Meet the Packers W hen people say that football has become a global sport they mean that the top teams and players have fans all over the world That explains why Green Bay a town in Wisconsin with just over 100,000 people is known to hundreds of millions in every corner of the planet Green Bay is where the Packers play and no team has done more to make football popular The Packers have been a championship club since the 1920s They play for the sport’s most demanding owners their fans Other teams are owned by companies or a small group of business people The Packers are different Over the years thousands of people have bought small parts of the team and own it together This book tells the story of the Packers They win the old fashioned way with speed power and toughness They don’t have much choice Whenever the players look into the stands they know their bosses are watching Clay Matthews strikes his famous Predator pose Green Bay fans love to cheer for players with his passion for the game 5
Glory Days T he Packers might not exist if not for a case of tonsillitis In 1919 Curly Lambeau fell ill while in college and decided to return home to Green Bay to recover from his throat infection Lambeau had been a football star in high school George Calhoun knew all about him Calhoun was one of the newspaper reporters who wrote about Lambeau’s heroics One day the two men met by chance and in no time they decided to form a professional football team The Indian Packing Company put up 500 for equipment and uniforms so Lambeau named the club the Indian Packers After each game the fans put bills and coins in a hat and the players divided the money While the Packers earned a reputation for their fine play a new football league 6
was being organized Green Bay joined in 1921 A year later the league changed its name to the National Football League NFL Over the next few years Lambeau built an excellent squad It included Red Dunn Lavvie Dilweg Mike Michalske Cal Hubbard Verne Lewellen and Dick O’Donnell Green Bay had a winning record in each of its first 12 seasons The team finished the season as the NFL champion each year from 1929 to 1931 The Packers continued their success through the 1930s and into the 1940s Lambeau made the forward pass an important part of his team’s playbook at a time when the rules greatly favored the running game He was able to do so because he had two strong armed quarterbacks Arnie Herber and Cecil Isbell and a talented receiver named Don Hutson Another star of this era for Green Bay was Clarke Hinkle He did everything well On offense he was a powerful runner and good passer He was also one of the league’s top punters and kickers Hinkle was a defensive star as well The Packers won the NFL championship in 1936 1939 and 1944 LEFT Curly Lambeau ABOVE Clarke Hinkle 7
