Dowler Punts One Away

While Packers’ great Boyd Dowler was known as an exemplary wide receiver in Vince Lombardi’s “Glory Days” offense, he also handled the punting role from 1960-1962. He and fellow receiver Max McGee shared these duties for those three years, after which neither kicked for the team again. This is another from the series of photos of an “away” game in the early Sixties, which we can now — based upon this photo — pinpoint down to the years of 1961 or 1962. It cannot be from 1960, since the Packers’ helmets did not have the “G” logo until 1961.

Coach Lombardi Before Super Bowl I

Coach Vince Lombardi is seen in today’s blog posting during pre-game warm-ups before Super Bowl I, known at the time as “the first AFL-NFL championship game.” Lombardi, by many accounts, was very nervous before the game and felt the pressure of the other NFL owners to beat the younger, upstart league. He must have felt quite relieved after the contest ended with a Green Bay victory over the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10.

Ray Nitschke on the Bench

Today we have the third in a series of images from a mid-Sixties away game that we’ve been featuring. Linebacker and NFL/Packer legend Ray Nitschke (#66) gets a rest on the sidelines as the offense works on the field. To Nitschke’s left (and your right) is linebacker Lee Roy Caffey (#60), who played for the team from 1964-69.

Key Offensive Players Rest

In what appears to be the second image from the same game as the earlier photo of Tom Moore and Fred “Fuzzy” Thurston, today we have an image of some more key offensive players. Taking a breather on the bench, but still keeping a keen interest in the defense’s play are quarterback Bart Starr (#15), receiver Boyd Dowler (#86), and running back Jim Taylor (#31).

Classic Bart Starr

The Green Bay starting quarterback from 1960 to 1970, Bryan Bartlett Starr was an icon of pro football in the Sixties. As Vince Lombardi's quarterback, Starr's Packers won NFL Championships in the 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966, and 1967 seasons. Following the NFL championships in 1966 and 1967, he led the Packers to convincing victories over the champions of the rival AFL in the first two Super Bowls and was named the Most Valuable Player of both games. He is the only player to quarterback a team to five NFL championships.

Starr was drafted in the 17th round of the NFL Draft in 1956, out of the University of Alabama. He was a backup to Tobin Rote in 1956 and split time with 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 led his team to NFL Championships in 1961 and 1962. In 1966, Starr was named the NFL's Most Valuable Player by the Associated Press (AP), the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA) and UPI. Starr was responsible for calling plays when he was quarterback, as was the norm at the time. Starr's playing career ended at the conclusion of the 1971 season.

Coach Starr on the Sideline

Today we see head coach Bart Starr on the sidelines during a late season away game in an unknown location. Standing to Starr’s right side is what we have deduced to be defensive back Bill Whitaker (#30), who played for the Packers in 1981-1982. We also believe that back-up quarterback David Whitehurst is at far left in the photo wearing a jacket. Starr would coach Green Bay through the 1983 season, after which he was unceremoniously fired by the team’s president Judge Robert Parins.

Moore and Thurston Take a Breather

In an unidentified “away” game from the mid-Sixties, running back Tom Moore (#25) and offensive guard Fred “Fuzzy” Thurston (#63) take a rest on the Packers’ sideline. The shoulder of running back Elijah Pitts (#22) can be seen almost out of the photo at left. This is the first of several posts that will feature a selection of images obtained by the “Packerville” archives staff on our trip to Packers’ Training Camp this past weekend. We hope you will enjoy the look back in time.

More On the Packer Lumberjack Band

The Lumberjack Band was a marching band who played at Green Bay Packers games. They originally wore plaid flannel jackets, hence the name. The band was formed in 1921, originally made up of a group of volunteers. Throughout the 1920’s and 1930’s, the Lumberjack Band accompanied groups of fans to road games, most notably to games with the Chicago Bears.

“Right from the start, Packers fans got caught up in the spirit of the competition. More than 300 fans, including 22 members of the Lumberjack Band, took a midnight train from Green Bay to Chicago for the first game, played on November 27, 1921. Dressed in corduroy pants, lumberjack shirts, mackinaws, hunting caps, and high boots, the fans marched through The Loop upon their arrival in Chicago early Sunday morning. The band accompanied them, playing “On Wisconsin” and “How Dry I Am,” as they paraded through several downtown hotels before heading to Cubs Park, now Wrigley Field.”

— from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

In 1931, they first played “Go! You Packers! Go!,” the official fight song of the Green Bay Packers. The Lumberjack Band was a fixture at Packer games, and an integral part of the City Stadium experience. Curly Lambeau was convinced that the band played in a part in many Packer victories. A bandstand was built for the Lumberjack Band at one corner of the field, and early designs for New City Stadium, later renamed Lambeau Field, showed separate stands with a bandstand in one corner, before the decision was made to have a bowl-shaped stadium.

When Vince Lombardi became head coach and general manager, he upgraded the band’s look, saying the traditional flannels did not fit with the team’s new stadium. The band was renamed simply “The Green Bay Packer Band” and was set up in the southwest corner of the field, occasionally seeing “guest appearances” by players running out of bounds. The uniforms changed to green military-style outfits. Wilner Burke directed the band during this period, giving way to Lovell Ives in the late 1970s.

But in the 1990s, the use of recorded music and the airing of advertisements on video screens led to the band’s playing time being cut back. By 1997, the band was disbanded and re-formed as three six-piece bands called the “Green Bay Packers Tailgaters,” which roam the Lambeau Field parking lot before games, playing songs by request for tailgating fans.

Training Camp at Rockwood Lodge

After returning from an evening of watching the 2009 edition of your 12-Time World Champion Green Bay Packers in their Sunday night practice, we thought we’d turn back the clock a bit to Packers’ Training Camp 1940’s-style.

Rockwood Lodge was the training facility of the Packers from 1946 through 1949. It is believed to have been the first self-contained team training facility in pro football history. Located approximately 17 miles north of the city on a limestone bluff overlooking the eponymous Green Bay, the 53-acre complex included player housing and a natural outdoor “amphitheater” in which team meetings were held. The then-extravagant $32,000 purchase by team president and head coach Curly Lambeau was controversial among the team’s board of directors, and contributed to the deteriorating relationship that eventually led to Lambeau's departure.

On January 24, 1950, Rockwood Lodge burned down. One week later, Lambeau resigned his position with the Packers and moved south to coach the Chicago Cardinals. The team eventually received $75,000 from its insurance company.

After Rockwood Lodge, the Packers moved their training camp to Grand Rapids, Minnesota from 1950 through 1953 and then Stevens Point, Wisconsin from 1954-1957 before settling in at St. Norbert College in DePere, Wisconsin, where they house the players during camp to this day.

The grounds of Rockwood Lodge now make up Bay Shore Park.

Get Those Season Tickets Now!

On this opening day of the 2009 Green Bay Packers Training Camp, your “Packerville” staff took the “Legendary Lambeau” two-hour tour of our football shrine this morning. We’ve done the tours before, but wanted to go on this version to see the visiting teams’ locker room.

One of the things we learned is that the waiting list for season tickets is now over 83,000 names long. Although we have the “Gold” ticket package (from when they played games in Milwaukee), we are also on the waiting list for the “Green” package, sitting at just under the 4,000 mark. Hopefully, we’ll have tickets for all 10 home games before we’re too old to attend.

Today’s photo shows an ad for ordering Green Bay Packers season tickets that ran in the Fall of 1947, saying that tickets would be a great gift for the holidays. Only three seasons after their last NFL championship, the team finished 6-5-1 that year, and then dropped to 3-9-0 in ’48. We think that tickets must’ve been even harder to sell following that 1948 campaign.