CHAPTER ONE THE FIRST DYNASTY In the summer of 1959 the Green Bay Packers were looking for a new coach The team had a glorious past in the National Football League NFL But the Packers had been struggling for more than a decade They chose an assistant from the New York Giants named Vince Lombardi Not many fans knew who he was The hire turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to the Packers Lombardi was a tough disciplined head coach One of his famous quotes was Winning is not a sometime thing It's an all-time thing To play for Lombardi's Packers a player had to do the right thing on every play It was hard work But his players loved him They also loved that he won games The Packers had won just one of 12 games Vince Lombardi compiled a 96-34-6 record in nine seasons with the Green Bay Packers He was also 9-1 in postseason games 5
3 6 4 15 2 63 64 Green Bay running back Elijah Pitts 22 runs behind lineman Jerry Kramer 64 in Super Bowl I on January 15 1967 6 in 1958. In 1959 the team went 7-5 In 1961 the Packers won the first of back-to-back NFL championships Around that same time the American Football League AFL was forming For a half decade the NFL and the AFL fought over the best players But the leagues never met on the field Everything changed in June 1966 That year the leagues decided to merge In 1970 the AFL teams would officially join the NFL Until then the two league champions would meet in an annual title game The first one was played on January 15 1967 It was called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game Within a few years it would have a new name the Super Bowl
PACKER SWEEP The Kansas City Chiefs represented the AFL in the first Super Bowl Waiting for them in the Los Angeles Coliseum were the mighty Packers Green Bay was already known as the top team in either league The Packers had also won the previous year's NFL title in 1965 Coming into Super Bowl I the Packers boasted talent on both sides of the ball In 1966 the Packers defense was spectacular The group held opponents to 11.6 points per game That excellent defense was backed by a fearsome running game The Packers most famous play was the power sweep Quarterback Bart Starr would toss to a running back who was running wide Linemen would hop out of their stances and race in front of the back forming a wall of blockers Green Bay ran it so well that it became known as the Packer Sweep Both units thrived in Super Bowl I The Packers defense held the Chiefs to 10 points HALL OF FAME TALENTS In addition to coach Vince Lombardi 11 players who appeared for the Packers in the first two Super Bowls are in the Hall of Fame Quarterback Bart Starr led the offense He was joined by running backs Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung Linemen Jerry Kramer and Forrest Gregg are also enshrined Hall of Fame defensive players included linemen Henry Jordan and Willie Davis linebackers Ray Nitschke and Dave Robinson and defensive backs Herb Adderley and Willie Wood 7
