NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle hands a trophy to Lombardi following Super Bowl I, a 35-10 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. The trophy would later be named after Lombardi.

1968: Frank Gifford, working as a broadcaster for CBS, interviews Lombardi before the Packers 33-14 win over the Raiders in Super Bowl II. Lombardi would step down as coach after this game but continue as Green Bay's GM.

1968: In his reduced role as general manager only, Lombardi sits in a coaching booth above the field.

1969: Lombardi returned to the sideline as head coach and general manager of the Washington Redskins. Here he talks with quarterback Sonny Jurgensen.

1969: Lombardi led the Redskins to a 7-5-2 record in 1969, which broke a streak of 14 losing seasons for the team.

1969: Lombardi shares a light moment with his grandchildren at Redskins' training camp at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Penn.

1969: Lombardi works out during down time at the Redskins' training camp. He only spent one season as coach in Washington before being diagnosed with colon cancer in the summer of 1970. He died 10 weeks later at 57.

1970: Lombardi greets fans at the Redskins training field at Georgetown University.

Lombardi's legacy is still strong today. Many of his innovations are still a part of football and his motivational speeches are still being read by coaches across the nation.

Here is Lombardi’s obituary, as it appeared in The Washington Post:

Vince Lombardi Dead at 57; Funeral Monday in New York

Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, September 4, 1970

Vincent Thomas Lombardi, the premier football coach of his time, died at 7:12 a.m. yesterday in Georgetown University Hospital of cancer of the colon. He was 57 years old.

The executive vice president and stockholder in the Washington Redskins' organization had under gone surgery on June 27 for removal of a tumor and a section of his colon.

He was released on July 10 and went to his Potomac, Md., home to rest. But after a week of activity, in which he made trips to New York and Baltimore, he reentered the hospital for additional surgery on July 27 and remained there until his death.

His wife, Marie, and son, Vincent H., were with him at the end.

The Redskins' football team is scheduled to play the Miami Dolphins in an exhibition game in Tampa, Fla., Saturday night and it was announced that the contest would go on.

Head coach Bill Austin will bring the Redskins to Washington Sunday and they will attend a requiem mass at 11 a.m. Monday in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, at which Terence Cardinal Cooke, a friend of Mr. Lombardi will officiate.

Burial will be in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Middletown Township, N.J., near Red Bank.

The body will be at Gawler's funeral parlor, Wisconsin Avenue and Harrison Street, nw, Washington, today from 2 p.m.

Overnight the body will be taken to the Abbey funeral home, 888 Lexington Ave., New York City, for viewing Saturday and Sunday.

There will be a memorial mass in Washington at noon Monday in St. Matthew's Cathedral, at which Patrick Cardinal O'Boyle will officiate.

Besides his wife, the former Marie Planitz,, a native of New Jersey, and his son, Mr. Lombardi is survived by his parents, Mr. And Mrs. Henry Lombardi of Brooklyn, N.Y.; a daughter, Mrs. Susan Bickham of Chicago Heights, Ill.; a sister, Mrs. Harry Brandshagen of Hazlet, N.J.; two brothers, Joseph of Englewood, N.J., and Harold of San Rafael, Calif., and six grandchildren.

Mr. Lombardi became coach of the Redskins in February 1969 and led them to a 7-5-2 record, their first winning season in 14 years.

He came here from Green Bay, where he won six division titles, five National Football League championships — a record three straight — and two Super Bowl games.

Mr. Lombardi retired as coach of the Packers after the 1967 season but continued as general manager for a season before he decided to return to coaching.

He was granted full control of the Redskins with the title of executive vice president and purchased 50 shares of stock in the club valued at $500,000. His salary was estimated at $110,000 annually.

Although he announced after leaving the hospital for the first time that he would be in training camp on July 19, when the veteran players were originally scheduled to report, he named Austin "interim head coach" three days after the rookies reported.

Austin is a former head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers and was an assistant on Mr. Lombardi's staff at Green Bay for six years.

Only 11 days after Mr. Lombardi began resting at home from his first operation, he went to New York City for a meeting of NFL club owners to discuss a dispute with the players' association.

The next day he watched the veteran players work out on their own at the Georgetown University football field. Four days later, he went to Baltimore to see the Redskins' rookies play the Colts' first-year men in Memorial Stadium.

The next day he visited the veterans again at Georgetown before being readmitted to the hospital.

Mr. Lombardi was born June 11, 1913, in Brooklyn, N.Y.

He attended St. Francis Prep in Brooklyn and Fordham University, where as a 5-foot-8, 185 pound guard he was one of the renowned Seven Blocks of Granite.

He never had a losing season as a coach in a career that began in 1939 at St. Cecelia High School in Englewood, N.J.

In 1947 Mr. Lombardi became freshman coach at Fordham and two years later joined the staff of Col. Earl (Red) Blaik at West Point.

His first coaching in pro ball came in 1954 under Jim Lee Howell with the New York Giants. Five years later Mr. Lombardi was appointed head coach and general manager of the Packers.

He took a team that had a 1-10-1 record the previous season and finished third in the Western Conference of the NFL with a 7-5 record. He never finished lower than second with the Packers after that.

The Packers lost the championship game in 1960, his second season, to the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-13.

Green Bay won the NFL title in 1961 and 1962 and, after a lapse of two seasons, won three straight, plus the first two Super Bowl games.

His overall coaching record in Green Bay, including exhibitions, was 141-39-4 for a .783 percentage.

© Copyright 1970 The Washington Post Company

The Shameful Years

We head back before the Lombardi Era today, with a football season preview publication from the year 1957. The Packers weren’t exactly a powerhouse in those years, and one team biographer has called the 1950’s “The Shameful Years.”

In a listing of the best players of the National Football League, this photo was used with an apt caption.

Each team received six pages of commentary, including lowly teams like Green Bay.

Here’s the entire 1957 N.F.L. schedule. The Packers would finish with a record of 3-9-0 under head coach Lisle Blackbourn.

Your 1959 Green Bay Packers

The 1959 Green Bay Packers team photo is our image for today. It was Vince Lombardi’s first season with the team, and this photo is the only one of the team that we’ve seen which does not have them posed in their football uniforms. It may also be the only team portrait with Lombardi and his coaches in it as well. One of the changes he made upon arrival in Green Bay was to require all players to dress “professionally” when they traveled. Looking at this photo shows that everyone listened.

Classic Lineup

We can’t get enough of great photos like this one. We’re not definitively sure of the where and when, but these are some Green Bay legends — Jim Taylor (#31), Paul Hornung (#5), Bart Starr (#15), and head coach Vince Lombardi.

1968 Football Preview

The first year of the Phil Bengston Era is previewed in today’s blog post. Vince Lombardi had retired as head coach in February, staying on as general manager while his former defensive coordinator took over with the team. Having won the N.F.L. title in 1967, the Packers grace the cover of this magazine, but the era of championships was over.

This is an article with a general overview of both professional football leagues for the coming year in ’68.

Next, we bring you the four pages of prognostications for Green Bay — post-Lombardi.

This ’n That Saturday

First of all, we apologize to our readers for two missed days this week — one because of general busyness, and last night the start of high school football took over the evening. While we try to blog each and every day here in beautiful downtown Packerville, U.S.A., occasionally time gets away from us.

Today we have some images found in Sports Illustrated’s galleries that are Green Bay-related. Above, new Washington Redskins coach Vince Lombardi poses with his quarterback Sonny Jurgenson.

Packers’ running back Jim Taylor fights for yardage against the 49ers on the cover of Sports Illustrated, September 10, 1962.

The Packer Sweep forms with Elijah Pitts (#22) carrying the ball behind Forrest Gregg (#75) and Fuzzy Thurston (#63).

Linebacker Ray Nitschke (#66) yells instructions to his defensive teammates while awaiting the snap against the Bears in Chicago’s Wrigley Field.

Illustrated had a gallery that featured the best players of all time by jersey number, and we’re pretty sure they could’ve shown Reggie White in a Packers uniform to represent #92. C’mon guys. Did he win a championship while in Philadelphia?

The great Don Hutson makes a fingertip catch in old City Stadium in Green Bay in the 1940’s.

Back in Washington, Vince Lombardi diagrams some football fundamentals on the blackboard for his quarterbacks. They no doubt we’re thinking of the dynasty that he would build around them in the nation’s capitol, but it was not meant to be. Lombardi would die of cancer just a little over a year away in September 1970.

Lastly, in a gallery of undrafted N.F.L. players who went on to be enshrined in the Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, we found the Packers’ Willie Wood (#24). Wood wrote to teams after college asking for a tryout, and Green Bay gave him one. The rest is history.