Week 11 TV Map

Courtesy of the folks at 506 Sports, we have this Sunday’s Philadephia vs. Green Bay TV map. Hopefully, you are in a “red area.” We are, but we’ll be at the game.

Ray Nitschke Day — Dec. 12, 1971

We’re up in Green Bay for the Packers-Bears game tonight, but here’s some history from a few decades ago. This is the game program for the battle between the two teams on December 12, 1971 at Lambeau Field. But the real significant aspect is that it was Ray Nitschke Day, and the future Hall of Famer was being honored for his years of service to the Packers’ organization.

This is the three-page section of the program which paid tribute to Nitschke. 

We also had to share this ad in the back of the program, featuring Nitschke plowing snow in his Green Bay driveway. He lived in Titletown for the rest of his life (spending his winters in Naples, Florida) until his death from a heart attack in March 1998.

The New York View — 1959

Today’s look back at Packers history is the New York Times article following the hiring of Vince Lombardi as Head Coach and General Manager in Green Bay. This is from a scrapbook history of football published by the newspaper in 1980. The 46-year-old New York-native, who had served as an assistant coach for the Giants from 1954-58, secured his first head coaching position since his time at St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey. And the rest is history.

Sunday.

Day of the Game

November means a great month for football. It also means hundreds of hours at work. Which makes it difficult to keep things updated here on Packerville, U.S.A. But we wanted to post this Part II from the Sports Illustrated September 9, 1963 issue. It is an excerpt from the then-forthcoming book “Run to Daylight,” by Vince Lombardi with W.C. Heinz. 

According to Amazon: “Run to Daylight! is Lombardi’s own diary of a week at the helm of that magnificent club. Together with legendary sports-journalist, W.C. Heinz, Lombardi takes us from the first review of game films on Monday right through the final gun on Sunday afternoon. We see the planning, the plotting, the practice and the pain as forty-plus men come together to form that precision unit that makes for winning football. Lombardi gives us his views on life, the game, coaching, success, family, and the famed "Lombardi Sweep." 

Bye Week TV Games

If you still want to watch NFL football instead of raking the leaves this Sunday, here are the games that will be on in your area.

Courtesy: 506 Sports

The Packers Help the Saints

Sorry for the length of time between posts, but the real world of work can get in the way of things that we love. The Packers travel to New Orleans this weekend, and so we have a post about how Green Bay helped get the Saints started. Starting with FB Jim Taylor (above) who played out his contract option for the Packers and became a free agent and then bolted to New Orleans. He was unhappy with his compensation from GM Vince Lombardi, and the Saints were more than happy to have a former local All-American (with LSU) on the roster to sell tickets.  

Taylor (second from right) is seen here on the Saints' bench with his former Green Bay teammate Paul Hornung (see more below).

Taylor and Saints' teammate QB Gary Cuozzo are shown on the cover of Sports Illustrated that summer of 1967. 

In the 1967 NFL expansion draft, each team had to make three players eligible to be drafted by New Orleans. Lombardi put HB Paul Hornung on the list, but due to “the severing of the fifth, sixth, and seventh verterbrae, and damaged nerve roots in the spinal cord of Hornung, it was decided that he would retire and would never play a game for the Saints.” 

Second on the expansion list was C Bill Curry, who played in Green Bay for the 1965-66 seasons. Curry was soon traded from the expansion Saints to the Baltimore Colts, and played as a reserve there in 1967. He finished his career with the Houston Oilers and the Los Angeles Rams.

Third and last on the list was LB Phil Vandersea. Drafted by the Packers, he played in Green Bay for the 1966 season, stayed one year in New Orleans (1967), and then came back north for the 1968-69 seasons.

Source: Wikipedia

Focus on Face Masks

Today, for no special reason, we’re showing just some of the face mask designs seen through the recent decades — with many of them from the 1980’s. Some of these haven’t been used in quite a while.

Source: Mears Online Auctions

In Case Anyone is Interested...

1996 NFC Championship; Week 7 TV Maps

With the Carolina Panthers coming into town on Sunday, our thoughts go back to the 1996 NFC Championship Game, which the Packers won 30-13, sending them on to Super Bowl XXXI vs. the New England Patriots. Above is some video from the start of the telecast.

Also, the Week 7 NFL TV Maps are out, over at the 506sports website. Packer fans who live in the RED areas on the map above will see the Green Bay-Carolina game at Noon (CST) on FOX.