Yesterday I turned on my cable system and found myself one minute into an NFL film on the life of Vince Lombardi. I sat there for the next hour re-living the exciting sports days of the 1960s. I have been a Green Bay Packer fan since my high school days and when Coach Lombardi went to Green Bay in 1959 he breathed fresh life into the NFL’s smallest franchise and I was optimistic.
His hard-edged style turned the Packers into the most envied and successful franchise in the 1960’s, leading them to five NFL Championships, and victories in Super Bowl I and II.
Twenty-five or more years later, after I was retired, my wife and I were driving to Alaska from South Carolina and she was looking at a book of maps and my pre-planned route. She asked why we were going through Wisconsin, and I said that was how one got to Canada. She said that was ridiculous and I agreed. “I want to go to Green Bay,” and she just smiled. She knew the lure of the Packers.
The first day in Green Bay started with a tour of the stadium, along with a dozen or so others. The docent pointed to one end of the field and asked if anyone on the tour knew what that was. I quickly replied, “That’s the South end zone where Bart Starr dove to glory in the Ice Bowl and the Packers won their third straight NFL championship.” I knew. Packers 21, Cowboys 17.
My two oldest sons (12 and 9 years old) and I had watched that game in 1967, glued to the black and white TV, anxious all the way. In the final four and a half minutes the Packers drove 65 yards, culminating with Starr’s quarterback sneak. It was third down, no time outs left, 13 seconds on the clock and there would be no time to kick a 4th down field goal and tie the game at 17 all. Lombardi told Starr to go for broke.
The coach went on in 1969 to the Washington Redskins (where he was given a part ownership in the team) and in 1970 died from cancer. One of the saddest days in sports history. As the film showed his funeral in St. Patrick’s cathedral in New York City, I had tears in my eyes, even after all these years.
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