WORLD CHAMPIONS
The 1961 Green Bay Packers - 11-3 (1ST - Western Conference)
Head Coach: Vince Lombardi
1961 PRE-SEASON RESULTS (5-0)
OFF DEF
AUGUST (3-0) RESULT RECORD ATT RSH PSS RSH PSS STARTING QB LEADING RUSHER LEADING PASSER LEADING RECEIVER
11 at Dallas Cowboys W 30- 7 1- 0-0 30,000 198 251 80 249 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (112) Bart Starr (188) Boyd Dowler (5-53)
18 at St. Louis Cardinals W 31-10 2- 0-0 31,056 94 257 117 121 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (39) Bart Starr (193) Two tied with four each
26 M-CHICAGO BEARS W 24-14 3- 0-0 42,560 163 258 92 150 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (97) Bart Starr (229) Boyd Dowler (6-131)
SEPTEMBER (2-0)
4 G-NEW YORK GIANTS W 20-17 4- 0-0 33,452 184 198 207 71 Bart Starr Paul Hornung (86) Bart Starr (171) Boyd Dowler (5-71)
9 Washington Redskins (Columbus, GA) W 31-24 5- 0-0 18,000 127 175 168 246 Bart Starr Hornung/Pitts (50) Bart Starr (162) Boyd Dowler (4-94)
1961 REGULAR SEASON RESULTS
SEPTEMBER (1-1)
17 M-DETROIT LIONS (0-0) L 13-17 0- 1-0 44,307 132 162 128 128 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (85) Bart Starr (173) Max McGee (7-127)
24 G-SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS (1-0) W 30-10 1- 1-0 38,669 124 151 137 96 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (63) Bart Starr (161) Ron Kramer (5-61)
OCTOBER (5-0)
1 G-CHICAGO BEARS (1-1) W 24- 0 2- 1-0 38,669 198 83 124 131 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (130) Bart Starr (111) Boyd Dowler (4-41)
8 G-BALTIMORE COLTS (2-1) W 45- 7 3- 1-0 38,669 211 146 153 136 Bart Starr Paul Hornung (111) Bart Starr (157) Four tied with 3 each
15 at Cleveland Browns (3-1) W 49-17 4- 1-0 75,049 216 266 125 165 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (158) Bart Starr (272) Max McGee (5-120)
22 at Minnesota Vikings (1-4) W 33- 7 5- 1-0 42,007 241 226 149 179 Bart Starr Tom Moore (159) Bart Starr (206) Ron Kramer (4-62)
29 M-MINNESOTA VIKINGS (1-5) W 28-10 6- 1-0 44,116 157 310 142 121 Bart Starr Paul Hornung (70) Bart Starr (311) Max McGee (6-102)
NOVEMBER (3-1)
5 at Baltimore Colts (3-4) L 21-45 6- 2-0 57,641 161 64 189 218 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (93) Bart Starr (64) Boyd Dowler (2-21)
12 at Chicago Bears (5-3) W 31-28 7- 2-0 49,711 162 160 73 169 Bart Starr Paul Hornung (94) Bart Starr (160) Jim Taylor (3-26)
19 G-LOS ANGELES RAMS (3-6) W 35-17 8- 2-0 38,669 76 173 111 201 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (47) Bart Starr (173) Max McGee (5-90)
23 at Detroit Lions (6-3-1) W 17- 9 9- 2-0 55,662 126 151 107 172 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (94) Bart Starr (159) Max McGee (6-92)
DECEMBER (2-1)
3 M-NEW YORK GIANTS (9-2) W 20-17 10- 2-0 47,012 270 134 69 193 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (186) Bart Starr (125) Boyd Dowler (3-52)
10 at San Francisco 49ers (6-5-1) L 21-22 10- 3-0 55,722 153 177 68 328 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (122) Bart Starr (185) Max McGee (5-88)
17 at Los Angeles Rams (4-9) W 24-17 11- 3-0 49,169 123 161 119 110 Bart Starr Jim Taylor (78) Bart Starr (161) Boyd Dowler (5-69)
1961 POST-SEASON SEASON RESULTS (1-0)
1961 NFL CHAMPIONSHIP - DECEMBER
31 G-NEW YORK GIANTS (10-3-1) W 37- 0 39,029 181 164 31 99 Bart Starr Paul Hornung (89) Bart Starr (164) Ron Kramer (4-80)
G - Green Bay M - Milwaukee
1961 IN REVIEW
An expanded 14-game schedule proved to be no problem for the Packers, as they won their first championship since 1944. Led by Jim Taylor, Paul Hornung and Tom Moore, Green Bay racked up more rushing yards (2,350), more first downs (142) and more touchdowns (27) than anyone else in the NFL. Bart Starr completed 58 percent of his passes for a team record 2,418 yards. The defense ranked 6th in the league, giving up fewer points than anyone else but the Giants. The team also recored 29 takeaways, tied for Detroit as second best. After clinching the Western Conference title in Week 12, Green Bay had no problem in the NFL Title game, the first one ever held in Green Bay. They steamrolled the New York Giants, 37-0, holding them to six first downs and 130 yards on offense. The defense picked off Y.A. Tittle four times. To end speculation that Vince Lombardi may be heading to the Giants as head coach, Green Bay signed him to a new five-year contract in August.
THE BEST LINEBACKER WHO NEVER WAS
He was a 14th round draft choice out of Wichita in 1961, an afterthought on a team that was loaded with linebackers - Ray Nitschke, Dan Currie and Bill Forester were the big names. Nelson Toburen would eventually become one of the great "What-Ifs" in Packer history. After playing as a reserve his rookie season, the former Shocker appeared poised to become one of the key components of the Packer dynasty of the 1960s. When Dan Currie went down with a knee injury in 1962, Toburen was given the start on November 18th against Baltimore. He tackled Johnny Unitas in the open field, causing a fumble. Everyone got up after the play, with the ball in the hands of fellow linebacker Ray Nitschke, except for Toburen. His neck was broken, his career over, and his ability to walk in serious doubt. His days as a Packer officially came to an end on August 27th 1963, when the team waived the injured veteran. It is said that when Vince Lombardi wept openly when he saw Turen in the hospital, and paid the salary of the young man through the end of the 1963 season, which the coach and franchise had no obligation to do. Toburen spent a year in a body cast, then became a lawyer and judge in Kansas. he would see more tragedy in his life. In 1987, his son, Chris, a First Lieutenant in the Marines, was piloting a helicopter which crashed into a remote area of Camp Pendleton, California. Toburen and three others died in the crash. (Pictured - Vince Lombardi with Packers’ linebacker Nelson Toburen in this training camp in 1962. Credit to Packerville.blogspot.com)
NAME NO POS HGT WGT COLLEGE YR PR AG G HOW ACQUIRED
Herb Adderley 26 CB 6- 1 205 Michigan State 1 1 22 14 1961 Draft-1st
Ben Agajanian 3 K 6- 0 220 New Mexico 1 9 42 3 1961 FA-Dal (AFL)
Tom Bettis 65 LB 6- 2 225 Purdue 7 7 28 12 1955 Draft-1st
Lew Carpenter 33 FB 6- 2 215 Arkansas 3 8 29 14 1959 Trade-Cleve
Dan Currie 58 LB 6- 3 240 Michigan State 4 4 26 14 1958 Draft-1st
Ben Davidson 72 DE 6- 8 275 Washington 1 1 21 14 1961 Trade-NY
Willie Davis 87 DE 6- 3 240 Grambling 2 4 27 14 1960 Trade-Cleve
Boyd Dowler 86 E 6- 5 220 Colorado 3 3 23 14 1959 Draft-3rd
Lee Folkins 81 DE 6- 5 220 Washington 1 1 22 14 1961 Draft-6th
Bill Forrester 71 LB 6- 3 240 SMU 9 9 29 14 1953 Draft-3rd
Forrest Gregg 75 G 6- 4 250 SMU 5 5 27 14 1956 Draft-2nd
Hank Gremminger 46 DB 6- 1 205 Baylor 6 6 28 14 1956 Draft-7th
Dale Hackbart 40 DB 6- 3 200 Wisconsin 2 2 23 2 1960 Draft-5th
Dave Hanner 79 DT 6- 2 260 Arkansas 10 10 31 13 1952 Draft-5th
Paul Hornung 5 HB 6- 2 215 Notre Dame 5 5 25 12 1957 Draft-Bonus
Ken Iman 53 C 6- 1 230 SW Missouri St 2 2 23 14 1960 FA
Henry Jordan 74 DT 6- 3 250 Virginia 3 5 26 14 1959 Trade-Cleve
Gary Knafelc 84 E 6- 4 220 Colorado 8 8 29 13 1954 FA-Cardinals
Ron Kostelnik 77 DT 6- 4 260 Cincinnati 1 1 21 14 1961 Draft-2nd
Jerry Kramer 64 G 6- 3 250 Idaho 4 4 25 7 1958 Draft-4th
Ron Kramer 88 E 6- 3 230 Michigan 4 4 26 14 1957 Draft-1st
Norm Masters 78 T 6- 2 250 Michigan State 5 5 28 14 1957 Trade-Det
Max McGee 85 E 6- 3 205 Tulane 6 6 29 13 1954 Draft-5th
Tom Moore 25 HB 6- 2 215 Vanderbilt 2 2 23 13 1960 Draft-1st
Ray Nitschke 66 LB 6- 3 235 Illinois 4 4 24 12 1958 Draft-3rd
Elijah Pitts 22 HB 6- 1 200 Philander Smith 1 1 22 14 1961 Draft-13th
Bill Quinlan 83 DE 6- 3 250 Michigan State 3 5 29 14 1959 Trade-Cleve
Jim Ringo 51 C 6- 1 235 Syracuse 9 9 31 14 1953 Draft-7th
John Roach 10 QB 6- 4 200 SMU 1 4 28 7 1961 Trade-St. L
Bob Skoronski 76 T 6- 3 250 Indiana 4 4 27 13 1956 Draft-5th
Bart Starr 15 QB 6- 1 200 Alabama 6 6 27 14 1956 Draft-17th
John Symank 27 DB 5-11 180 Florida 5 5 26 14 1957 Draft-23rd
Jim Taylor 31 FB 6- 0 215 LSU 4 4 26 14 1958 Draft-2nd
NAME NO POS HGT WGT COLLEGE YR PR AG G HOW ACQUIRED
Fuzzy Thurston 63 G 6- 1 250 Valparaiso 3 4 26 14 1959 Trade-Balt
Nelson Toburen 61 LB 6- 3 235 Wichita 1 1 22 14 1961 Draft-14th
Emlen Tunnell 45 DB 6- 1 210 Iowa 3 14 36 13 1959 Trade-NY
Jesse Whittenton 47 DB 6- 0 195 Texas-El Paso 4 6 27 14 1958 FA-Bears
Willie Wood 24 DB 5-10 185 USC 2 2 24 14 1960 FA
NO - Jersey Number POS - Position HGT - Height WGT - Weight YR - Years with Packers PR - Years of Professional Football AGE - Age at Start of Season G - Games Played FA - Free Agent
1961 PACKERS DRAFT (December 27-28, 1961)
RND-PICK NAME POS COLLEGE
1 - 12 Herb Adderley DB Michigan State
2 - 26 Ron Kostelnik T Cincinnati
3 - 40 Phil Nugent QB Tulane
4a - 54 *-Paul Dudley HB Arkansas
4b - 56 Joe LeSage (A) G Tulane
5 - 68 Jack Novak G Miami (Fla.)
6 - 82 Lee Folkins DE Washington
7 - 96 Lewis Johnson HB Florida A&M
8 - 108 to Cleveland Browns for Bob Jarus
9 - 124 Vester Flanagan T Humboldt
10a- 128 Roger Hagberg (B) FB Minnesota
10b- 138 Buck McLeod T Baylor
11 - 152 Val Keckin QB S.Mississippi
12 - 166 *-John Denvir T Colorado
13 - 180 Elijah Pitts HB Philan. Smith
14 - 194 Nelson Toburen LB Wichita
15 - 208 *-Ray Lardani T Miami (Fla.)
16 - 222 Clarence Mason E Bowling Green
17 - 236 Jim Brewington T NC Central
18 - 250 Arthur Sims B Texas A&M
19 - 264 Leland Bondhus T S. Dakota St
20 - 278 Ray Ratkowski HB Notre Dame
A - from Philadelphia Eagles for Bob Freeman - B - from Dallas Cowboys for Fred Cone - * - Juniors
1961 PACKER TRADES - TRANSACTIONS
JAN 23 - FB Roger Hagberg (10th round) signed with WINNIPEG (CFL)
JAN 26 - DT Ken Beck, DB Dick Pesonen, HB Paul Winslow selected by Minnesota in expansion draft
FEB 5 - HB Lewis Johnson (7th round) signed with HOUSTON (AFL)
MARCH 27 - Traded QB Lamar McHan to Baltimore for a 1962 5th round choice and a 1964 3rd round choice
JUNE 21 - Traded HB Joel Wells to NEW YORK for a 1962 3rd round choice
AUG 6 - Waived T John Miller, T Leland Bondhus, G Bob Beaver, E Clarence Lucerna and HB John Rollins
AUG 8 - Traded a 1962 3rd round choice to CLEVELAND for QB John Roach. Traded E Steve Meilinger to DALLAS for a 1962 12th round choice
AUG 28 - Released E Clarence Mason and T Jim Brewington
SEPT 7 - Placed LB Tom Bettis on the injured reserve. Traded undisclosed draft choice to NEW YORK for DE Ben Davidson. Released FB Larry Hickman.
SEPT 12 - Waived QB Val Keckin. DE Jim Temp retired.
SEPT 26 - Traded DB Dale Hackbart to WASHINGTON for a 1962 6th round choice
NOV 16 - Signed K Ben Agajanian in cash deal with DALLAS (AFL)
10 PACKERS IN PRO BOWL TILT
JAN 3 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers now have 10 representatives on the West team in the 10th annual Pro Bowl game in Los Angeles Jan. 15. Coach Vince Lombardi, named head coach of West last week, today selected two of his Packer assistants as aides for the game - Phil Bengtson and Bill Austin. Bengtson will handle the defense and Austin the offensive line. Besides the three coaches, Green Bay has seven players, the largest number of Packers ever selected for a Pro Bowl game. They are quarterback Bart Starr, halfback Paul Hornung, fullback Jim Taylor, center Jim Ringo and tackle Forrest Gregg on the offense and linebacker Bill Forester and tackle Hank Jordan on defense. No team is allowed more than seven players. Starr, Jordan and Taylor will be playing in the game for the first time. Bart will share the signal-calling with the storied Johnny Unitas of the Colts. Lombardi has a star-studded squad of 34 players, including seven from the late champions, the Colts. They are, besides Unitas, ends Raymond Berry and Gino Marchetti, tackle Jim Parker, guard Art Spinney, halfbacks Lenny Moore and Andy Nelson. Lombardi's opposite number on the East team, the Eagles' Buck Shaw, has selected two of his assistants as coaching aides - Nick Skorick and Jerry Williams. Skorich, the former Packer aide, will coach East's offense line; Williams the defense...Four Packer draftees were quite noticeable in two of the televised bowl games over the weekend - Herb Adderley of Michigan State and tackle Frank Brixius and fullback Roger Hagberg of Minnesota and end Lee Folkins of Washington. Adderley, the No. 1 choice, flashed the speed for which he was drafted in carrying the load for
the winning East team in the East-West game Saturday. Brixius, drafted as a future a year ago, played just about the entire game for the Gophers in their loss to Washington. Hagberg, the 10th pick, averaged slightly over three yards in nine carries. Incidentally, Brixius Saturday was named on the first team of the 1960 All-America academic football team.
ADDERLEY HAS BRIGHT GRID FUTURE, SAYS HIS 'COACH,' BRUHN
JAN 4 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Wisconsin's Milt Bruhn coached Packer draftee Herb Adderley in the East-West Shrine game in San Francisco. So what does the Badgers' head coach think of Hurryin' Herb? "Your Herb definitely has his football future ahead of him. He has wonderful potential - good hands, great speed and natural reactions," Bruhn said via phone on his return to Madison Tuesday. The Packers' first draft choice, a Lenny Moore-type back out of Michigan State, felt that Adderley "didn't play up to his ability." Milt explained: "These fast fellows like Adderley and Mason (Tommy, the Vikings' first draft choice) couldn't get any blocks out wide where they can use their speed to the best advantage. Our guards couldn't pull very well and block; one of them was hurt. So the opportunities for these backs to run weren't there." Bruhn also noted that the players might have been disturbed somewhat by pressure from the pro teams - the National and American Leagues and the Canadians. "I have seen the pros recruit as hard as they did this year," Milt said. Adderley is exceptionally well built. "He goes nearly 200 stripped and he's muscular. I asked him if he had been lifting the weights but he said he never lifted a weight in his life," Milt said. The Wisconsin mentor was impressed with Adderley versatility: "Those hands will make him a good receiver. He'll run right into the ball. He'd be a fine slot back, a good flanker or halfback. We had him as the passer for West in our defensive practice and he threw the running pass." Speedwise? "We ran 40 yards and Adderley, Mason and Casey finished so close they argued about it," Milt pointed out. Any predictions? "I'm sure Herb will be a good one in pro football. The potential is there and I know Coach Lombardi will bring it out," Milt added. Adderley is also on the draft list of the New York Titans of the AFL. He's presently in Honolulu getting ready to play in the Hula Bowl Sunday, and will start in the same backfield that carried the 7-0 victory in the Shrine game. The others are Tom Matte at quarterback, halfback Mason and Wisconsin fullback Tom Weisner...Elsewhere on the beat today: Jug Earp is recuperating at Bellin Memorial Hospital from a heart attack he suffered Christmas Eve. The onetime Packer great and Packer publicitor is coming along good, Mrs. Earp said. He watched the Packer-Eagle game the next day and entered the hospital Thursday. No visitors are allowed...Ron Kramer and Jess Whittenton, the Packers' best golfers among the players, are entered in the first annual pro football players' golf tournament in Hollywood, Fla., this week. Paul Christman, a Packer QB for one year, has entered the oldtimers' division.
PRO BOWL, STOCKING OF VIKINGS NEXT
JAN 7 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - So who's for pro football? After today's Brown-Lion game in the Miami Runnerup Bowl, there will be the Pro Bowl between the East and West in Los Angeles a week from Sunday. But here are two big shows after that, though the players won't be on hand. First comes the annual league convention in New York Jan. 24. Then a special meeting to stock the new Minnesota Vikings - probably in late March or April. The formula to be used for providing the Vikings with 30-odd veteran pro footballers will probably be decided at the New York parley. The players limit of 38 likely will be cut to 35 in the process. Each club carried 38 in '60 for the purpose of "growing" and/or training three prospective Vikings. NFL coaches, including Packer Vince Lombardi, think the limit of 38 is too high...Lombardi left Friday for LA to start coaching the Western Stars for the Pro Bowl battle. He'll be joined there today by Aides Phil Bengtson and Bill Austin who are coming in from player signing tours. Eight Packer players are on the West roster. And Vince said yesterday that "I'm worried about Paul Hornung because he's still bothered by that nerve in his shoulder. And Jim Taylor is still banged up." Hornung was injured in the third quarter of the championship game and never returned except to kick an extra point. Taylor could hardly move after the title game, what with a bad shoulder and just pure exhaustion. Other Packers in the game are Bart Starr, Forrest Gregg, Jim Ringo, Dan Currie, Bill Forester and Hank Jordan. Vince said he didn't plan to play the Packers any longer than the others. They'll all get about equal time, he said. Reminded that he had the Colts' fleet Lenny Moore to play flanker in a backfield with Starr, Taylor and Hornung. Lombardi chuckled, "Maybe I'll put Moore on the inside and set Hornung at flanker to give him some pass coaching practice." Sharing the quarterbacking with Starr will be the Colts' great John Unitas...The new coach of the Minnesota Vikings? At the Eagles' party in Philly after the championship game, we asked Coach and Mrs. Nick Skorich how they'd like living in Minneapolis. To which Skorich, a Packer aide in '58, snorted, "I hear Sid Gillman's got the job all locked up." Today, it appears that Skorich may be the new Eagle head coach. Don't bet on Gillman or Norm Van Brocklin getting the Viking job. Moving Gillman from an AFL team doesn't make much sense and it might bring on a war, besides. Also: Is it wise to jump a player to head coach? Van Brocklin is a special-type guy and maybe he'd be a great exception but it's a risky move.
PACKERS SIGNS FIRST THREE DRAFT PICKS; WIN FOR NFL
JAN 9 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers have signed their first three draft choices - Herb Adderley, Ron Kostelnik and Phil Nugent. This was announced today by Coach-GM Vince Lombardi who is in Los Angeles coaching the Western Stars for the Pro Bowl game next Sunday. Adderley, the fleet halfback from Michigan State, was the Packers' first choice. No. 2 was Kostelnik, the 255-pound defensive tackle from Cincinnati, and the No. 3 pick was Nugent, a quarterback from Tulane. This was the first time any NFL club has announced its first three choices in one. And it represented a major victory for the NFL over the AFL. Adderley had been drafted by the New York Titans; Kostelnik by Buffalo; and Nugent by Oakland. Adderley had been under exceptional pressure to sign with the Titans who virtually promised him a starting position. The graceful Adderley is Lombardi's hope of doubling the Packers' offensive power. Vince plans to make him a third running-receiving back, thus giving Green Bay an "added" offense to go with the club's present three-end system. Adderley is the Lenny Moore type and his chores with the Packers would be similar to those of the great Baltimore Colt back. Lombardi expects that Adderley will be able to get out side and turn the corner with his speed. The Michigan State star had indicated even before he was drafted that he'd like to play with the Pack. "You already have three other Michigan State boys (Bill Quinlan, Norm Masters and Dan Currie) in Green Bay," he said after he had been signed. Kotselnik will be groomed for duty in the defensive line while Nugent is ticketed for defensive duty. Lombardi said "there's an outside chance he'll play quarterback." Nugent hurled 139 passes at Tulane and completed 67. Switching on defense, he made three interceptions. Phil stands 6-1, weighs 185. Kostelnik has his 255 pounds on a 6-4 frame. Lombardi, at the recent draft, was mighty high on "our first three choices. We know they're all good football players." Each was designed to fill a need. Announcement of the three signees was Lombardi's first official business of the 1961 campaign - his third in Green Bay. He reiterated in answer to newsmen in Los Angeles Saturday that "I'm definitely remaining in Green Bay." Vince had been plagued by rumors and stories, most of them started by the New York press, that he's going back to the Gotham as coach of the Giants. The Bay coach quieted them once and for all Saturday, as follows: "A year ago the Giants asked permission of Green Bay to talk to me and they got it. I spoke to them at that time, as I might with any club which asked such permission. I'm staying right where I am. I'm happy in Green Bay." Also on the Packer scene over the weekend, the Dallas Salesmanship Club announced that the Packers will play the Cowboys in a non-league game in Dallas Aug. 11. Dallas normally hosts the world champion but picked the Packers over the Eagles. Paul Hornung was runnerup to Norm Van Brocklin in the voting by the NFL Players' Assn. for the most valuable player on offense. Joe Schmidt of Detroit was voted the most valuable on defense ahead of John Reger of Pittsburgh.
DEVORE RETURNING TO PACK? KRAMER HAS EYE SURGERY
JAN 10 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Hugh Devore coming back to Green Bay? Dave Condon, the Chicago Tribune's happy columnist who is Pittsburgh rubbing elbows at the NCAA convention, discovered that lovable Hughie is weighing an offer of a five-year contract to become Vince Lombardi's chief aide wit the Packers. Devore undoubtedly would replace the late Jack Vainisi, the Packers' business manager and talent scout who died Nov. 27. Presently freshman coach at his alma mater, Notre Dame, Devore was end coach of the Packers in 1953 and finished the last two games of that year as co-coach with Scooter McLean, replacing Gene Ronzani. Hugh is widely known in football circles and particularly in the college field...In case you just tuned in, the Packers' first three draft choices have been signed. Inking of the three was announced yesterday by Lombardi - a triple shocker to the AFL whose clubs had drafted all three. They are halfback Herb Adderley, No. 1 pick; tackle Ron Kostelnik, No. 2; and quarterback Phil Nugent, No. 3, who will be a defensive back. The Packers must be good salesmen. It's usually hard for a championship club to sign its choices because AFL and Canadian team generally use this pitch: "You can't make that (championship) team. Those positions are all sewed up. Come with us and we'll make sure you get a job." That's how the Colts got hurt in the last few years. One of the factors in Green Bay's favor, Publicitor Tom Miller noted yesterday, is that "these young kids like the idea of coming to a little town like Green Bay and playing and raising their families. Most of them are from little towns anyway."...The University of Cincinnati press book records these two phrases in its description of Kostelnik, who stands 6-4 and packs around 255: "Loves to harass passers" and "biggest man on the team." Kostelnik is ticketed for the defense line and those are two musts: Ability to rush the passer and size. Lombardi has nicknamed Kostelnik "The Mad Russian."...Jerry Kramer underwent surgery for correction of a detached retina in
Madison University Hospital Monday. "It was very successful," said his buddy and offensive guard mate Fred Thurston, who lives in Madison. Kramer injured his eye in the first Ram game (Nov. 20) and played five games with no additional damage. Other than "flashes," it never bothered him, said Thurston. Jerry will be in the hospital a week, He was allowed to walk briefly today. A resident of Sandpoint, Idaho, Kramer will stay at the Thurston residence for a few days before going home next week.
RELAX? VINCE KEEN ON WINNING 'BOWL'
JAN 14 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers' Coach-GM Vince Lombardi is head coaching for the first time in the Pro Bowl game in Los Angeles Sunday. He expressed no great "winning" illusions upon leaving last week. In fact, he roared, "Don't hang me if we look bad." Lombardi would have liked to "relax" in LA for the week. He had it coming - after six months, 19 games of grinding Packer football. But the go-go-go bug must have bitten him good. Here's what he told the West players at the first squad meeting: "It a great thrill to be a part of this game. It carried a great pride of performance. There may be other men in the division who are just as good football players as you are. But, you are here because you have that something extra - pride of performance." Watch Lombardi's Westmen Sunday. Vince will demand "something extra." It might be a good idea to make a comparison - all things being equal, of course - of John Unitas, the Colts' accomplished quarterback, and the Packers' up-and-coming Bart Starr. Our Bart has often been rated as "another Unitas." Incidentally, Lombardi wasn't keen about coaching in LA. He feels that it's too much for coaches who are also general managers. He must get ready for the league's annual meeting on Jan. 24. But Commissioner Pete Rozelle insisted. Vince was the logical choice for the West team - coach of the champions, a new refreshing figure in the league, and defending coach of the year...Starr will spend the offseason in Green Bay. He'll bring the family up Feb. 1 from Birmingham, where he did radio work a year ago. Bart will help with managing the old Baum's Corner building, which is being converted into offices and shops...The Packers will play some basketball this season. Defensive backfield coach Norb Hecker, who is a cager and booking agent, says "we're open for dates right now." Lined up as player are Gary Knafelc, Lew Carpenter, Bob Skoronski, Tom Bettis, Hecker and Starr. They may be joined by Babe Parilli and Dick Deschaine. Two others might be possibles if they move back - Hank Jordan and John Symank, who are debating on returning right now...It wasn't too long ago that Milt Gantenbein was galloping as a Packer. Check your gray hair: Tad Hall Gantenbein, son of the Gantenbeins who was born in Green Bay when Milt was playing, has been engaged to marry Patricia Schieck of San Rafael, Calif. Ted Hall , who lives in Carmichael, is a senior at University of California at Davis and he's majoring in entomology. The wedding will be next June...This new year is only two weeks gone. Yet, four well-known quarterbacks have figured in shifts. The Eagles' Norm Van Brocklin has announced that he will retire out of the player ranks; the Cardinals traded King Hill to the Eagles; the Giants traded George Shaw to the Vikings, and the Cards signed Sam Etcheverry, former Canadian great. Cardinal Coach Frank Ivy explained: "It didn't look like King would have much of an opportunity with us next year and giving him a chance to play elsewhere may be a great thing for him." Hill started the '60 season against the Rams, went behind at the half, and then watched John Roach pitch four TD passes in the second half to win for the Cardinals. Roach, Etcheverry and George Izo are the Cards' big three. Two years ago, Ivy traded Lamar McHan to the Packers and tabbed Roach and/or Hill as his successor...Jerry Kramer is in great spirits after undergoing an operation for correction of a detached retina at Madison University Hospital Monday. "I haven't eaten for a couple of days," Kramer said yesterday, "and I'm wasting away to 250 pounds." Kramer will remain in the hospital until next week...The sports committee of the Chamber of Commerce, headed by Charley Egan, has written NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle suggesting Green Bay as a site for the league's planned hall of fame. It would be patterned after baseball's "hall" in Cooperstown, N.Y. The local group wants some time to make a detailed study. The subject will be discussed at the league meeting Jan. 24.
TAYLOR SCORES THREE TOUCHDOWNS, WEST TOPS EAST 35 TO 31
JAN 16 (Los Angeles) - Baltimore's magnificent Johnny Unitas today was the conquering hero for the second straight year after passing and running the West to a record breaking 35-31 victory over the East in the 11th annual Pro Bowl. A Memorial Coliseum crowd of 62,971, sweltering in summer-like weather Sunday, watched Unitas and Philadelphia's Norm Van Brocklin engaged in a savage quarterback duel in the traditional postseason game of NFL All Stars. Van Brocklin, who has announced his retirement, almost - but not quite - made his finale from a dozen years in the pro wars a glorious one. He passed for three touchdowns. Unitas passed for only one score, but the lanky veteran directed four other touchdown marches. Unitas was voted the player of the game for the second straight year. Coach Vince Lombardi of the West and Buck Shaw of the East agree: The difference in the finely-balanced squads was Unitas' running...DEADLY IN THE AIR: Unitas carried the ball five times for a 10.80 yard average. Each time the runs pulled the West out of a hole and one - a 25-yard sprint in the fourth quarter - set up a touchdown. The Baltimore bombardier was deadly in the air. One toss to teammate Lenny Moore took the West 66 yards to the one yard line from where Green Bay's Jim Taylor crashed over for the six points. The touchdown was one of three Taylor picked up for a new Pro Bowl scoring record of 18 points. Los
Angeles' Jon Arnett scampered 20 yards for another West score and Unitas passed 44 yards to Moore for another touchdown. Taylor's 18 points broke the record of 14 set by Green Bay's Paul Hornung in the 1960 game. Hornung was used sparingly because of an injured shoulder but finished with five points, giving the Packer pair 23 for the day. Taylor ran on first downs three times in the West's first touchdown drive, coming on the opening kickoff. He cracked left tackle for five to midfield on the third play, hit for five off right tackle (Forrest Gregg) on the sixth play to the East 27, and then knifed two yards for the TD on Play No. 10. But Van Brocklin's aerial bombs were on target, too. Van connected for three touchdown passes to Tommy McDonald, Pete Retzlaff and Sonny Randle for 46, 43 and 36 yards in that order. The three Van Brocklin tosses tied a record set last year by Unitas. Cleveland quarterback Milt Plum threw one 51 yards in the air into the waiting arms of Randle, perhaps the prettiest touchdown of the game. Bobby Walston booted a 22-yard field goal for the East. Unitas had a good day on the ground, carrying 5 times for 54 yards, the same number as Arnett in 7 carries. Moore was the leading receiver, catching five for 157 yards.
UNITAS RAN BETTER AGAINST PACKERS: VINCE
JAN 16 (Los Angeles) - Green Bay Packer Coach Vince Lombardi said that he has seen Baltimore's Johnny Unitas run better in only one other game than the Colt quarterback did Sunday in the NFL Pro Bowl game. Lombardi, coach of the West team which defeated the East 35-31 in the 11th annual game, said, "I've seen Unitas run better only one other time. That was when he gained 138 yards against my Green Bay Packers." Lombardi was given the game ball and shook hands individually with each of his players. One of the casualties of the game was Green Bay halfback Paul Hornung. Lombardi said the injury was a recurrence of an old shoulder injury. Lombardi said it didn't appear too serious. Hornung, except for kicking all five of the West points after touchdown, didn't play after being taken out in the second quarter. "I probably shouldn't have played him," Lombardi said, "but you hate to bring a boy all the way out here and not use him. We used everybody."...BELIEVED UNITAS: Taylor, in setting a scoring record, crossed the goal line on short plunges of two yards and twice went over from one yard out. Other Packers who played, and thus gained a small bit of revenge over East Coach Buck Shaw of Philadelphia and his quarterback Norm Van Brocklin for the defeat the Eagles handed the Packers in the league championship game, were quarterback Bart Starr, who relieved Unitas on three occasions, tackle Forrest Gregg, linebackers Bill Forester and Dan Currie, defensive tackle Henry Jordan and center Jim Ringo. Helping Lombardi with the coaching were Packer assistants Bill Austin and Phil Bengtson.
KRAMER SET TO LEAVE HOSPITAL
JAN 16 (Madison) - Guard Jerry Kramer of the Green Bay Packers football team had the bandages removed from his left eye Saturday after an operation for a detached retina. "I feel fine and I'm sure I'll be fit as ever again," Kramer said. "I expect to be released Tuesday, but I'm going to stay in Madison for another two weeks before going home. The doctors said I came through in fine shape but want me to rest." Kramer, who has his home at Boise, Idaho, suffered the injury when the Packers played the Los Angeles Rams at Milwaukee Nov. 20. He finished out the season with the team. He entered University Hospital a week ago today. "The injury was annoying and bothered me, but it wasn't particularly painful so I continued to play after I sustained it," Kramer said. Kramer was in his third season with the Packers.
TAYLOR BEATS BROWNS IN FIRST 'COLLISION'
JAN 17 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - "How many did Brown get?" When the Packers won, Jim Taylor would ask that question along with a lot of his teammates. He merely wanted to know how many yards Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns gained, since the two Jims were running neck and neck through most of the season in the yards-rushing race. Brown won the chase with his 1,257 yards, while Taylor was second on 1,101 yards, which broke Tony Canadeo's 11-yard old mark. Taylor, a three-year veteran who has played just one complete season, and Brown, who has led the league in rushing in each of his four pro years, had never met on the same field until the Pro Bowl game in Los Angeles Sunday. What happened? Brown rushed 15 times, Taylor 14. And our Jim won the battle of net yards, 60 to 50. Taylor picked up 62 yards and lost 2 for a net of 60 and an average of 6.1. Brown gained 63 yards but lost 13 for his net of 50 and a 3.33-yard average. Taylor can thank a Packer teammate for part of Brown's losses. Packer defense tackle Hank Jordan slipped through the East line once and ankled Brown for a six-yard loss. Brown and Taylor finished the 1960 season in a scoring tie, each getting 11 touchdowns, but there as no contest in the Pro Bowl. Taylor scored three TDs for 18 points and Brown went scoreless as Norm Van Brocklin stayed in the air. The TV version offered an interesting comparison of the two fullbacks and the "defensive backs" seem to be correct. Defense backs who played against both Taylor and Brown, especially the Eagles who faced Taylor in the championship game, claim that Taylor hits much harder than Brown but that the Cleveland star has more speed. The closeups showed Taylor's amazing power under piles and especially near the goal line. Brown, on the other hand, moves his 230 pounds with the quickness of a scatback. Jim Gibbons, the Detroit Lion end who played with the West, is working some in the offseason as a sportswriter and he reported his version of the game in a story for a Detroit newspaper. Gibbons wrote that Nick Pietrosante (Lion fullback) carried "the ball well when he was in there. When we got near the goal line, Coach Vince Lombardi made sure Jim Taylor was in at fullback. Lombardi figured Taylor knew the Green Bay "veer trap" play a little better than Nick. I guess he did. Taylor scored three touchdowns to break the Pro Bowl record." Gibbons also mentioned that fourth down gamble in the last quarter. "Late in the game we had inches to go on fourth down. All the players wanted to go for the first down. We were willing to gamble our $200 on it. Lombardi wouldn't let us go for it. He ordered a punt. It turned out he was right." West won 35-31 and the winning players each received $800 against the losers' $600. Gibbons added: "Lombardi was an easy coach to play for. At the half he told us we were playing good (21-17 lead) and said not to let down. After the game he came around and shook the hand of every player in our dressing room."...Jerry Kramer, veteran Packer guard who underwent surgery for correction for a detached retina in Madison University Hospital a week ago, was released from the hospital today. He will recuperate for another week at the home of Fred Thurston, the Packer guard who lives in Madison.
PACKERS SIGN TALLEST BATTERY
JAN 18 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers today possessed the tallest pitch-catch battery in pro football - a quarterback who stands slightly over 6-4 and an end who soars 6-5. This high-wire act is composed of quarterback Valdemar Christian (Val) Keckin of Mississippi Southern and end Lloyd LeRoy (Lee) Folkins of Washington. Signing of the pair was announced today by Coach Vince Lombardi. Folkins, a 225-pounder, was the Pack's sixth draft choice; Keckin, 215, the 11th. Vince now has revealed the inking of five draftees, the other three being the top three - Herb Adderley, Ron Kostelnik and Phil Nugent. Keckin played QB at UCLA and Los Angeles City College before finishing out his college career at Mississippi Southern. He's a speech major and known as a holler guy, which is great for a QB. Keckin's reputation as a quarterback isn't heralded in the NCAA passing yardage figures, but pro scouts tab him as a "great thrower - long or short." He is the first collegian drafted strictly for QB. No. 3 pick Nugent is a QB but he's ticketed for defense halfback. Folkins is a rare bird. In the 1960 Rose Bowl, he starred against Wisconsin as an offensive end, catching vital passes. In the '61 game, he tore up Minnesota's offense as a defensive end. Lombardi said he'll use Folkins as a "tight end." The big wing has a great pair of hands, good speed and plenty of desire, the coach pointed out, adding: "He'll go up in a crowd for the ball, too." Folkins could be a defensive possibility, if he puts on weight. Onetime star at Roosevelt High School in Seattle, Folkins is working toward a degree in mechanical engineering. He's 21 and married. The Packers drafted one other defensive end - Clarence Mason, a 185-pounder out of Bowling Green...BRIEFS: Paul Hornung will be on a program with Don Huston to launch Racine YMCA's member campaign Monday night. He addressed the St. Pius X sportsfest in Wauwautosa the next night...Walt Kiesling, 57, onetime Packer coaching aide, is in serious condition in Divine Providence Hospital in Pittsburgh with an undisclosed ailment...Dick Pesonen is back hitting the books at alma mater University of Minnesota Duluth...Nick Kerbawy, former general manager of the Detroit Lions, has been given a forced leave of absence until July 1 from his job as general manager of the Detroit Pistons. Reportedly, Nick rubbed Owner Fred Zollner the wrong way.
HORNUNG VOTED STATE'S ATHLETE OF YEAR; BEATS OUT SPAHN
JAN 19 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Paul Hornung, the Green Bay Packers' great halfback who shattered the NFL scoring record, today was named Wisconsin's Athlete of the Year for 1960. Hornung's tremendous output of 176 points in helping the Packers to the Western Division title with a 8-4 mark enabled him to edge Milwaukee Braves southpaw ace Warren Spahn in the annual Associated Press of Wisconsin sportswriters and sportscasters. In winning the NFL scoring championship for the second straight year, Hornung scored 15 touchdowns, booted 41 straight extra points and connected on 15 of 28 field goal attempts. His point total broke the record of 138 points by Green Bay's Don Hutson in 1942. Spahn, who will be 40 in April, barely was nosed out in a bid to capture the Wisconsin Athlete of the Year award for the third time. He won 21 games, including the first no-hitter of his brilliant career last season to move within 12 victories of the charmed 300 mark. Trailing Spahn and Hornung in the AP balloting were catcher Del Crandall of the Milwaukee Braves and Green Bay fullback Jim Taylor. Crandall had a sensational season, hitting .294 and belting 19 homers for the Braves, while Taylor earned 1,101 yards rushing for the Packers and finished second in the NFL ground gaining department. Hornung will receive the Fifth annual Red Dunn Memorial Award at a date to be announced later. The award is presented by St. Therese Parish of Milwaukee on the basis of the AP poll. It is named for the late Red Dunn, who starred in football for Marquette and the Packers. Spahn won the award in 1956 and 1958. Teammate Lew Burdette was the winner
in 1957, while the Braves' Eddie Mathews was voted the honor last year. That makes Hornung the first athlete not with the Braves to capture the award. Hornung was a "senior" in Green Bay U in 1960, having completed four years. He played quarterback, his position at Notre Dame, as a pro rookie under Liz Blackbourn in '57 and then was switched to fullback in '58 under Scooter McLean. When Vince Lombardi took over the Pack in '59, Hornung was installed as a running-passing left halfback. Paul blossomed at that spot, triggering the Packers to two successful seasons, including a Western Division championship. Hornung's scoring fest gave him 355 points for four seasons and placed him fifth among all-time Packer scorers.
DEVORE WILL NOT JOIN PACK STAFF, KUHARICH REVEALS
JAN 19 (South Bend, IN) - A report that Hugh Devore, Notre Dame freshman football coach since 1958, will join the Green Bay Packers as a talent scout has been spiked. "Hughie will remain at Notre Dame," said head coach Joe Kuharich. "I don't believe there was any really extended effort by the Packers for his service." The report also linked Johnny Lattner, former star Notre Dame back, with a coaching job at his alma mater if Devore left. Lattner lost his post as an assistant coach at the University of Denver when that school recently dropped football.
EYE SURGERY FOR FERGUSON
JAN 19 (Santa Monica, CA) - Former Green Bay fullback Howie Ferguson, who made a comeback with the Los Angeles Chargers of the AFL the past season, will be operated upon Monday for an eye injury which threatens to cut short his career. Dr. William Trumbull, the Chargers' team physician, said the success of the surgery will decide Ferguson's future as a pro football player. Ferguson, whose running and blocking helped Los Angeles win the division championship of the fledgling AFL, suffered a detached retina of the right eye in the title playoff game with Houston. He played six years with the Green Bay Packers before being released in 1959 because of a shoulder ailment. He joined the Chargers last fall and was described by Los Angeles Coach Sid Gillman as "the best blocker in pro ball."
NEW ERA: PACKERS 25-12 SINCE '58
JAN 20 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - No pro game to watch this weekend but the 1960 schedule was extra heavy. The Packers had a personal interest in 20 games - six non-league games, 12 league games, one championship game and one Pro Bowl game in which the Packers had three coaches and eight players. Coach-GM Vince Lombardi, in and out of Green Bay this week, rolled up 15 victories in those 20 contests - that's a .750 percentage. The Bays lost one each to the Eagles (the playoff) and Rams, Lions, Bears and Colts in league action. For his two seasons in Green Bay, Lombardi coached the Packers in 37 games and the Bays won 25 of them. Vince had the same staff of aides for the two seasons - Phil Bengtson, who handles the overall defense; Norb Hecker, defense backfield; Red Cochran, offense backfield; and Bill Austin, offensive line. In non-league play, the Bays rolled to a 10-2 record, a 4-2 in '59 and 6-0 in '60. In league play, the Lombardis came up with 7-5 in '59 with a four-game winning streak at the end, and 8-5 in '60, the fifth loss being in the title battle. The record for two seasons is 25-12, a percentage of .675 - a far cry from the .284 won-loss percentage of the late lamented 11-year famine. Lombardi's latest conquest, the Pro Bowler, saw John Unitas lead the West to a thrilling 35-31 victory. Asked about J.U., Lombardi said flatly "he's the greatest quarterback in football. He was just tremendous." The coaches added that "we didn't plan any running for Unitas. He just ran on his own when he couldn't get a receiver open." Unitas' rushing broke the game open in the first few minutes. The Packers' QB Bart Starr was used sparingly and was unable to get off a drive. "But he had a couple of passes dropped on him - one in that last drive that would have enabled the West to keep the ball," said Austin, who worked with Lombardi and Bengtson on the sidelines. Lombardi paid special tribute to Paul Hornung, the Pack's high scoring option halfback who was selected as Wisconsin's athlete of the year in the Associated Press poll Thursday. "Paul had a fine year and he deserved getting the award. I'm sure he can become one of the great players in pro football," Vince said. Lombardi left today for Columbus, Ohio, where he will be honored as the nation's "Top Pro Coach" by the Columbus Touchdown Club. This will be the club's leading award and in past years it went to Henry Aaron, Paul Dietzel, Bob Zuppke, Ted Williams and many others. The award will be made as part of a two-day sports observance in Columbus. From Columbus, Lombardi will move on to New York to get ready for the opening of the league's annual meeting Tuesday.
VIKINGS RATE PACK 'NATURAL RIVAL,' EYE WEST BERTH
JAN 21 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The new Minnesota Vikings figure the Packers as a natural rival. "That's why we want to get into the Western Division," chirped Bert Rose, new general manager of the Vikings, via telephone from Minneapolis where the NFL's 14th team is headquartered. Rose explained: "We're on record as wanting to get into the Western Division and we're hoping the clubs see it that way. There can be a three-cornered rivalry between Green Bay, Chicago and Minnesota. It's a natural since we are rival communities and so close to each other." Actually, the Minneapolis-St. Paul area has been a third home for the Packers, ranking behind Milwaukee, and the Packers have many fans there due to an annual appearance and televising of all Green Bay's game. The league has been thinking about two possibilities for Minnesota and Dallas, the 13th club added in '60. One would have the Vikings in the West and the Cowboys in the Eastern Division. The other would have both new clubs plays as swing teams, opposing every team once. The NFL will settle the matter at its annual meeting in New York next week. "We hope to purchase our veteran players at this meeting," Rose said, adding: "The league will decide on the procedure and then each club will put so many players up for selection. We will buy the ones we pick." Dallas was allowed to purchase rights to three players for about $15,000 each from each club from a list of 11 from each team, but Rose feels that "we should get more than that. Dallas was able to tie only one game and lost the rest with what they got. We have plenty of enthusiasm up here and we don't want to lose it by losing all our games." The league raised its player limit from 35 to 38 last year for the purpose of "training" three more players for Minnesota. It's possible that four or five players will be permitted to be purchased by the Vikings, if the league feels that the Vikings must make a better showing than Dallas. Packer Coach Vince Lombardi, like other coaches in the league, doesn't like the idea of parting with veterans. The stocking program likely will provide some fireworks at the meeting. Rose said the Vikings are proceeding "at a normal rate. We need a business manager, but we have a new coach and publicity director and we've sold 23,000 season tickets." Norm Van Brocklin, the veteran quarterback who tripped the Packers in the title playoff, has been signed as head coach. "We're new and he's young, smart and fresh. We think it's a good relationship," Bert said. John Thompson of the University of Washington has been hired as publicity chief. The Vikings are shooting for 25,000 season tickets, but that 23-grand is already a new record. No team has ever sold 15,000 seasons in its first year. Incidentally, 284 of the Vikings' season tickets were sold in states outside of Minnesota - Iowa, North and South Dakota and Wisconsin. "Oh, yes," Rose laughed, "we even got into your territory."
STOCKING MINNESOTA BIG NFL PROBLEM
JAN 23 (New York) - The NFL's annual meeting will be held here starting Tuesday with only one real problem to solve. "We have to decide on a formula to stock the new entry, the Minnesota Vikings," said Commissioner Pete Rozelle. "But we really don't expect to have any trouble." The Vikings will get three players from each of the 12 other teams in the league. Dallas, a newcomer last year, is excepted. Once that is settled, the Eastern and Western Conferences will decide where to place Dallas and Minnesota. "Right now," said Rozelle, "I'd say the sentiment is in favor of Dallas going into the Eastern Conference and Minnesota the Western." Rozelle also will talk over the possibility of scheduling 14 instead of 12 games for each club. The idea would be to have a home-and-home series within each conference. plus two out-of-conference games. "That's worked very well," said Rozelle, "and we'd like to keep it if we can." The rest of the four-day meeting will be taken up with routine matters - discussion of television, proposals for a hall of fame, home of pro football, minor rule changes, reports on the Pro Bowl and playoff bowl and discussion of the player pension plan. Among the cities biding to become the site for the pro football hall of fame, Canton, Ohio, was the most active, according to Rozelle. Latrobe, Pa., Green Bay and Detroit have also submitted bids. As for television, Rozelle and some owners would like the NFL to adopt a "package" program with just one network for the whole league, rather than the present setup whereby each club makes its own deal. Green Bay is represented by President Dominic Olejniczak and Coach-GM Vince Lombardi.
NFL SPLIT ON STOCKING OF VIKINGS
JAN 24 (New York) - The NFL meeting got underway today with the owners split into two factions on ways and means of stocking the new Minnesota Vikings. One group wants to limit the number of players to be put up for grabs by Coach Norm Van Brocklin of the Vikings. This faction points out that the Vikings already have been permitted to participate in the draft (they picked up 20 players), and have signed a pretty good quarterback in George Shaw. The other group wants to give the Vikings the full list of 11 players to choose from - the same number the Dallas Cowboys picked from last season when they began operations. A spokesman for this group pointed out that even with the wide choice, the Cowboys didn't win a game. "I think the Vikings should get the same break as the Cowboys," said Commissioner Pete Rozelle before entering the meeting. At any rate, the Vikings will wind up with 36 players, three from each team except the Cowboys. It also seemed certain that the league will vote to expand its schedule from 12 to 14 games. All concerned agreed that it won't be easy, but that it is a necessity. Part of the solution will be to cut the exhibition season to five games and open on the weekend
PACKERS LOSE FIRST DRAFTEE TO 'ENEMY'
JAN 24 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers have lost their first player to the opposition. That would be Roger Hagberg, the Minnesota fullback whose signing was announced today by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian League. Hagberg, who played against Washington in the Rose Bowl, is the second Gopher to skip United States football. He joins Tom Brown, the All-American guard, who went off to Vancouver. Hagberg was Green Bay's 10th choice. Loss of Brown was a real shocker because he was the Baltimore Colts' high choice as a junior eligible a year ago. And the Colts were counting on him. The Packers can still bat .500 in the University of Minnesota league. Still outstanding is tackle Frank Brixius, who was drafted a year ago as a junior. Brixius, a big strapper at 260, presently is torn between Canada and Green Bay. Imagine! The Minnesota and Iowa University areas have come under the influence of Canadian football in the last few years. Assistant coaches at Iowa held coach Canadian clubs in the summer and Bud Grant, the former Minnesota and Eagle star, migrated north back in the Clayton Tonnemaker era. Grant, mentioned for the Viking post recently before Norm Van Brocklin was picked, is coaching at Winnipeg and draws many Gophers to his team and other clubs in Canada. Hagberg faced a rather difficult task in Green Bay - namely Jim Taylor, who runs every Sunday via TV in Minneapolis during the football season. However, the 210-pound Gopher is considered exceptionally strong and, thus, always a possibility. Hagberg apparently decided on Canada Monday. Packer offense backfield coach Red Cochran said he last talked to Hagberg over the weekend. As to Brixius, Cochran said "he's still undecided." The Packers have announced the signing of five of their draft choices thus far. Elsewhere in the contract department today: The Giants announced they have signed 13 of a possible 16 college players drafted last month. Four others were selected for future years and were not eligible to be signed now. Jack Jacobs, former Packer back who had been in Canadian football playing and coaching since 1950, has been named an assistant coach at Montreal. He will be working under Perry Moss, who tried to beat him out out of his quarterback job with the Packers in 1947. Tulane All-America Tommy Mason, the No. 1 pick of the Vikings, has denied that he signed with Minnesota. He said he had good offers from the Boston Patriots and Ottawa but added that he is "leaning towards Minnesota because of the league's prestige and the better brand of football they play."...FLASH: There's a story about that the Rams will trade Tommy Wilson to the Giants for defensive back Lindon Crow. The Packer defense would like that, since Wilson always gives us fits, but the Bay aerialists gate to look at Crow. Either way, it would be a lousy trade!
HUTSON, HORNUNG PRAISE EACH OTHER
JAN 24 (Racine-Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Packer halfback Paul Hornung set a new NFL scoring record in 1960 with 176 points. Holder of the previous mark of 138 points, which had stood since 1942, was Don Hutson. The two met for the first time at a YMCA fund dinner in Racine Monday night and each had nothing but praise for the other. "I came here to see and to talk to Paul Hornung," Hutson told hundreds of boys and their fathers at the "Y." "The 138 points Mr. Huston scored in 1942 would be like 276 points in the game today," Hornung replied. Hornung also pointed out that the practice of double and triple teaming star pass catchers began with Hutson and still is used generally. Hutson generally is considered the greatest pass catcher of all time. He has lived in Racine for several year. Hornung predicted that the Packers would be title contenders in the Western Division for several years because they have the youngest team in the NFL. He gave Coach Vince Lombardi credit for making the difference between the last-place Packers of 1958 and the first-place Packers of 1960. Hornung also praised fullback Jim Taylor...LAST YARD EASY: "When a fellow like Taylor is running beside you to carry the ball down to the 1-yard line, it's pretty easy for someone like me to get it, that last yard for the points," he said. In answer to questions from the boys and their fathers, Hornung said: 1. Bill George and Joe Schmidt are two of the NFL's finest linebackers, but as a group the Packers have the best in Bill Forester, Tom Bettis, Ray Nitschke and Dan Currie. 2. If the AFL can last for three or four years, it probably will succeed. 3. The new league will be beneficial to present players and to college graduates because it offers one more avenue for playing for pay and is helpful in negotiating contracts. 4. Lombardi will be rated as one of the best coaches in the history of the NFL. 5. The Detroit Lions will be one of the league's toughest teams in 1961. Hornung appeared in Brooklyn, N.Y., Sunday, in in Albuquerque today and will be in Hollywood Wednesday.
VIKINGS STUDY NFL ROSTERS
JAN 25 (New York) - The Minnesota Vikings, who will become the NFL's 14th team this fall, today were studying a list of 96 available veterans, hoping to do better than Dallas in its first league season. Each league clubs, with the exception of Dallas which managed only one tie and no victories in its first year, had to make available a list of eight players by noon today. Some were ready Monday night. The Vikings can take three from each club, a total of 36 players for $550,000. Packer Coach-GM Vince Lombardi, attending the session with President Dominic Olejniczak, has submitted the names of eight players to the Vikings. The names will not be announced. Bert Rose, general manager of the Vikings, had no illusions about what to expect. "We know we have a rocky road ahead," he said. "Just as Dallas has had so far. But we are prepared for it. I think this is as equitable a solution as could be worked out." Didn't he want the right to pick from 11 players, as Dallas had last year? "We wanted all we could get," he said. "We didn't arrive at any specific figure. We do have one advantage over Dallas in the decision of the league to cut its player limit from 38 to 36 men. That should make more available to us in waivers." Norm Van Brocklin, the Vikings' coach; Joe Thomas, the club's talent scout, and Rose will make the selections They already are sure of one player, quarterback George Shaw, acquired in a trade with New York, and they had first draft choice in 20 rounds last month. Pete Rozelle, league commissioner, said the Vikings had until noon Thursday to complete their 36-man selection. The Vikings will notify the various clubs who, in turn, will contact the players. The players chosen by Minnesota will not be announced, however, until they have been notified by the teams for which they played last season. Rozelle said the Vikings already had paid $150,000 for players and had agreed to pay $200,000 in each of the next two years. The total of $550,000 for 36 men breaks down to about $15,300 a man. The money goes to the clubs. The Eastern Conference (New York, Philadelphia, Washington,
Cleveland, St. Louis and Philadelphia) has the right to decide whether to take Dallas or Minnesota into its conference. No decision has been made. Rose said the Vikings would prefer the Western Conference because of the possibility of building rivalries with Green Bay and Chicago. Rozelle announced Tuesday that attendance during the regular 1960 season declined slightly for the first time in nine years. Rozelle disclosed during a break in the opening day of the league's winter meeting that total attendance was 3,128,296, marking the third consecutive season in which the aggregate turnout season exceeded 3 million marks. However, the total was 12,113 less than the record set in 1959...BIG DROP IN LA: The commissioner said that despite the attendance drop, the gross money gate was the largest in the history of the NFL. He would not disclose the money figures. "Even though the league played six more games (because of the addition of a new franchise in Dallas), we had reached the point where, without stadium expansion, it was difficult to continue surpassing the attendance figures each year," Rozelle explained. Reconciling the decrease in attendance with the increase in revenue, Rozelle explained that the big drop in patronage occurred in Los Angeles, which has the lowest average ticket price in the league, while Philadelphia, Green Bay and the St. Louis Cardinals, with much higher average prices, all picked up in attendance. Rozelle announced that the league owners also had voted unanimously to restore the player limit at 36 men. Last year, the player limit was increased to 38, so that the league club might stock the new Minnesota Viking franchise, which will operate in 1961.
PACKERS SELL WINSLOW, PESONEN, BECK TO VIKES
JAN 26 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The new Minnesota Vikings have purchased Ken Beck, Dick Pesonen and Paul Winslow from the Packers. And Richard (Dick) Voris, former football coach at the University of Virginia, has been named head personnel scout for the Packers. These announcements were made today by Coach-GM Vince Lombardi, who is in New York attending the NFL meeting. Defense tackle Beck, offense back Winslow and defense back Pesonen were among eight names submitted for sale to Minnesota by the Packers in the league's program of stocking the Vikings with 36 veteran players. Names of the other five will not be revealed. Pesonen and Winslow were rookies in '60 and Beck finished two pro seasons. The Packers will receive approximately $15,000 for each of the players. Pesonen returns to his home state. A native of Proctor, Minn., he played at the University of Minnesota at Duluth. He made the Packers last year as a free agent, backing up Jess Whittenton and John Symank. Winslow, an all-time star at North Carolina College, was the Pack's 13th choice in the '60 draft. He's exceptionally fast and carries good weigh, 205, but played little behind Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung. Beck was the fourth draft choice of the Cardinals in 1959 and came to Green Bay early in the '59 season in exchange for a 10th draft choice. Selected on many All-America teams, the former Texas A and M star backed up tackle and end in the Pack's defensive line for the past two years. All three players played on the platoons (kickoffs, punts, etc.) but none played regularly. Voris, 38, fills some of the vacancy created by the death of Jack Vainisi, who served as business manager and chief talent scout. The newcomer is a native of California and played high school football at Santa Cruz. He was graduated from San Jose College in 1948 after four years of service in the Marine Corps, including combat in the Pacific. He started coaching on the high school level and then moved on to Hartnell Junior College. He had a two-year winning streak going before joining the Los Angeles Rams as line coach in 1954. He went east in '55 and served three years under Coach Red Blaik with Army as line coach. He then went to Virginia to start a three-year term. Voris is married and has three children - Richard Jr., 13, Susan 11, and Richard 9. He will come to Green Bay Feb. 1. Four other clubs have announced the selection of players by Minnesota. The league probably will settle for a 14-game schedule, an increase of two games over the 1960 chart. However, there is some sentiment for 13 games. In other action, a check for $15,000 from the Pro Bowl game at Los Angeles was turned over to the players' benefits fund, and the owners heard a big from a Canton, Ohio, group which is seeking to erect a pro football hall of fame. A committee compose of Paul Brown of the Cleveland Browns, George Halas of the Chicago Bears, and General Manager Edwin Anderson of the Detroit Lions was named to study the hall of fame bids and report back to the spring meeting of the league for a final decision. One of the bids is from Green Bay, which is represented here by President Dominic Olejniczak and Coach-GM Vince Lombardi.
PACK 'GAINS' 90 GS ON SALE OF PLAYERS
JAN 27 (Racine-Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers now have sold six veteran players to two teams for approximately $90,000. In less than a year. Backs Paul Winslow and Dick Pesonen and tackle Ken Beck were purchased by the new Minnesota Vikings at the league meeting in New York yesterday. Backs Billy Butler and Don McIlhenny and end Nate Borden were purchased by the Dallas Cowboys last March. The selling price is around $15,000 per athlete. Thus, it costs Dallas and Minnesota $540,000 apiece to stock their clubs with 36 players. What did Green Bay lost to Dallas? The answer would have to be a fat "nothing" in view of the Western Division championship in 1960 - with all due respect to hard-playing Borden, Butler and McIlhenny. Borden's loss brought on the Willie Davis trade and Willie did exceptionally well. Butler's shoes were filled by Willie Wood and McIlhenny's loss was absorbed by a full-time Jim Taylor, the ever-present Lew Carpenter - plus Winslow. What did Green Bay lose to Minnesota? "I'd have to say we lost some good youth," Coach-GM Vince Lombardi said in answering that query via phone from New York today, adding: "Pesonen and Winslow were both rookies and Beck only played two years. They should help Minnesota." Time will tell in the cases of these three. If one turns into a "steady" star - or even a great one, the Vikings will have a bargain. Butler is in the same category with the Cowboys since he played only two years now. Borden and McIlhenny have reached their potential...PESONEN TO OFFENSE: The ex-Packers with the Vikings played on the platoons but none completed as a regular. Pesonen is hard nosed and might be shifted from defense to offense. Winslow is chiefly an offensive player, with good speed and power. Beck plays both tackle and end on defense. Pesonen had backed up Jess Whittenton and John Symank in the Bays secondary. He received the baptism of his life when
Whittenton was injured in the Colt game in Baltimore. Dick was faced with guarding Raymond Berry, who wound up with a field day. It was experience the hard, and expensive, way...Al Dorow, onetime NFL QB who is now player scout for the New York Titans of the AFL, mentioned our Packers in an AP story out of New York today, pointing out in a story on signing college players: "I thought I had the inside track on Herb Adderley (Pack's first draft choice) because of my school connections but we couldn't come anywhere near matching Green Bay's bid. They waved a $5,000 bonus check under his nose, then signed him up to a $15,500 a year contract." Lombardi termed Dorow's information as "untrue" and added, "I guess he had to say something." Vince said he'd have no official comment. Dorow, who was unable to sign the Titans' first four choices, undoubtedly exaggerated the figures on Adderley. As a matter of policy, salary figures of Packer players are never announced. All other clubs follow that policy. Kyle Rote, the Giants' ace who is scouting some during the offseason, had this to say on bonuses today: "The veterans who missed out on these bonuses will make the rookies prove they belong, but if he makes the grade and can stand the gaff, they'll all be with him 100 percent once the season gets underway. If the rookie is good, it will help the team win ball games." All rookies, bonuses not withstanding, are given a rugged time by the veterans who aren't about to lose their jobs...Richard Voris, named as the Packers' new chief talent scout yesterday, has been acquainted with Lombardi for several years. Voris is leaving his job as football coach at the University of Virginia to come here. He served three years under Red Blaik at Army. Voris will report Feb. 1.
PACK GETS 7 HOME GAMES; WADE TRADE TOUGHENS CARD
JAN 30 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers' 1961 home card will be bigger and tougher. It's bigger because there will be an extra game - a seven-game home schedule, and tougher because our traditional rivals, the Bears, have obtained power-armed quarterback Bill Wade. The NFL, winding up its annual winter meetings in New York Saturday, voted in a 14-game league schedule - the largest in league history. It will start Sept. 17 and Dec. 17. Next question? How many games in Green Bay; how many in Milwaukee. Best guess: Four here, three there. That decision will come later. The league decided to have Dallas and Minnesota, the new clubs, play as swing teams. They will play each other on a home and home series and then play each other club once. The "home" divisions of the new teams will be named later. The Packers' 14-game card will be made of home and home games with Western Division clubs for 10 contests, single games against Dallas and Minnesota for 12, and single games against two teams in the Eastern Division to round out the 14. Wade came to the Bears in a three-cornered deal, like so: The Rams sent the 29-year old Wade to the Bears in exchange for defensive halfback Erich Barnes and either a high draft choice or a player to be determined before the 1961 season. The Rams then traded Barnes, linebacker-guard John Guzik and next season's No. 5 draft choice to the Giants for Lindon Crow and New York's 1961 first-round draft pick. Crow had threatened to quit pro football unless he was traded to the Rams. Wade understudied Norm Van Brocklin in his first four years with the Rams and then won the passing title in 1958. He injured his leg in '59 and spent most of the time on the bench. He didn't regain his form in 1960 and shared the job with Frank Ryan, the egghead who likely will take over the post in '61. Backing up the expert in combinational topology will be Buddy Humphrey. Wade could well take over the Bears and whip them into a championship team. The burly Vanderbilt star, the Rams' bonus choice in '52 who likes to run with the ball, said the trade "is a real break for me. I feel very lucky to be going to the Bears. My desire is to be the best quarterback they ever had. I don't want to be part of a problem. I want to be part of an answer." Like Van Brocklin, Wade was subjected to extreme pressure by the press in LA and he was unhappy there in the last two years. In Chicago, Wade will battle two veterans for the job - Zeke Bratkowski and Ed Brown. But don't be surprised if one of those is traded off. The trade spells double trouble for Green Bay; the Bears need a new look at quarterback and Wade should give it to them and the Rams' coach, Bob Waterfield, has "his man" at the signal spot. Ryan was Waterfield's choice to replace Wade last year.
TEMP HAS SURGERY ON SHOULDER
FEB 1 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Jim Temp, the Packers' veteran defensive end, underwent surgery on his shoulder today at St. Vincent Hospital. Temp was handicapped by a shoulder separation since midway in the 1960 season. Dr. James Nellen, team physician, said the results were "highly successful."
JOHNSON SURPRISES, SIGNS WITH PACK
FEB 2 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Roger Johnson surprised his coach by signing with the Packers. "He had some wonderful offers to go into business," Whitewater Coach Forrest Perkins said today, "and I didn't think he'd give pro football a try. But I guess he just wanted to find out whether he can make it." Johnson, Whitewater's fine quarterback and one of the leading small college passers in the nation, has signed with the Packers as a free agent, Coach Vince Lombardi announced Wednesday. The signing of Jim Brewington, 275-pound tackle from North Carolina College, also was announced by Lombardi. Perkins said Johnson has what "you need in pro football - brains and a good arm. He's a straight A student and specializing in business and he has a fine arm. He was the complete boss on the field for us and he only lost four games in three years." Johnson is six feet tall and weighs 192. The Whitewater captain was selected on the state college all-conference team the last three years. In four years at Whitewater, he attempted 440 passes, completed 230 for 2,988 yards and 27 touchdowns - a completion percentage of 52. He completed 108 out of 185 last year for 1,406 yards. Johnson won't be new to pro rules. "We use the best rules, the pro rules, in our football," said Perkins, who is a brother of former Packer fullback Don Perkins. Brewington, a 6-6'er, was the Packers' 17th draft choice and he's a long shot candidate for a berth in the Packers' defensive line. The big boy has good speed for his size. He was a college teammate of Paul Winslow, the Packer back who was sold to Minnesota...BRIEFS: Jim Temp, the Packers' defensive end who underwent an operation to correct a dislocated shoulder, will remain at St. Vincent Hospital through the weekend. He missed the last five games in '60 with the injury...The Minnesota Vikings are talking up a starting backfield with George (Giants) Shaw at quarterback, Tommy (Rookie) Mason and Hugh (49ers) McElhenny at halfbacks, and Glenn (Bears) Shaw at fullback. Ken Beck of the Packers is a tentative "starter" in the Viking defensive line along with Bill (Bears) Bishop, Ed (Cardinals) Culpepper and Don (Colts) Joyce.
HORNUNG SHOULDER HURT NOT SERIOUS
FEB 3 (Milwaukee-Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Paul Hornung's shoulder injury isn't serious. The Packers' triple threat back, here for a speaking engagement Thursday night, isn't worried about the injury that knocked him out of the last quarter of the championship game last December. "A month or two of physical therapy and heat massages should bring it back as good as new. It's nothing serious," he said. Hornung, who set a new NFL scoring record last year with 176 points, sustained the injury in the Packers' game with the Los Angeles Rams in Milwaukee Nov. 20 but it didn't bother him until the championship battle. He diagnosed the injury as a "dead" shoulder nerve which cut the efficiency of his right arm. "I had no control of my arm," he said, "and if I tried to pass, I'm about as skillful as a girl throwing a softball. Then I realized when I got hit, I'd fumble." Hornung was here for a sports night program at St. Pius X High School. He recently completed a short appearance in a nationally televised program (My Sister Eileen) and may get other shots in the show...BRIEFS: Despite a four-year career, Paul Hornung is just two months past 25. He turned to a Quarter Century last Dec. 23...The New York Titans of the AFL were wiped out of their first five draft choices. Two went as payment in earlier trades, but Tom Brown, Packer Herb Adderley and Tom Matte all signed elsewhere. Brown went to Canada and Matte to the Colts.
PACKERS 'LOSE' DRAFTEE; MILLER IN SURPISE DIP
FEB 6 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers now have lost one player to each "opponent." Fullback Roger Hagberg of Minnesota signed recently with a Canadian team. Over the weekend, the Houston Oilers announced the signing of halfback Lewis Johnson of Florida A and M, the Pack's seventh choice. Hagberg was obtained from Dallas on the 10th round as payment for Fred Cone...Tom Miller, the Packers' publicist, took an unexpected dip in Lake Noquebay Saturday. He was walking with Joe Hogan on the snow covered ice, about 200 yards off the north shore and "all of a sudden I was in the water." Miller, onetime Packer, Eagle and Redskin, spread his arms quickly and grabbed the ice to keep from going under. Miller and Hogan were attending a
meeting of the West Side Social Club at the Nibs Bishop cottage...Vince McNally, general manager of the Eagles, said Saturday he'd trade with anyone - "except Paul Brown (coach of the Browns). I never talk to Paul. It would be no contest. He'd know everything about the man I'm getting and more about the man he's getting from me than I do." McNally probably smiled when he said it but Vince might take a few notes from another Vince - one Vince Lombardi of Green Bay. Lombardi, back in town after spending a few days in New York following the NFL meetings, made four trades with the Browns and three of them are still "working." He peddled Billy Howton for Bill Quinlan and Lew Carpenter; A.D. Williams for Willie Davis; a fourth draft choice for Hank Jordan; and a fifth draft choice for Bob Freeman. Only Freeman has departed, going to the Eagles for a fourth draft choice. Howton left Cleveland after one year, Williams is a third end, and the two draft picks didn't make it. PS - The Packers are due to play the Browns. Maybe this is the year...HISTORY PAGE: Quick now, the Packers didn't make a field goal in what year? Time's up. It was in 1944, a championship year. Six field goal were tried, with Don Hutson missing four and Glen Sorenson two. The current champs, with Paul Hornung doing the honors, booted 28 and hit on 15.
PACKERS SET HOME ATTENDANCE MARK IN WINNING TITLE
FEB 7 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Almost lost in the Packers' championship season was this elegant new record: Highest Attendance For Home League Games! The Packers' home total passed the 200,000 mark for the first time in history. The six games (four in Green Bay and two in Milwaukee) pulled 204,423 fans. This broke the record of 189,998 set in 1959 and that figure broke the record of 167,636 set in 1958. These figures, of course, were made possible by the construction of the new City Stadium, which has a capacity of 32,150 - or about 7,000 more than the old structure. However, the Packers did not set a new record the first year in the new ballyard, 1957. The gate for three games in City Stadium was 96,352 and the 64,781 total for three games in Milwaukee totaled out to 161,133. That ranked second to the 165,957 gate in 1947. The Packers' home attendance, while always high during the early title days, started to boom to a record height in 1947. In the 14 years since then, it skidded to lows of 105,732 in 1949 and 106,969 in 1951. Since the new stadium was built, the Packers averaged 31,779 in 15 games (3 in '57 and 4 each in '58-59-60) there. The average in nine games in Milwaukee County Stadium during that period (3 in '57 and 2 each in '58-59-60) was 27,388. Thus the home average in the last four years was 30,133. The champion Packers of 1960 averaged 34,070 per game, slightly over 32,150 in the four games here and a rosy 37,839 in the two games in Milwaukee. The four games here were absolute sellouts and the gates were 39,916 and 35,763 in Beer Town. That 34,070 average? How good is that? The league's 1960 attendance, while down a bit, averaged out to 40,106. The best Green Bay could have drawn at home in 1960 was 214,744, the difference being in sellouts in Milwaukee. Based on a capacity of about 43,000 in Milwaukee, the gates could have increased by 10,321 on the two games. That brings up the question: More seats? Packer Coach-GM Vince Lombardi said the capacity will be raised in Milwaukee to about 45,000. In Green Bay? "More seats here will depend on how much money we made," Lombardi pointed out, indicating that the matter will be taken up shortly. The Packers presently have under consideration plans left over from a year ago to increase the capacity at City Stadium by about 5,000, thus boosting the "seatage" to about 38,000. The object, of course, is to bring Green Bay's home attendance average up closer to the league's. A potential seating average of about 40,000 would be available with 38,000 seats in Green Bay and 45,000 in Milwaukee...SEVENTH HOME GAME: And next year the Packers will play a seventh home game. Asked if the extra game will be played in Green Bay or Milwaukee, Lombardi said, "We'll decide that later," pointing out that the verdict on seats, surveys on ticket sales will figure in the decision. The Packers will play a 14-game schedule next year, due to the admission of Milwaukee. And that brings up another problem for Lombardi, as he pointed out: "We've got two more games and two less players." The player limit was reduced from 38 to 36 at the recent league meeting.
COL. KRUEGER NAMED TO HEAD PACK'S MILLWAUKEE OPERATIONS
FEB 7 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Col. O.C. Krueger, "mayor" of the third largest city in Maryland and a combat veteran of World War II, will head the Packers operations in Milwaukee. Em Tunnell isn't going to retire. And the Bays' 16th draft choice, end Clarence Mason, has officially joined the Green Bay flock. These varied items trickled out of the Packer office of Coach-GM Vince Lombardi today. The new Milwaukee position was created when Bob Schwartz, present Milwaukee ticket director, resigned to accept a new position. Lombardi said Milwaukee operations are being stepped up, trying in with the increase attendance there. Col. Krueger presently is post commander of Fort Meade. Md., a "community" of about 50,000 people. He will retire from the Army Feb. 28 and start his new duties at the Packer office in County Stadium March 1. He will be in Green Bay next week for a meeting of the Packer board of directors. The energetic colonel, a native of Buffalo, was a graduate of the United States Military Academy, Class of 1931. He was co-captain of West Point's basketball team, captain of the cross country squad, and a member of the track team. During World War II, he served on the staff of the old War Department and saw action in the Pacific theater. He returned to West Point as graduate manager of athletics and in 1951 was assigned as regimental commander of the 45th Division's 279th Infantry during the Korean War, earning the coveted Combat Infantryman's Badge. Before taking over Fort Meade, Krueger was chief of combat developments at the Army Infantry School at Fort Army Infantry School at Fort Benning, Ga., for three years and director of the plans division and senior Army advisor for NATO for three years...RECEIVE CERTIFICATE: Tunnell...The league's grand old man of defense came out from his home in Philadelphia to talk about scouting for the Pack and next season, and receive the Helms Hall of Fame certificate from Lombardi. Tunnell was the first Packer to
receive appointment to the "hall" since Tony Canadeo in the early 1950s, although Em made his reputation with the Giants. Tunnell retire? "No, he's not going to retire," said Lombardi. And Em, himself, says he's not giving it a thought. Mason is a 190-pound pass catching whiz out of Bowling Green. The 6-2 signee was the only offensive end chosen in the recent draft. Like most new ends, Mason will also be watched for his possibilities as a defensive back.
WITH GIFFORD GONE, HORNUNG ONLY DO-EVERYTHING HALFBACK
FEB 11 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The retirement of Frank Gifford, the Giants' great option halfback, leaves the Packers' Paul Hornung as the league's only noted do-everything halfback. Gifford, who was Vince Lombardi's prize pupil when he coached the Giants' backfield, made it official Friday. He has decided to launch a career in radio. When Lombardi took over the Packer program in early 1959, he looked a look at Packer films and promptly fingered Hornung as the Green Bay version of Frank Gifford. Hornung had a tougher job than Gifford. He's the option back in a two-running-back offense. Gifford optioned along in a three-running-back offense. Lombardi would like a three-backer to better utilize Hornung and he'll get his wish if Herb Adderley pans out. Since Lombardi gave Hornung optionitis, the ex-Notre Damer has pitched 24 passes and completed 11 for 223 yards and four (4) touchdowns. That's a lot of aerial offense for a non-quarterback in two years. On the ground in those two campaigns, Hornung rushed 441 times for 1,981 yards and 25 touchdowns. Gifford, injured shortly before the season ended, thew only six passes last year - but completed three, one for a TD. Hornung hit 6 out of 16 for 118 yards and two TDs. The busiest passing non-quarterback last fall was a fullback from Pittsburgh, one Tom Tracy. Uncle Tom, Bobby Layne's partner in crime, hurled 22 passes and completed nine for 322 yards and four touchdowns...Big Jug Earp is not so big. The giant Packer center of the three-title days, who suffered a heart attack last December, has lost 25 to 30 pounds, said wife Alice, who promptly added: "He's been real good about his diet and he's minding the doctor." Earl
(Jug) Girard, the former Packer and Lion halfback from Marinette. Girard has sold his interest in a Detroit tavern back to his partner and former Lion halfback, Bob Hoernschemeyer. Jug has gone into business with the Allis-Chalmers firm and will locate in Green Bay...The Packers led the league in two departments of team rushing last season - first downs, 135, and touchdowns, 29. Nobody even came close to that TD figure, Detroit ranking second with 19. The Packers ranked second to the Cards in rush attempts and yards rushing. Hornung and Jim Taylor were the league's most fearsome rushing paid. They lugged 390 times (of the Pack's 463) for 1,722 yards (of 2,150) - an average of 4.5. No team has that kind of one-two punt. Closest was the Browns' Jim Brown-Bob Mitchell, who totaled 1,763. Brown finished first with 1,257; Taylor second with 1,101.
PACKERS REACH GOAL; INTERCEPT 22 PASSES
FEB 14 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - "If we get 22, we'll be in business." The Packers did intercept 22 passes and they won the Western Division championship. "We intercepted 14 in 1959 and we set 22 as a goal for 1960. That's what we got - right on the head," Norb Hecker, who coaches the Packers' secondary along with Defense Coach Phil Bengtson explained today. Any goal for 1961? "We've got to keep getting better so how about a goal of 28," Hecker added. The Packers finished eighth in the league in pass interceptions, based on percent intercepted, in 1960. The Bays were fired at 365 times and grabbed 6.0 percent of them. No other defense was pitched at that many times, although Pittsburgh was close behind with 361 and Detroit with 354. There was improvement right down the line over 1959. The Bays finished 10th and had a 4.26 percentage on 329 "chances" in finishing with a 7-5 record in the Bays' debut under Vince Lombardi. Jesse Whittenton, rated by Hecker as "our best man in the secondary," finally got a little justice after being shut out in 1959. He managed to snare six passes to lead the Packers and rank in a "fifth" category in the league, behind 10 interceptions by Jerry Norton (Cards) and Dave Baker (49ers), 9 by Don Burroughs (Eagles), 8 by Bob Franklin (Browns) and Jim Shofner (Browns), and 7 by Bob Boyd (Colts). Six others tied with Jess...THROW TO LEFT: "We should have had more interceptions. Had enough chances," said Hecker. John Symank, playing the right side - which is the "interception zone" because righthanded passes throw mostly to the left, finished with one interception - not counting the Pack's only interception in the title playoff. Hank Gremminger and Em Tunnell, both on the left side, grabbed three apiece. Thus, the secondarymen intercepted 13 of the 22 in the 12-game league card. The linebackers snared nine enemy passes, with Dan Currie grabbing four, Ray Nitschke three and Bill Forester two. Whittenton intercepted more passes than he did in his four previous seasons put together. He broke in with the Rams in '56 and grabbed off three, one for a touchdown. He nailed one with the same club in '57. Jess nailed one with the Pack in 1958, but he was blanked in 1959 under most unusual circumstances. He was rated on several all-pro clubs that year and even received a bid to play in the Pro Bowl but he couldn't buy an interception...Bart Starr is now a Green Bay taxpayer. The Packers' five-year veteran, a native of Alabama, has purchased a home at 1624 Chateau Drive. "We like it in Green Bay," Bart and his wife, Cherry, agree. Incidentally, Bart Jr., 3, is just recovering from a respiratory infection that kept
him in the hospital for a week...The Packer board of directors, meeting at Northland Hotel Monday night, met the newest member of the Packer family - Col. O.C. Krueger, who has been named director of Packer operations in Milwaukee. Krueger, now commander of Fort Meade, Md., retires from the Army officially the end of this month and he'll start in Milwaukee March 1.
PACKERS TO PLAY GIANTS IN DIOCESAN CHARITY TILT HERE
FEB 16 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Catholic Diocese of Green Bay has taken over sponsorship of a non-championship charity football game between the Packers and New York Giants at City Stadium Labor Day, Sept. 4. This was announced jointly today by Packer Coach Vince Lombardi and Bishop Stanislaus V. Bona. The game has been designated as the Bishop's Charity game, with proceeds going into Catholic charities in the diocese, which embraces 15 counties in this section of Wisconsin. This will be a complete sponsorship by the diocese in that the diocese will pay the Packers and the Giants a guarantee and carry on promotion, sale of tickets and other details of game operation. The game and sponsorship will be similar to the annual Catholic Charities setup in Minneapolis. That Twin City organization usually matches the Packers as their home team against an Eastern Division foe. The 1961 Bishop's Charity production will be highlighted by the Giants' first visit here since Lombardi left that club to take over Packer fortunes in 1959. The Packers, under Lombardi, opposed the Giants in two non-leaguers since then and the two clubs split. New York won in Bangor, Me., 14-0 in ;59 and the Pack won in New Jersey 16-7 in '60. Bishop Bona has named two committees to start promotional plans. Edward Gagnon has been named general chairman of the lay organization and three priests head the clergy organization - the Rev. William J. Spalding, director of diocesan charities; the Rev. S.A. Borusky, director of diocesan Holy Name societies; and the Rev. Orville Janssen, publicity, editor of the Green Bay Register. The Packers now have outright sponsorship for the two non-league games in Wisconsin. Their annual game in Milwaukee is sponsored by the Wisconsin Shrine and this year's battle will be the 12th annual Midwest Shrine Classic. One other non-league game has been announced - in Dallas Aug. 11 against the Cowboys. The rest of the card, including the Shrine game, will be announced shortly...Official statistics on pass receiving for the 1960 season, released today show the top two Packer catchers well down the list. Max McGee ranked 13th with his 38 catches - 36 behind leader Raymond Berry of the Colts, while Boyd Dowler was 23rd with 30 catches. Do-everything Paul Hornung
ranked 29th with 28 receptions. The figures point up the balance in the Packers' aerial game and also note the emphasis placed on rushing. Jim Taylor and Hornung ranked second and seventh, respectively, in ball carrying. McGee replaced Dowler as the team's pass receiving leader. As a rookie of the year in '59, Dowler led the Bays with 32 catches while McGee had 30. Gary Knafelc, busy with blocking at his tight end position, finished fifth with 14 catches, while Taylor had 15. Gary's total doesn't include the six passes he nailed in the championship game. These top five receivers caught all but 12 of the Packers' 137 completions. Rookie Tom Moore led the "replacement" group with five catches, one a spectacular for a TD vs. the Colts here; Ron Kramer nailed four; Steve Meilinger two; and Lew Carpenter one.
SHEBOYGAN'S STAR BACK TO PATRIOTS
FEB 16 (Sheboygan-Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Only last fall Ripon's Dave Smith made the big jump from the Tri-States League to pro football stardom. Now Sheboygan great Dick Posewitz is going to get a similar chance. Posewitz, voted the outstanding players in the Tri-States League the past two years, was signed earlier this week by the Boston Patriots of the AFL. The signing of the 195-pound speedy back came mainly through the efforts of Dwight Pelkin, sports editor of the Sheboygan Press. On Jan. 14, Pelkin dropped a letter in the mail to all eight AFL clubs, asking: "Would you like another Dave Smith in 1961?" Replies came immediately from virtually every club. Posewtiz finally decided to go with the Patriots for a contract of more than $8,000 and a "no-cut" clause through the exhibition season. Posewitz's career is every similar to that of Smith. After graduation from Ripon College, Smith had a trial with the Green Bay Packers of the NFL. But, with players such as Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor around, Smith finally had to be cut. It was too late in the season to try to catch on with another major pro team so Smith joined Racine of the Tri-States League for the 1959 season. Then he moved up last fall to Houston of the AFL and gained all-league honors as a pile-driving fullback. Posewitz had a trial with the Packers last season and managed to stick with the club until late in the training season. However, like Smith, he found the Green Bay backfield too tough to clash. So he rejoined the Sheboygan Redwings, playing at both halfback and quarterback. He piled up 1,101 yards rushing, passing and by pass receiving, handled the Redwings' punting and was outstanding on defense. Bob Miller, offensive coach of the Patriots, feels that the Sheboygan back has a fine chance of sticking with Boston. "He's going to have a real chance to make our ball club," Miller said. "If he were a guard or tackle or a linebacker, this wouldn't be the ball team for him. But he's just what we need as a running back who can carry the ball for us, do some blocking and who is a fair passer. He looks like just the kind of boy that we want."
STARR SNAPS PACK ACCURACY RECORD
FEB 20 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Bart Starr, the Alabaman turned Badger, finished sixth among NFL passers in 1960, according to official figures announced Sunday. That was the best Packer-passer finish in the league in eight years - since 1952 when Tobin Rote ranked second and Babe Parilli third. Starr completed 98 out of 172 passes for a completion percentage of 57.0. That percent established a new all-time season Packer record, breaking the mark of 56.7 set by Cecil Isbell in 1941. Isbell, who was throwing to the immortal Don Hutson, had 117 completions in 206 attempts. Starr's passes gained 1,358 yards and were good for four touchdowns. He had only eight interceptions for a 4.3 percentage. Bart, who recently bought a home in Green Bay, had his most significant day in Los Angeles last Dec. 18 when he led the Packers to a 35 to 21 championship-winning victory over the Rams. Starr threw only nine passes but completed eight for 201 yards and two touchdowns - one a 91-yard shot to Boyd Dowler. Milt Plum of Cleveland finished first, Norm Van Brocklin of Philly second, John Unitas of Baltimore third, Bill Wade of LA, now of the Bears, fourth, and Bobby Layne of Pittsburgh fifth. Van Brocklin and Starr were the only members of the top six to finish in the playoff, and Van won that by a seven-yard nose. Starr will get another chance but Van Brocklin, the world title in his pocket, has retired to coaching Minnesota. Lamar McHan wound up throwing too few passes (120) to qualify for a ranking. He pitched 91 and completed 33. Here are the Packer passing leaders and how they finished since 1952: 1953 - Rote, 13th; 1954 - Rote, 16th; 1955 - Rote, 12th; 1956 - Rote, 8th; 1957 - Starr, 9th; 1958 - Parilli, 9th; 1959 - McHan, 8th. Starr was 9th in 1959 and 15th in 1958...The Packers now have announced three of their five non-league games. Latest production is the Shrine Classic in Milwaukee against against the Chicago Bears. The 12th Shrine battle will be staged in County Stadium Aug. 26. Proceeds will go to the Shriners' hospital for crippled children. The Packers, in the previous 11 Shrine
games, have won five and lost six. They split with the Bears, losing in the final seconds 19-16 in 1959 and winning last year 35-7. County Stadium, with its new bleacher section, will have capacity of more than 45,000. Two other preseason games have been announced - the Cowboys in Dallas Aug. 11 and the Bishop's Charities Game in Green Bay Labor Day.
NFL PUNTING FIGURES LEAVE PACKERS COLD
FEB 22 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The NFL has four (more or less) seasons - the training period, the championship campaign, the convention-draft time and the statistical season. We are in the midst of the "figger" period, in case you haven't guessed. All is now sweetness and light in the land of statistics - even for the Western Division champions from Green Bay, usually referred to as the Packers. Yesterday, for instance, the batch of official figures from the NFL office told how awful the Packers did in the field of punting. Tomorrow, the story will be quite the opposite; a Packer led in kickoff returning. All the figures are cold. The punt ratings don't say, for instance, that Boyd Dowler won the punting job from Max McGee in the third game and then lost it in the ninth game. The "stix" show Max as the 10th best punter in the league and Dowler is actually unranked. McGee, master of the end-over-end punt, the skimmer or what have you, punted in the first two games and then booted weakly in the Colt game. Dowler took over and averaged about 50 yards that day. Boyd was averaging 43.1 and ranking eight in the league when he stepped back in the end zone to punt against the Lions in Detroit Thanksgiving Day. Dowler's foot never hit the ball. It landed in Bruce Maher's midsection, leaving imprints, and the Lions got a safety on the blocked ball. McGee punted the rest of the way, finishing with an average of 41.6 on 31 kicks. Dowler booted 18 times for 40.5. The Packers had three punts blocked in all last year and it was the first time since 1955 a team had that many cracked open. In that year, the Browns and Redskins each had three blocked. In fact, the season of 1960 was just terrible in the department of punt blocking in the entire league. Eleven kicks were blocked - three on GB, two each on the Lions, Bears and Rams and one each on the Cowboys and Steelers. In 1959, only three punts were blocked all year. The normal figure is about five, although there were nine in '55. But only two punts were blocked in '54. You have to go all the way back to 1951 to find a worse punt blocking year than 1960. The league had 16 blocked in '51, including two on the Pack. The best punters? Ray Norton of the Cardinals averaged 45.6 to win the gloss-covered punting shoe. Bob Green of the Steelers was second with 44.2 while Tommy Davis
of the 49ers, one of the few fellers in the league who punts and kicks (PATs and FGs), was close with 44.1. Anyhow, this is the season of statistics, and now let us get into the kickoff returns. Tom Moore led that division with an average return of 24.3 yards on 35 kicks. Oops, that isn't for release until tomorrow. Besides, that's enough figures for one day!
'PEACE' ON DETROIT: COLTS HAVE PROBLEMS
FEB 23 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - There's peace in Detroit. Today is the day the Lions' directors vote on a new board, with D. Lyle Fife hoping for control. However, since young William Clay Ford was named president Fife has been backtracking and just yesterday he told Scribe Watson Spoelstra: "I'm willing to let bygones be bygones. I think we have to pull together to help the team on the field." Just one thing remains: Fife to shake hands with Ed Anderson, the Lions' general manager. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle will talk to Fife and Anderson after today's meeting...Problem in Baltimore, too? Certainly not like Detroit. The Colts have lost one of their two starting guards - Art Spinney, who has retired for a coaching career at Boston College. Loss of Spinney weakens the protection for General John Unitas, as of now...The County Stadium Commission, noting a 16 percent drop in revenue from Braves games, was happy to report an increase in income from Packer football games at the Stadium. The revenue on the Pack's three games there was $36,665 in 1960 against $25,348 in 1959...Nielson rating showed that 15,852,000 TV homes tuned in on the Packer- Eagle championship game last Dec. 26. Roughly 50 million people saw it...PERSONAL MENTION: Coach-GM Vince Lombardi is back at work this week after a bout with the flu. Chief Talent Scout Dick Voris has left for Charlottesville, Va., to pack up his family before leaving for Green Bay. Voris has purchased a home across from Preble Park...The Bears are starting non-league play on a versatile note. They'll meet the Alouettes of the Canadian Big Four in a night game in Montreal Saturday, Aug. 5. Half the game will be played under NFL rules and the other half under Canadian rules, providing for addition of a 12th players...Four pro clubs are represented on a basketball team playing exhibitions in Texas. Working with the team are John Roach and Jerry Norton of the Cardinals, Bill Forester and Forrest Gregg of the Packers, Jim Ray Smith of the Browns and Don Meredith, Don McIlhenny, L.G. Dupre and Dave Sherer of the Cowboys...Tom Moore is officially hailed today as the league's kickoff return champion. The Packers' wonderful rookie lugged back a dozen kickoffs for an average of 33.1 yards, the official figures show. Green Bay ranked second as a team with 35 turns for an average of 24.3 yards. San Francisco won the team title with 43 runs for 27.1 And here's irony: The Eagles, who set up the winning TD in the playoff on Ted Dean's 58-yard run, ranked 12th on kickoff returns with an average of 18.7 Only Dallas, with 18.3, was worse. Bah!
WOODSON LEADS IN PUNT RETURNS; WOOD RANKS 7TH
FEB 24 (New York) - Abe Woodson of the San Francisco 49ers won the punt return title in the NFL in 1960, the final statistics released today showed. Woodson, sixth in 1959, had an average of 13.4 yards on 13 returns the past season. He also led in yardage with 174 and had a high of 48 yards for a single return. Bill Butler of the Dallas Cowboys finished in second place with a 10.1 average. He was followed by Preston Carpenter of Pittsburgh 9.23 and Bill Stits of New York, 9.22. The Cleveland Browns captured the team championship with a 9.9 average on 46 returns. San Francisco was next with 9.0...Willie Wood led the Packers with 16 yards for an average of 6.6 yards, ranking seven in the league. Unranked Lew Carpenter was next among the Packers, with nine for 6.6.
PACKERS' TITLE NOW 'OFFICIAL'
FEB 28 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers' Western Division championship is now "official." Reason No. 1: Coach Vince Lombardi and the Packers have received a citation by the Wisconsin Legislature for winning the 1960 title. And No. 2: The 1960 Packer Highlight films are ready for use by groups around the state. The legislature action was launched, appropriately enough, by a motion of Packerland lawmakers Leo P. O'Brien and Robert D. Haase. Here's the citation which now rests in the Packer office: "Whereas, the 1960 Green Bay Packer Football team won the championship of the Western Division of the NFL; now, therefore, be it resolved on the motion of Senator Leo P. O'Brien and Assemblyman Robert D. Haase under joint rule 26, that the legislature extend to the Green Bay Packers and their coach, Mr. Vince Lombardi, their congratulations on winning the 1960 championship of the Western Division of the NFL and on the meteoric rise of the Green Bay Packers as a power in professional football." The highlight pictures, an annual production of the Miller Brewing Co., are really choice because they show the choicest action, although the losing playoff game vs. the Eagles closes out the program. The Premontre Fathers' Club, meeting with their sons Sunday night, got the first look at the pictures, which just arrived last week. When the introduction of the Packers as "The Western Division Champions" flashed on the screen, the audience of 400 made with the big applause. The film hammered home the powerful running of Jim Taylor and the versatility of Paul Hornung. They can really hit and the viewers showed their appreciation by clapping. On the new-player front, Lombardi announced the signing of two free agents who played football in Louisiana. They are Danny Bridged, a 6-2, 200-pound quarterback from Southwestern Louisiana University, and Bob Beaver, a full-blooded Indian who played guard at Northeast Louisiana State College. Bridges is 22 and a chemistry major. He throws exceptionally well and likes to run with the ball. Beaver, who hailed from Okmulgee, Okla., stands 6-2 and packs 240 pounds. The newcomer played center in his first two years and was transferred to guard because of his size and speed...Col. O.C. Krueger starts officially as manager of Packer operations in Milwaukee Wednesday. His office will be at the Packer ticket headquarters in County Stadium.
PACKERS SIGN TWO DRAFTEES
MAR 3 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - A 235-pound end selected in the 1961 draft and a 270-pound tackle picked in the 1960 draft have signed Packer contracts, Coach-GM Vince Lombardi announced Thursday. The newcomers are Nelson Toburen, a 6-4 end from Wichita University who was the Pack's 14th grab in the draft last December, and Royce Whittington, a 6-2 powerhouse from Southwestern Louisiana Institute, who was the 18th choice a year earlier. Toburen was co-captain of a strong Wichita team and was named outstanding lineman by his teammates. A native of Colby, Kan., Toburen can play offense and defense. Whittington shapes up as a defensive lineman. His home is Crystal Springs, Miss. The Packer draft list is now just about cleaned up. Three prospects are in spring sports and can't sign until graduation - guard Jack Novak of Miami, halfback Elizah Pitts of Philander Smith and Leland Bondhus of South Dakota State.
PACKERS TO BUILD ADDITIONAL 6,200 SEATS AT CITY STADIUM FOR 1961 SEASON
MAR 8 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Seating capacity of City Stadium will be increased this season to 38,613 with the addition of 6,200 seats, it was announced today by Vince Lombardi, general manager and coach of the Packers. The seats will be built by Green Bay Packers, Inc., under its agreement with Green Bay. Construction will start early in April and will be finished in time for the Bishop's Charities game against the New York Giants Labor Day. Contractor is George M. Hougard and Son, Inc., who built the Stadium in 1957. The addition will be an extension of the east and west stands to the south, with about 3,100 seats on each side. In addition, a total of 263 bleacher seats will be moved behind the children's section in the northeast corner of the city-owned stadium, bringing to 1,101 the number of children's seats. The old capacity was 32,150 and with the two new additions of 6,200 and 263, the stadium will have seats for 38,613 customers. With the addition, Green Bay's stadium will no longer be the smallest in the NFL. Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals; Griffith Stadium in Washington, where the Redskins play; and Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, home of the Steelers, each have around 35,000 seats. The Packer Corp., of which Dominic Olejniczak is president, voted recently to build the seats following steady requests for season tickets from new buyers. Lombardi estimated that more than 2,000 new season ticket orders already have been received in the Packer ticket office. The Packers sold 31,000 season tickets - just short of the old capacity of 32,413 - for the four games at City Stadium in 1960. "Every indication shows that most of the 31,000 present holders will renew and that gives us a total of more than 33,000 season tickets sold before we start construction," Lombardi pointed out. The Packers have set new City Stadium attendance records in each of the last three years for a four-game league schedule. The gates were 123,297 in 1958, 128,303 in 1959 and 128,744 in 1960. With added seats, the attendance for four games in 1961 could possibly approach 160,000. The Packers' other two league games were played in Milwaukee the last three years. With a new team, Minneapolis, in the league, the Packers will play seven home games and the extra game likely to go to Milwaukee. County Stadium also is being expanded for around 43,000 to 45,000 with installation of seats in the "woods" area in centerfield. The Packers now have played 15 league games at City Stadium since it was built and 12 of them have drawn more than 32,000 fans.
REMINDER: '61 NFL PLAYOFF IN HOME OF WESTERN CHAMP
MAR 9 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Reminder: The NFL's 1961 championship game will be played in the home city of the Western Division champions. Since the Packers are defending Western titlists, the prospects for the Bays' new and larger stadium are bright, indeed. The Packers, via GM-Coach Vince Lombardi, announced yesterday that 6,200 new seats will be added to the city-owned structure, thus boosting the seatage to 38,613. The Packer Corporation will build the seats under its agreement with the city. What does this mean? Tom Miller, the Bays' publicist, dropped a "subtle" hint today: "A season ticket also would assure the buyer of getting the first crack at his seat for the playoff." He quickly added: "If we win the Western championship." A home playoff will be the Packers' big objective along with winning the "world" title that eluded them in the 1960 title game in Philadelphia. The Eagles eked out a 17-13 victory. Incidentally, a playoff here likely would result in installation of temporary bleacher seats - probably in the area behind the north stands, raising the capacity to 45,000 or even more. About 2,000 temporary seats were put in at Franklin Field in Philly last December, boosting the gate to 67,325. The new permanent seats at City Stadium will be an extension of the east and west stands to the south, with about 3,100 seats on each side. Besides, 263 bleacher seats will be moved behind the children's section in the northeast corner. A total of 1,101 youngsters can now be accommodated. Three league parks now have smaller seating capacities than the Packers - St. Louis, Washington and Pittsburgh, all in the 35,000 bracket. The Packers also are looking forward to increased seating at Milwaukee County Stadium - from about 43,000 to 45,000, with the extra seats going into the "woods" in centerfield. Season ticket orders for the game in Green Bay are coming in at a fast pace, Ticket Director Earl Falck said. He has 2,000 new season ticket orders already on hand and "we expect most of the 31,000 season ticket holders of last year to renew the orders." The number of guests to be played in Green Bay and Milwaukee still is undecided. The Bays will play seven home league games due to the addition of Minneapolis. It's likely that four will be played here, same as the last three years, and three in Milwaukee. The Packers with more seats virtually certain to establish an attendance record at City Stadium for fourth straight year next fall. For four games, they drew 123,297 in 1958, 128,303 in 1959 and 128,744 in 1960.
PACKERDERMS POST 11-2 RECORD
MAR 14 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packer basketball team, politely called the Packerderms, will enter the benefit exhibition against the Bay Stars at the Veterans' Memorial Arena Wednesday night with a 11-2 record. Norb Hecker, defensive secondary coach with the football Packers, is coaching the cagers. He removed himself from the playing roster last week when he injured his knee. The Packerderms split a pair over the weekend, beating the strong Fond du Lac Athletic Club 70 to 68 and losing to Mexico Home at Two Rivers 85 to 72. Bob Skoronski dropped in a field goal with 11 seconds left to win the Fondy game. Dale Hackbart was the leading scorer with 28 points. "Hackbart's our big star and leading scorer. He's carrying more weight - 210 pounds. He can really go up for the ball and it will help him in football," Hecker said. "Fuzzy Thurston is our clown. He yells and races around Meadowlark Lemon. We put on some football and Fuzzy kicks the extra points with Bart Starr holding the ball. Starr also passes and Gary Knafelc catches," Norb added. Skoronski is the Packers' big man under the boards, while Ray Nitschke has been scoring a lot with a jump shot. He counted 10 points against Fond du Lac. Joining Hackbart in what Hecker called "the good player group" are Lew Carpenter and Babe Parilli. Rounding out the nine-player squad is Tom Bettis. The Packerderms have 10 more games left on their schedule, including two with a Chicago Bear team. They'll play the Bears in Chicago April 2 and then play them again in a preliminary to the Globetrotter game in Milwaukee April 3. Bill George, Bill Bishop and George Blanda will head the Bear lineup...Jerry Kramer, who underwent an operation on his eye in Madison in January, returned for a checkup over the weekend. "I'm 100 percent," Jerry reported...Coach Vince Lombardi will receive an award
honoring him as the KC of the Year in Wisconsin for 1960. He will be so honored at a Knights of Columbus banquet in Beaver Dam tonight...O.C. Krueger, retired U.S. Army colonel, who was recently named manager of the Packers' Milwaukee program, will be officially presented to the press, radio and TV at a luncheon at the Milwaukee Press Club Wednesday noon.
PACKERS' SEVENTH HOME GAME FOR '61 CARDED IN MILWAUKEE
MAR 15 (Beaver Dam-Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Wondering about the Packers of 1961? Here's the way Vince Lombardi sized up his third Packer edition at a Knights of Columbus banquet in his honor here Tuesday night: "We should have a better team in 1961. We've been together for two years and we know each other very well. We have three great running backs in Moore, Taylor and Hornung. We have an improving quarterback (referring to Bart Starr) who won it for us last year and who should have gained the confidence necessary to return us to the top. We will have a young team to play a young man's game. The team will have great desire, and, while we are extremely proud of the 1960 club (which won the Western Division title), we can't forget that the season was marred by the loss in the championship game and thus we will not rest as a Packer organization or team until we return to another championship game." The Packers' dramatically successful head coach and general manager, who was named Coach of the Year in '59 and led the Bays into the Western crown in '60, was careful in the departments of how many wins and where will the team will finish. He merely explained to the 300 KCs of the Beaver Dam Council 1837: "I could not predict the number of wins. Our job will be extremely difficult. It's a tough job to repeat as a champion because each opponent prepares just a little harder for you." Interrupted many times for applause, Vince told the downstate fans that the Packers belong to all of Wisconsin. "This is a state team and you people in Beaver Dam, in Fond du Lac, Appleton, Milwaukee, and every city in Wisconsin are all a part of it - just as the fans in Green Bay." Lombardi received the highest state award possible from the KC Council. He was given a beautifully engraved plaque for being selected Wisconsin's outstanding Catholic layman of 1960. The award was presented by Grand Knight Robert W. Goodwin, who cited Lombardi for "his great devotion in his religion and his dedication to his work." In his response, Lombardi said reliance in God rather than in one's own ego is the only sure way to win in football or in any other endeavor. "When you depend on God," he said, "you gain confidence which you need to win." State deputy Robert Bodden said, "We must recognize Coach Lombardi's demand for unity in his team because in unity there is strength." Two congratulatory wires were read - from the Rev. Timothy S. Healy, director of Fordham University student relations, and Jim Crowley, the one time Green Bayite who coached Lombardi at Fordham. Father Healy wrote in part: "We only wish he were on the Giant bench at kickoff time in New York next fall." Arrangement for the program were made by Joseph E. Helfert, publisher of the Beaver Dam Daily Citizen, and Cy Gerstner, former East High and St. Norbert College back who is now a businessman here. The film, Packer Highlights of 1960, introduced by Packer publicitor Tom Miller, closed out the program.
'CONFIDENCE IN MILWAUKEE,' VINCE
MAR 16 (Milwaukee-Green Bay Press-Gazette) - "The Packers have every confidence Milwaukee will back us." Packer Coach-GM Vince Lombardi voiced this bit of optimism during his announcement here Wednesday that three league games will be played in County Stadium next fall. The Pack's schedule is being increased from six to seven home games due to the addition of Minnesota. Green Bay will keep its four-game card and the extra game has been awarded to Milwaukee. Dates and opponents will be made known in the next few weeks - as soon as Commissioner Pete Rozelle can work out the schedule, Lombardi explained. One of the possibilities this year is opening in Milwaukee against a team other than the Bears and then following with the traditional home opener in Green Bay. Lombardi indicated he would prefer to kick off the campaign in Milwaukee Sept. 17. Lombardi does not favor playing the first three league contests in Green Bay as the Packers have done the past two years. Rather, he'd like to spread out the home games and thus avoid the long second half campaign on the road. Lombardi, speaking at the Headliner Luncheon at the Milwaukee Press Club, explained that "while the Packers belong by heritage in Green Bay, the team actually belongs to the entire state of Wisconsin. The Packers want all the support we can get and placing of the additional game in Milwaukee is one way to encourage it." Vince told the Milwaukee press, radio and TV group that "we want Milwaukee to be successful. We need Milwaukee. We cannot operate without it." He pointed out that seating will be increased in both parks - Green Bay from 32,150 to 38,350 and Milwaukee from around 43,000 to 45,000. "We want more people to see us and next year we'll have more seats for them," he added. Lombardi said he expects the Milwaukee season ticket sale to increase this year. It jumped to 12,500 from 7,500 last year. During a question and answer period, Lombardi said the new 14-game schedule will require changes in use of personnel, adding: "We can't run Paul Hornung or Jim Taylor as much as we have. They'll have to get some rest. And it's fortunate that we have such a fine replacement for them in Tom Moore. Those three backs are the best as as group in the league." The coach told about his three backs: "Moore was outstanding as a rookie last year and he can become great. Hornung is as fine a young man as I've known and he's a very talented athlete. Taylor has great determination and balance. He's not a great athlete but he's the most determined runner I've seen. His fine balance makes it difficult for anybody to knock him off his feet." Asked about Joe Francis and quarterback, Lombardi said, "I don't know at this time. We shifted Francis to halfback last year and he looked very well. He beat one of our defensive backs twice and on the third time he broke his leg. Bart Starr improved and gained confidence last season and if he can come through for us again we'll be up there battling for that title." Lombardi officially presented O.C. (Ockie) Krueger, the Packers' new Milwaukee ticket chief. Krueger is a retired Army colonel who served as athletic director at West Point when Lombardi was there as an assistant coach under Red Blaik.
PACK'S '61 PROBLEMS: WINNING, REPEATING
MAR 21 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers have two problems lined up for the 1961 season...(1) Winning and (2) repeating. The first is forever with a pro football team and, as they say, nobody's easy to beat in the NFL. The hazards of winning are there; it wouldn't be any fun without them. But that repeating? Only two teams are privileged annually to get that problem - the Division champions. They are, from West to East, the Packers and Eagles. Only one of the head coaches of those two teams is returning to fight the repeat problem - Vince Lombardi of Green Bay. Buck Shaw, coach of the Eagles, retired after the game to the battle of business. Buck passed on the "repetition" problem to Nick Skorich. What repeat difficulties? Lombardi was explaining it the other day: "Everybody wants to beat the champion. The other teams will be especially ready for us." Also, management is generally reluctant to make changes. There is a tendency to stay with the players that won the championship - even if he isn't as good as he was. And it's the very human thing to do. However, there is no room for that type of emotion. Football is a hard-headed cold business. No matter what a player did last year, he must go if he can't do it this year. Then there is a tendency to get fat headed - by the players and coaches. The ego becomes the dominant factor and you are no longer willing to pay the price. The singleness of purpose must be greater than ever when you are trying to repeat - a complete dedication to winning. Our staff and players will have a complete devotion to winning again this year." Thus, you have Lombardi's groundwork for the task of returning the Western Division championship to Green Bay. The '61 job will be longer - 14 games against the 12 of a year ago. With two less players due to the league's decision to reduce the player limit from 38, Lombardi has recognized the need to rest his players. Heavy-duty backs Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor who carried the ball more than two-thirds of the time in '60 will get a chance to sit out for spells. "We are fortunate in having such a capable replacement as Tom Moore," Lombardi said. Taylor carried 230 times last year and Hornung 160 - a total of 390 of the Packers' 463 trips on the ground. Moore lugged 45 times. Two extra games will required an additional 75 or 80 carries. And what about old Em Tunnell? Can a man close to 40 (?) play 14 games? "We can't expect Em to play 14 games or even 12. He'll have to have frequent periods of rest." And what about you, Joe Phan? Are you ready to go 14 games? Play starts Sept. 17, which is a week earlier than usual. On your mark!
HANNER HAPPY OVER LONGER NFL CARD
MAR 23 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Question: What does a 14-game schedule mean to you playingwise? Dave Hanner thought that one over for a second and laughed over the phone from his home in West Memphis, Ark.: "I'd rather play any time than practice. You know that. If it means more playing than practicing, I'm for it. Playing games kills the monotony (of practice) a little bit. For me, that longer schedule doesn't make any difference. I'll be in better condition at the end of the season with those extra games." Hanner, the Packers' fixture at defense tackle and many times an all-pro, is getting ready for his 10th season and another title. He's planning on a championship game, putting it this way: "We'll only have one more game than last year. We played six, 12 and one (6 exhibitions, 12 league and the playoff) last year. We'll have 20 this year with the championship game. I understand we'll play five exhibitions." Hanner considered the rest of the league. "Fourteen games should make more competition throughout the league. Detroit might have won last year if they had 14 games. No telling how far Detroit might have gone." Hanner had some definite ideas on repeating as Western Division champions: "We're off the floor now and we have a whole new mental attitude. We started to get off the floor back in 1959 and before we realized what we had at stake in 1960 we lost it. We got a second shot at it last year and won it. Winning those last three games (Chicago, 'Frisco and LA) was the hardest thing we had to do last year. I don't see any reason why we shouldn't win again this year. We'll be a better ball club. We know the system better and don't forget we're champions. We'll have to play that way." Hanner said he isn't "fixin' to wind up in the hospital again at the start of the practice. I'll probably play some softball before I get up. Right now, the weather's been bad and today we had to stop work surveyin' for the soil conservation department. When the weather gets right, I hope to start fishin'. There's a lot of bass around here."...MISERABLE FOR HAWG: Hanner is the first to subscribe to Coach Vince Lombardi's rigid training program - "since we really get in good shape for the whole season," but he's been floored for a short spell at the start of the last two seasons. The tough drills plus the usual July humidity and extreme heat make the first two weeks miserable for Hawg. Dave passed along a "hello" to all his friends in Green Bay and added: "You'd better start my subscription to the Press-Gazette. I'm getting a little itchy." PS - Hanner is the daddy of all homegrown Packers. The onetime Arkansas University star was the Bays' fifth draft choice in 1952. He'll turn 31 next May 20.
VINCE, AS COACH, LIKES PLAYING ALL GAMES HERE
MAR 25 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Packer Coach Vince Lombardi would like to play all seven league games in Green Bay. Packer General Manager Vince Lombardi would like to play four here and three in Milwaukee. Coach Lombardi quickly recognized the handicaps in mentoring the team with four games and eight on the road in his first season here. After losing that 28-24 toughie to the Colts in Milwaukee, Lombardi said "we might have won that one in Green Bay." He was speaking strictly as a coach. With a 14-game league schedule coming up, Coach Lombardi faces 10 road game. That's a definite handicap, even though three of those games will be in front of warm-hearted "home" Packer fans. The handicap is in moving, breaking the relaxed and homey routine of a home game, and, if you please, un-home cooking. If you know Vince you'll know that he's mostly coach. And for that reason, it's not easy for him to trade a better chance at winning for more dollar in the various banks of our town. If anything, he leads toward the heavier Green Bay schedule. GM Lombardi and the Bay executive committee considered
placement of the "extra" game in Milwaukee with great car. It had to be carefully weighed because the Packers have two sets of fans to satisfy - the life-blood core in Greater Green Bay and Wisconsin's population giant known as the Milwaukee area. Playing five league games here would convey the impression to Milwaukee that the Packers eventually intended to vacate that city. Playing the extra game there shows that Green Bay wants Milwaukee as a partner - or valuable assistant, if you will. History shows that the Packers need Milwaukee and the rest of the state. Lombardi wasn't stating anything new last week when he said (1) the Packers are a state team and (2) Green Bay needs Milwaukee. The accompanying insignia showing the entire state was adopted back in the early 1950s. The Packers have been playing league games in Milwaukee for nearly 30 years - 28 to be exact. Thus, it has been an accepted fact that Green Bay must play some of its schedule in Milwaukee, although the attendance in various years certainly didn't reflect Milwaukee's potential. The Packers faced a definite risk in playing five games here because of the addition of 6,200 new seats to City Stadium. The risk was the season ticket sale since the price of the five-game ducat would be higher and more seats would be available. Time must prove this to be a false risk. A sellout of the stadium with 38,000 seats in season tickets would prove it false, of course, and thus serve as a challenge to Milwaukee. Also, it must be remembered that it would be easier to move that extra game from Milwaukee back to Green Bay than it would be to move it from Green Bay to Milwaukee. Actually, Milwaukee, by averaging 37,000 last year, deserves a crack at a third game. In all this discussion, it must be remembered that the Packers could play a six-game card here this year. They'll open against the New York Giants in the Bishop's Charities Game Labor Day, follow with four league games and then maybe the championship game. "Yes, that championship game definitely will be played in Green Bay if we win the Western Division," Lombardi said...The football folks were discussing Paul Hornung's debut in the TV play this week. The local experts seem to think it wasn't bad for a starter. Lombardi, who knows a football player when he sees one, roared: "He's a better halfback than he is an actor."
DEATH TAKES FORMER PACKER WALTER LEJEAN
MAR 28 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Walter LeJean, a guard with the Green Bay Packers in 1925 and 1926, was found dead in his summer home at Jacksonport Monday evening. He was 65. A heart attack apparently caused his death, according to Calmer Nelson, Door County coroner. LeJean had arrived at Jacksonport Sunday evening from his winter home in Florida. Clarence Brungraber, caretaker at the home, said he met LeJean when he appeared at 2:30 a.m. Monday. When he returned to the house at 8 o'clock Monday evening, he found the lights burning and the car still unpacked. LeJean, who was known as Walter Jean when he played with the Packers, began his professional football career with the former Akron Steels in 1922-23 after playing with the University of Missouri. He was with the Milwaukee Badgers in 1924, and spent a year with the Pottsville Maroons after leaving the Packers. For many years LeJean was associated with Flannigan and LeJean, a distributing firm, in Dayton, Ohio. He retired several years ago, but still owned several orange groves at Claremont, Fla. His wife, the former Florence Henderson, died at the Jacksonport residence last fall. The only survivors are a sister in Dayton and one in Florida. The body was taken to the Stoneman Funeral Home in Sturgeon Bay. Burial arrangements had not been completed.
STARR NOW PACKERS' NO. 1 QB: MCHAN DEALT TO COLTS
MAR 28 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Bart Starr became the Packers' No. 1 quarterback today. He came up the Green Bay ladder the hard way but the transition to the top role was quick and painless. Coach Vince Lombardi made it official Monday night by trading Lamar McHan to the Baltimore Colts for an undisclosed draft choice - most likely a high one. McHan, obtained from the Cardinals for a third choice in 1959, now must play second fiddle to John Unitas, generally acclaimed the king of pro football quarterbacks. Lombardi had several reasons for trading McHan: He noted today that "the most successful teams are those with only No. 1 quarterback." In addition, he is confident Bart can handle the top QB job, pointing out: "Starr showed us a lot of stature and confidence last season and we feel he can do the job for us." Also, Lombardi said the time has come to develop a young quarterback for the future. With two players of the caliber of Starr and McHan, "it is difficult to develop a younger quarterback," Vince said. With McHan gone, the Packer staff can concentrate on developing several promising younger players, including Joe Francis, who sat out the 1960 campaign with a broken leg. Starr turned 27 just last Jan. 9. McHan was 28 last Dec. 16. McHan, the onetime Arkansas All-Americans and Heisman Trophy winner, grew unhappy in his role as a second stringer midway during the 1960 season and made no secret about his desire to be traded. It was most difficult for Lamar to accept a role on the bench, after five seasons at the Cardinals' helm and an All-American's ranking - plus the Heisman Trophy - at Arkansas University. Lombardi maybe have done McHan a favor by switching him to the Colts since he will have to accept the fact, right from the start, that he'll have to play the No. 2 spot behind Unitas. McHan had two big chances to take over the Packers' top quarterback job and both times succumbed to Starr. In competition between the two, Starr scored nine of the Packers' 15 league victories in the last two seasons and McHan won six - in key bunches of three...WON LAST FOUR: McHan presided at the first three wins in Lombardi's first year, including that historic 9-6 triumph over the Bears to start the 1959 campaign. He ran into injuries and the Packers lost the next five, with Starr taking over midway in the fourth loss. Starr won the last four games in a blazing finish to give the Pack 7-5. Starr opened the 1960 season against the Bears and the Bays lost in the last seconds. McHan started the next three, including the fire-eating victory over the Colts here, and the Bays won all of them. McHan also started Game 5 - at Pittsburgh, and Starr came on in the last two minutes to pull out a victory. Lamar seemed unhappy after that Pittsburgh battle and Starr opened in the last seven games, although McHan played part of the Ram and Lion games. The Bays won four of those seven, including the final three that produced the Western championship. Starr, the Packers' 17th draft choice in 1956 after service at Alabama, came into his own last year by completing 98 of 172 passes for 1,358 yards and an all-time Packer record of 57 percent on completions. Starr played under Tobin Rote in 1956 and then shared the quarterbacking with Babe Parilli in 1957-58. Francis now goes back to quarterback from halfback. Joe, former Oregon State tailback, who worked chiefly at QB in 1958-59, was switched to HB last year and broke his leg in a collision with John Symank while running a pass pattern. At least three rookies will throw their hat in the QB ring, including Bill Nugent of Tulane, the signalist who was drafted No. 3 to play defensive halfback; Val Keckin, a long-ball artist from Mississippi Southern; and Roger Johnson of Wisconsin State at Whitewater.
COCHRAN TELLS 'RUSH' SECRET
MAR 29 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Getting off the ball is the secret of the Packers' successful running game. That's what Packer Backfield Coach Red Cochran told a meeting of coaches attending a meeting of the American Assn. for Health, Physical Education and Recreation in Milwaukee Tuesday. "We drill on getting off the ball before and after practice and even our condition sprints start with the snap of the ball," Cochran said, adding: "Of course, it helps to have boys like Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung. With runners like them, we can take advantage of the ball carrier rather than set up a play for him."
PACK CHARITY TILT AT NIGHT
MAR 30 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The first annual Bishop's Charities football game between the Packers and Giants will be played at City Stadium at night, it was announced today by Ed Gagnon, general chairman for the Green Bay Catholic Diocese-sponsored game. The Labor Day night (Sept. 4) contest will be the first professional game under the new lights at the stadium. And it will be the Packers' first night game in Green Bay since 1956 when the Bays battled the Giants under the "dimmers" at old City Stadium. The Packers won that game, 17-13. Gagnon announced that the general ticket sale will be opened July 1 with Holy Name Societies throughout the Green Bay Diocese handling local sales along with the usual Packer ticket outlets. Packer season ticket holders will be contacted prior to the general sale in order to give them first opportunity to get their own seats. Three committee appointments were made: Tickets, Gene Sladky; publicity, Len Wagner; promotions, Larry Fitchett, and program, Jim Ford.
PACK HAS AVERAGED BETTER THAN A QB A YEAR FOR LAST 14
MAR 30 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers have averaged more than a quarterback a year for the last 14 campaigns. Since Curly Lambeau discarded the single wing and brought forth Jack Jacobs to run his winged-T in 1947, a total of 17 different under-the-center quarterbacks have paraded in an out of Green Bay with various degrees of success and failure in actual league competition. Another 20 were tested but didn't make the grade. The 17 threw a total of 4,723 passes for approximately 33,000 yards - topped by Tobin Rote's 382 throws in 1954 and bottomed by Charlie Brackins' 2 in 1955. Only three of the signalists could be rightfully referred to as "No. 1 quarterbacks" - Jacobs, Rote and the current Bart Starr. Jacobs was obtained via trade from Washington and he ran the whole show in '47, throwing all the passes - plus a tantrum or two. The Bays wound up with a 6-5-1 record and four of the losses were by nine points. That was the end of Jack as the No. 1 QB. Irv Comp, Perry Moss and Jug Girard got into the act in 1948 and Girard did most of the throwing in 1949, with help from Stan Heath. Rote came on in 1950 but he never actually gained that magic "No. 1" rating until 1954 when Liz Blackbourn matched nobody with Tobe except Bobby Garrett, then a rookie. Rote shared QB as a
rookie with Paul Christman, the former Cardinal star, in 1950; Bobby Thomason, who was on loan from the Rams, in 1951; and Babe Parilli in 1952 and 1953. Rote continued as "No. 1" in 1955, with Paul Held and Brackins on the bench, and in 1956, with Starr as a rookie. Rote was traded to Detroit in the spring of 1957 and Parilli (traded to Cleveland after 1953) was brought back from Cleveland via trade. Starr and Parilli shared the QB and traded ninth-place finishes in passing in 1957-58. Paul Hornung, then a quarterback, backed them up in '57 and Joe Francis was the No. 3 signalman in 1958. When Vince Lombardi took over the Packers in 1959, he obtained Lamar McHan from the Cardinals and created an interesting three-way fight with Starr and Francis. Starr and McHan continued their fight for the No. 1 job in 1960 and Bart was the winner. He brought the Packers home at the top of the Western Division and just this week McHan was traded off to the Colts. Now it's up to Starr - only the Packers' third No. 1 quarterback in the last 14 campaign...QB SIDESHOW: The press bothered Vince Lombardi no end the last two years, asking him, "Who's going to start at quarterback Sunday?" When he traded McHan to the Colts earlier this week, he reminded: "Now you won't have to ask who's going to start at quarterback." The aforementioned Brackins was the first Negro T-quarterback in NFL history. He hurled those two passes in Cleveland while the Browns were burying our boys 41-10. Charlie displayed good promise as a quarterback and end but succumbed to the bright lights and never finished the season. Bob O'Malley threw only q15 passes but wound up having six of them intercepted for a record. That happened in Tobin Rote's first game as a pro in 1950. Rote was hurt after 10 throws and O'Malley was the only QB sub in the 45-7 loss to Detroit. O'Malley was off to Canada on Tuesday, Paul Christman was here on Wednesday and Rote, ironically, never missed another game as a Packer due to injury.
REACTION MIXED
APR 4 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Lamar McHan, veteran pro quarterback who came to the Colts in trade from the Packers for an undisclosed draft choice, has mixed emotions about the transfer. He likes it and he doesn't. He told Baltimore scribe N.P. Clark: "I'm not unhappy about being traded to Baltimore and I'll do the very best I can - if I get a chance to play. But the prospect of sitting on the bench doesn't thrill me. And that's what it looks like I might have to do with Johnny (Unitas) around there. I feel like I should have a better chance to play more if I stayed with the Packers and so I'll leave with regrets. But just the same, coach Ewbank won't have to worry about getting the best I have to give. Outside of being afraid I'll have to sit on the bench too much, I'm not unhappy about the trade at all."
PACK ALREADY HAS 1,500 NEW SEASON TICKET REQUESTS: VINCE
APR 4 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers already have 1,500 new requests for season tickets. "And," Coach-GM Vince Lombardi continued, "we're getting inquiries already from our regular season ticket holders." The Packers sold approximately 31,000 season tickets for the four league games at City Stadium. "I think we might go to 33,000 but there are some people who feel we might go as high as 35,000. I'd be happy with 33,000," Lombardi told the weekly luncheon meeting of the Mike and Pen Sports Club at the Elks Club Monday noon. "Those new requests are coming in even though people don't know who's on our home schedule yet. As soon as we know the schedule, we'll contact all former season ticket holders. We hope to get our schedule soon but it's been a big problem. We open on Sept. 17, and that's the only date that's available in Milwaukee early. If we don't play there or on the road date, we'll have to play four in a row here. I don't like that. I want to come back here in the middle of the schedule or late. I think our mid-season slump, we had one the last two years, is partly the result of playing everything at home and then becoming a road team," Vince said. He said the response for season tickets has been good in Milwaukee. "We sold 12,500 down there last year and we're shooting for at least 17,000 this year. We have a new man there (Col. O.C. Krueger) and he's doing a great job," he pointed out. With more seats going up in Green Bay, larger ticket sales and greater interest, "the Packers are really a fast growing organization. To go with that, we'll have a good football team in 1961. Our chances of repeating, however, will depend on injuries and how far Bart Starr can carry us. We're playing two extra games and the team that can stay away from injuries will have the best chance. We may have four running backs - if we can find a good second fullback behind Jim Taylor. Tom Moore figures real big in our plans. He can spell Taylor and Paul Hornung or he will share Hornung's job." That brought up halfback Herb Adderley, the Packers' first draft choice. Vince explained: "Adderley is a possibility for three positions - defensive halfback, a flanking back the type of Lenny Moore, or a running back. He shows the best possibility as the flanking back." Lombardi also was asked about Starr, who remained as the Pack's No. 1 QB with the trade of Lamar McHan. He said: "We were pretty well fixed with two quarterbacks like McHan and Starr but the longer I stayed in this business the more I realized you can't have two quarterbacks. It's a gamble having one top-flight quarterback, what with the chance of injury, but you don't have a leader with two quarterbacks. You've got to have a leader and he's got to be at quarterback." In answer to other questions, Lombardi said: "Ron Kramer's future will be decided in the exhibition season. He has good hands and he's the best blocker but he has played little." "Size up the Western Division? I'll start with Detroit." "Will Bill Wade help the Bears? That's hard to say. He's got the ability to help the Bears plenty. Look at McHan with us. He won those first three games (in 1959) and they were important." "All our exhibitions this year in Dallas, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Green Bay and Columbus, Ga., will be at night," "The turf at the practice field and on the stadium will be torn up and replaced. Work is scheduled to start soon. We may start practice a few days earlier because of the earlier season opening." "We'll have a Quarterback School in June again this year." "Our No. 1 need is for a defensive halfback. Willie Wood and Dale Hackbart should do a good job for us. Next, we need some bench strength for the defensive line. Ron Kostelnik could help us there. He's really big (6-4 and 255) and so young. His parents had to sign his contract. He's only 20." "Our punting has been atrocious. We'll have to see what happens. In the drat, we always seem to get a choice between a good football player and a punter and we always take the good football player." We led the league moneywise on our road games last year and we just missed drawing the most people on the road. The Bears beat us out by only 50 people." "Tom Bettis and Ray Nitschke will start out even in training camp (Nitschke played the last four games in 1960)."
BABE PARILLI TO PATRIOTS
APR 5 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Vito (Babe) Parilli, a resident of Green Bay and former Packer quarterback, hasn't heard yet that he's been traded from one end of the United States to the other. His wife, the former Priscilla Perkins, said here today, "Babe was driving to Virginia when the news came. He left Monday to start coaching at VPI. He expected to be traded because he wanted more money." Babe was due to arrive in Blacksburg, Va., today. Parilli, who has been assisting with spring football practice at VPI for the last few years, was traded by the Oakland Raiders with fullback Billy Lott to the Boston Patriots of the AFL for halfback Dick Christy, fullback Alan Miller and defensive tackle Hal Smith. Christy is also a former Packers. Lott, former Giants, was the Raiders' second leading rusher with 520 yards and the leading pass receiver with 49 catches. Christy was the Patriots' leading ball carrier. Parilli shared the quarterbacking with Tom Flores. Babe threw five touchdown passes and accounted for 1,003 yards in the air. Parilli will work with Butch Songin at Boston.
PACK'S NEW STADIUM SEATS ON WAY; DUE HERE APRIL 12
APR 7 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers' new seats are on their way. The forms, that is. Contractor George Hougard, whose engineers will start staking out the south area around the stadium Monday, said the seat forms were sent out of California Monday and should arrive here April 12 when the work will start. The Varsity Pre-Cast Seat Co. is presently building the Dodgers' new stadium in Chavez Ravine in Los Angeles and the National Stadium in Washington. Varsity forms were used in construction of City Stadium in 1957, with Hougard as contractor. "We took out the building permit Thursday," George said, "and now we'll have to check out the lighting system with the Public Service. We may have to move the poles at the south end or extend the cables." A total of 6,200 new seats will be built as extensions to the east and west stands at the south end. Work will be finished in time for the Labor Day game...Clemson halfback Joel Wells, the Packers' third choice (behind Bonus Pick Paul Hornung and No. 1 draw Ron Kramer in 1957), may still be of some value to the Packers. Rights to Wells have been traded to the Giants - probably for a draft choice. Wells never played here, signing with Montreal instead. He was quite a star as a Canadian but dropped out last fall and the Alouettes placed him on the suspended list. The Giants signed him the other day...A couple of Chicago Bears spoke of the Pack before the Packer-Bear basketball game in Milwaukee Monday. Said Erich Barnes, who has been traded to the Giants in the Bill Wade-Linden Crow deal: "Consistency paid off. Their attack was not flash, but they really moved the ball." Said Bill Bishop, who has been selected by Minnesota: "They don't have any super stars outside of Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung but as a team they are probably the best in the league. We could see this club coming fast when Lombardi took over. They'll be hard to contend with for some time."...Coach-GM Vince Lombardi and his wife presently are enjoying a vacation in Bermuda. Vince has been trying to get a good, work-
free vacation since he came here early in '59 and finally made it this year.
PATRIOTS SIGN DICK POSEWITZ
APR 19 (Boston) - The Boston Patriots of the AFL announced over the weekend they outbid six other AFL clubs to sign halfback Dick Posewitz of Sheboygan, Wis. Posewitz, 22, was twice named the outstanding player of the Tri-State League. After graduating from Sheboygan Central High School, he attended Montana State College for two years before transferring to Oshkosh State Teachers College. He tried out with the Green Bay Packers in 1960.
PACK OPEN LEAGUE SEASON AGAINST LIONS
APR 12 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers open league play against the Lions, meet the Bears in the third game and play back to back contests with the new Minnesota Vikings. These are among the "highlights" of the Packers' new 14-game league schedule. The complete league card was announced today by Commissioner Pete Rozelle in New York. With Minnesota going into the Western Division and Dallas into the Eastern sector, the Packers will play home and home games with each club in their own division, accounting for 12 games, and two games with Eastern Division opponents. The Eastern foes are Cleveland (there Oct. 15) and New York. Division of the seven Packer games between Green Bay and Milwaukee will be announced shortly. Four games will be played in Green Bay's City Stadium and three will be played in Milwaukee County Stadium. The Packers will play their first four games at home - Detroit Sept. 17, San Francisco Sept. 24, Chicago Oct. 1 and Baltimore Oct. 8. The other three games will be Minnesota Oct. 29, Los Angeles Nov. 19 and New York Dec. 5. One of the first four undoubtedly will be played in Milwaukee, Coach-GM Vince Lombardi
indicated recently. This is the first time in history the Packers played the Bears as late as the third game. The traditional rivals often met in the second game. The Packers' first five tests couldn't be any tougher. The Lions are rated a title possibility, the 49ers are due to start beating the Pack, the Bears are always murder, the Colts have Unitas, and the Browns figure to win the East. After those five toughies, the Packers would well welcome (it is hoped) the new Minneapolis-St. Paul Vikings in an unusual two-game program. The opener will be in Minneapolis Oct. 22 and the rematch will be in Milwaukee or Green Bay Oct. 29. The Packers get a good home and road (not counting Milwaukee) break. After the four at home, it's off to Cleveland and then home and home with Minneapolis. Then, it's at Baltimore Nov. 5 and Chicago Nov. 12 and back home for Los Angeles. The contest in Detroit Thanksgiving Day follows and then it's home again for New York Dec. 5. After the Giants, the Bays visit the west coast, playing at San Francisco Dec. 10 and at Los Angeles Dec. 17. The two coast games could be shifted to Saturdays (Dec. 9 and 16) for national television. The Packers hope to play one more home game (this will be in Green Bay) after they leave California. That would the championship playoff, which is scheduled in the home city of the Western Division champion this year.
NFL PUTS VIKINGS IN WEST DIVISION
APR 12 (New York) - The new Minnesota Vikings will start play in the NFL as a member of the Western Conference, and the Dallas Cowboys will shift to the Eastern Division, Commissioner Pete Rozelle announced today. In releasing the expanded 1961 schedule, Rozelle announced that each club in the league will play home-and-home series with each of the six other teams in its division, plus two games against teams from the opposite division. Each team will play a 14-game schedule starting Sept. 17, making a total of 98 games. This will mean one additional home game and another on the road for each club. With the addition of the Vikings as the 14th club in the NFL, it was feared at last December's league meeting that both Minnesota and Dallas would have to compete as "swing" teams in 1961, that is, they would have to play every other club in the league once. Both the Vikings and Cowboys preferred to be assigned to a conference and play home-and-home series, just as the other clubs do. The more desirable home-and-home arrangement was made possible because of the increased availability of ballparks early in the season, particularly in New York, Washington and Dallas. The baseball New York Yankees, for the first time, permitted the New York football Giants to schedule a game in Yankee Stadium prior to World Series time. It also was learned that the stadium under construction in Washington will be completed by Oct. 1, a few weeks earlier than had been expected. As a result, the Giants will open their home schedule at the earliest date in their history, meeting the St. Louis Cardinals Sept. 17. That same Sunday, the champion Philadelphia Eagles will be at home against the Cleveland Browns; the Cowboys will be host to the Pittsburgh Steelers; the Western Division champion Green Bay Packers will entertain the Detroit Lions; the San Francisco Forty-Niners will be at home against the Washington Redskins; the Vikings will begin their schedule at home against the Chicago Bears, and the Baltimore Colts will be host to the Los Angeles Rams. Eastern Division clubs, which by previous agreement, had their choice as to which of the two newer teams they wanted added to their conference, chose Dallas, as had been expected. Last season, the Cowboys played a "swing" schedule but were listed in the West for the purpose of standings. Dallas and Minnesota were scheduled to play the only inter-conference home-and-home series as a start to what league officials hoped would become a strong rivalry. All other clubs will play their two inter-conference games against different clubs. The Eagles, for example, play the Bears at home and the Lions in Detroit; the Packers play the Giants at home and the Browns at Cleveland, etc.
PITY BEARS? PLAY FIRST FOUR AWAY; PACK ROAD CARD NEAR
APR 13 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers and Bears, by tradition, keep a special eye on each other. So what kind of scheduled do pro football's oldest and bitterest rivals have? The Packers' card was shown in all its splendor Wednesday and there's nothing left to herald but the division of the games between Milwaukee and Green Bay. That's another story and it'll be unfolded shortly. The Bears, mind you, play their first four games on the road and their last four in friendly Wrigley Field. They open and close against the same team - the Vikings of Minnesota. After belting the Vikings, dear old Halas U moves all the way out to Los Angeles to help the Rams open their home campaign. Then, the Bears invade Green Bay. After the Packers, Chicago visits Detroit and then returns home to Baltimore and San Francisco. The next two are on the road - Baltimore and Philadelphia, and that brings us up to Nov. 12 - the day Green Bay visits Chicago. The Packers will have played at Baltimore the previous Sunday and the Bears will be fresh from the Van Brocklin-less Eagles. After Green Bay, the Bears move out to San Francisco and then return home for the last four - Los Angeles, Detroit, Cleveland and Minnesota. Considering Milwaukee as a "non-road" spot, the Packers have a good travel card. The first four will be at home - Lions, 49ers, Bears and Colts in that order. Then it's at Cleveland and Minneapolis, home against Minnesota, at Baltimore and Chicago, home against the Rams, at Chicago, home against the Giants and at San Francisco and Los Angeles...ONE LONG TRIP: Actually, the Packers have only one long trip not counting the usual west coast jaunt. That would be to Baltimore. The others are to nearby (by airline travel) Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Minneapolis. The Packers likely will play their opener in Milwaukee Sept. 17 to get away from playing four straight in Green Bay. There will be no conflict with the Braves that day but the Braves will be in County Stadium the next Sunday. The Bear game is a Green Bay fixture and the Baltimore game could conflict with the Braves if they get into a World Series. Oddly enough, the Packers don't play the defending world champion Eagles - sort of a replay of the championship game last December. However, the Browns are "behind" in their schedule to play Green Bay and the Clevelands were selected instead of Philly. The Pack hasn't played the Browns since '55. They played the Eagles here in '58. Cleveland, incidentally, is an early favorite to win the East. If the Browns live up to that reputation and the Packers progress as Western Division champions, that game in Cleveland Oct. 15 could be one of the scorchers of the year.
'WE'LL BE IN THAT TITLE GAME AGAIN,' HORNUNG
APR 13 (Milwaukee-Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Green Bay's Paul Hornung, the NFL scoring king the past two years, picks three linebackers as the toughest opposing tacklers he has encountered as a pro. "The three most aggressive players I've faced happen to be linebackers - Joe Schmidt of the Detroit Lions, Bill George of the Chicago Bears, and Sam Huff of the New York Giants," Hornung said Wednesday night in receiving Wisconsin's Athlete of the Year Award for 1960. Hornung said that he had to pick the three over such big outstanding linemen as Big Daddy Lipscomb, Gino Marchetti, Art Donovan and others because "they are so agile, so quick and move laterally so well." Playing against giant linemen weighing 270 pounds and up, the 216-pound Hornung said, is "a survival of the fittest - and that's getting the hell out of their way." Hornung, noting the Packers' 17-13 defeat in the NFL championship game last Dec. 26, said "we flunked our final exam against the Eagles." He said the Packers played "one of our poorest games" and he thought the club may have had "a little letdown after winning the Western Division title." "I don't think we were ready for the Eagles," the four-year NFL veteran from Notre Dame declared. "But next season we'll be ready because we'll be in that championship game again." Hornung, the Heisman Trophy winner as the nation's outstanding college player in 1957, scored a record 176 points for the Packers last fall. He received the 5th annual Red Dunn Memorial Award and an Associated Press certificate as Wisconsin Athlete of the Years, selected in an AP poll of state sportswriters and sportscasters. He said the state award was "in culmination of four years of hard work." Then he accepted it on behalf of "my running mate, Jim Taylor, a little bull," the rest of the squad "which works so hard," and Coach Vince Lombardi "the type of man everyone respects and wants to play for." "If it wasn't for Taylor carrying the ball down to the three yard line, I wouldn't be here tonight," Hornung said in jest. "For his size (215), he's probably the strongest man I've seen. He's hard as rock and loves the game. Someone asked me earlier if I thought I could break the scoring record with two additional games this year. I replied I had a good chance as long as they kept getting the ball down to the 3. After all, (quarterback) Bart Starr gets a new sport coast from me for letting me carry it over from there," he joked. Hornung said that although he is spending plenty of time traveling and attending dinners as a public relations man, he is managing to "work out regularly." He said he has been playing basketball and working with weights and has had no trouble from a pinched nerve high in the right shoulder which knocked him out of the championship game against the Eagles. "I've even done some throwing and haven't any trouble," he added. "It's fine." Hornung called the AP Wisconsin Athlete of the Year Award "a truly great honor." He noted that past winners have been members of the Milwaukee Braves - Warren Spahn (twice), Lew Burdette and Eddie Mathews - and said: "I'm a Braves fan and work for their Louisville farm club, but I hope that in the coming years the sport of football will have more representatives here." Hornung was presented the Dunn award by Dr. Cornelius Dunn, brother of the late Marquette and Packers' star. The plaque is given annually by St. Therese Parish. Lloyd Larson, sports editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel, was master of ceremonies. Speakers included Marquette basketball star Don Kojis and Bob Shanahan, chairman of the Eastern Wisconsin Officials Assn.
PACK PLAYS 49ERS, BEARS, COLTS, RAMS AT STADIUM
APR 15 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers will play the 49ers, Bears, Colts and Rams in City Stadium. And their opponents in Milwaukee will be the Lions, Vikings and Giants. This was the division of the Packers' seven home league games as announced by Coach-GM Vince Lombardi today. The Packers will open defense of their 1960 Western Division championship against the Lions in Milwaukee Sept. 17. Then, they return to Green Bay for three straight games - 49ers Sept. 24, Bears Oct. 1 and Colts Oct. 8. The fifth, a home game, will be the Vikings in Milwaukee Oct. 29 and No. 6 will be the Rams in Green Bay Nov. 19. The final home contest will be the Giants in County Stadium Dec. 3. Thus, the Packers will play four tough Western Division opponents in City Stadium and the up-and-coming Lions, the new Vikings and the Eastern Division Giants in Milwaukee. This will be the third time in Packer history that they've opened league action in Milwaukee. The 1953 starter was played there as a sort of pro football dedication of County Stadium. It was an unhappy event; Cleveland's powerful Browns won 27-0. The Packers opened in old State Fair Park against Brooklyn in 1944 and won 14-7. The 1961 opener was shifted to Milwaukee to avoid starting and ending the Green Bay phase of the schedule in four
straight Sundays. Under the present card, the Packers won't close here until Nov. 19. Lombardi also likes the idea of playing a travel-less game before the annual Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 23) battle at Detroit. Last year, the Bays played the Rams in Milwaukee the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day and lost both games. The Packers now have completed a busy nine-game "state" schedule, including two non-league charity battles - the Bears in the Shrine Classic in Milwaukee Saturday night Aug. 26 and the Giants in the first Bishop's Charities game in Green Bay Labor Day Night, Sept. 4. Three other non-leaguers are on tap - in Dallas Friday night, Aug. 11, at St. Louis Friday night, Aug. 18, and at Columbus, Ga., Saturday night Sept. 9 to meet Washington. That makes for 19 games, starting Aug. 11 and ending Dec. 17. The Packers and all "us fans" would like to make it 20, which would be the championship playoff in Green Bay...In 21 openers starting from 1940, the Packers led off with the Bears 12 times and the Lions four times. They opened once each against the Eagles, Browns, Brooklyn Dodgers, Boston Yanks and Steelers. Besides the two openers in Milwaukee, the Packers started only one other time outside of Green Bay. That was in 1948 when the Bays opened play at Boston Sept. 17 and then followed with the Bears here the next Sunday. This is the third time since 1940 that the Bears and Packers meet as late as the third game. They played Game 3 in 1941 after the Packers played Detroit in Green Bay and the old Rams in Milwaukee. In 1950, the Packers played Detroit here, Washington in Milwaukee and then the Bears in Green Bay. The Packers and Bears played their second game in Green Bay for a stretch of four years, starting in 1953. The late commissioner Bert Bell, noting Green Bay's struggling, kidded at the time, "Maybe the Packers can get warmed up for the Bears by playing them the second game." The Packers are fresh from a string of four straight openers against the Bears starting in 1957. The Bays split the foursome, winning the Dedication game 24-17 in '57 and the historic Lombardi debut 9-6. The Bears won 34-20 in 1958 and 17-14 in 1960.
MAY 1 PACK TICKET RENEWAL DEADLINE; COUNTY OUT FRONT
APR 20 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - "Dear Season Ticket Holder: Enclosed you will find your 1961 season ticket renewal card." And so the letter read - the letter from the Green Bay Packers and signed by "Vince Lombardi, head coach and general manager." These letters arrived in the hands of season ticket holders this week and purchasers are asked to return the enclosed renewal cards by May 1. The near first-class message contains the letter, renewal card and a seating manifest for City Stadium here and County Stadium in Milwaukee. If fans enclose their remittance, the tickets will be mailed to them. Buyers also can have the Packers bill them. In addition, a time-payment plan can be worked out with either the Green Bay or Milwaukee ticket office, Lombardi wrote. The letter advertises a big package, as it were - seven home league games, including four in Green Bay, and a non-league game in each city, the Shrine Classic in Milwaukee vs. the Bears Aug. 26 and the first annual Bishop's Charities Game vs. the Giants here Labor Day night. Lombardi also points out the additional seats available at each park and added: "We have already received more than 2,000 new orders for the 1961 season in Green Bay." Vince noted the big job ahead: "NFL history proves that to repeat a division championship is a most difficult assignment. However, the Packers have only one primary objective - VICTORY. Victory cannot be achieved by anything less than complete dedication. I can promise you that dedication." As a closer, Lombardi expressed appreciation: "Thank you for helping us set the all-time home attendance record of over 200,000 in 1960." Slightly over 31,000 season tickets were sold for four league games in Green Bay's 32,250-seat stadium last year and it's expected that this figure will be passed in 1961, what with the addition of 6,200 new seats. The Packers made a survey recently to determine where season tickets for the games in Green Bay are sold. The survey was based on the all-time record sale of 31,000 seasons. Brown County, which houses Green Bay, accounted for an astonishing 18,890 season tickets, well over half. These purchases, of course, include "group" purchases by business and industry. Only three other counties purchased over 1,000 - Milwaukee County with 1,010; Outagamie with 3,183; and Winnebago 1,900. Approximately 27,000 season tickets were sold within a radius of 50 air miles of the stadium. Wherever they're sold, season ticket renewals are returning at a rapid clip at the Packer ticket office. And Ticket Director Earl Falck is smiling.
CITY STADIUM'S GREEN CARPET RIPPED UP
APR 21 (Milwaukee-Green Bay Press-Gazette) - They're ripping up the green wall to wall carpeting at City Stadium. City workmen started the job this week and expect to have it finished next week, with good weather. What job? City Engineer Francis Euclide explained: "We expect to improve the surface and sub-drainage and provide a new sod. There was no sod left out there after last season; it was all shot - frozen out, we could say." The Packers played four seasons on the turf (the stadium was built in '57) and the footing developed into a major problem for the Packers as well as the visiting teams - especially after rain. "The soil," Euclide said, "was too heavy; it wouldn't let the moisture through. We hope to encourage the roots to go deeper and thus loosen up the soil; it will then drain better." The gridiron area (nope, it's not quite a wall to wall job) will be seeded - "if we can get at it early enough. Otherwise, we'll have to put
WILL PACKERS TRADE BEFORE '61 SEASON?
APR 26 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Will the Packers make a trade before the 1961 season? It's possible, for two reasons: (1) Coach-GM Vince Lombardi is a good listener and (2) the Packers, since they won the Western Division championship, have some pretty fair country material. "We're always trying to better ourselves," Vince said recently, "and I'll listen to any trade." Lombardi is a careful trader and his trades since coming here reveal plenty of success - Billy Howton for Bill Quinlan and Lew Carptenter and Fred Thurston for Marv Matuszak, to mention a couple. The Packers are probably the "most eligible" trading club in the league since the club has a goodly number of young stars and it developed additional bench strength a year ago. So Lombardi likely is being hounded by the other clubs. Some of this hounding showed up in the public prints today - a story out of San Francisco where the NFL is holding its annual spring meeting. Out on the West Coast, the boys in the press row make the trades via the first edition and then hope they can confirm it by the fourth edition. Most of the "action" doesn't pan out, of course. The latest rumor in San Francisco involves three-cornered trades between the Packers, Rams and 49ers. In one, the 49ers would give up QB Y.A. Tittle to the Rams in exchange for a top LA player. The Rams then would send Zeke Bratkowski or Frank Ryan to the Packers for one of the Packers' top young stars. In another, the Packers would give one of their stars to the 49ers who then would ship Tittle to LA. The Rams would give the Pack Ryan or Bratkowski...FRESH FROM MCHAN DEAL: These trades make no sense at all. But we're sure it makes good reading - on the West Coast. The Packers are just fresh from trading Lamar McHan off to the Colts for a draft choice. Why bring in another QB? Bratkowski and Ryan together can't match Starr who brought the Packers home last year by winning the last three league games. And Joe Francis is ready to step into the understudy role behind Bart. Lombardi pointed out recently that the defensive secondary and then the defensive line (in that order) are the departments that could stand strengthening for successful defense of the championship. Top-flight operators in those two units are difficult to obtain. But that's the kind of bait Lombardi would smile at.
PACKERS GET $664,000 OUT OF NFL'S NEW TV PACKAGE
APR 27 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers made $664,000 for the next two seasons in San Francisco Wednesday. That will be Green Bay's cut of the NFL's gigantic television contract signed with the Columbia Broadcasting System. This is the NFL's final package deal. And it's the largest in sports - a two-year pact for $9,300,000 or $4,650,000 for each season. The contract calls for the televising of the league's entire 98-game league schedule. Each of the 14 teams will have their road games TV's back home. Each club will receive $332,000 per year. The TV slice represents a sharp increase in the Packers' revenue - roughly $250,000 per year. Under the Packers' old TV pact with CBS, they received slightly over $75,000 annually. Announcement of the deal was made jointly by Commissioner Pete Rozelle and Bill MacPhail, vice president in charge of sports for CBS-TV, at the league's spring meeting Wednesday. The Packers are represented at the meeting by President Dominic Olejniczak, General Manager-Coach Vince Lombardi and Business Manager Verne Lewellen. The Packers stand to benefit particularly from the new contract. Green Bay does not have the TV commercial potential of such population giants as New York and Chicago. The addition of Minnesota removed Minneapolis-St. Paul and the rest of Minnesota as the Packers' TV "home" territory. Rozelle, in his visit here for Colt game last fall, expressed the hope that a package deal could be worked "inside of two years" since the Bays had only one year to go (and an option for another year) on their old pact with CBS. San Francisco happily changed that. Wednesday, Rozelle used Green Bay as an example in explaining the benefits of the new contract: "There was a possibility that when Green Bay was on the road it might be less expensive to telecast a home game of the Chicago Bears into the Wisconsin area than to bring in Packer road games. This is true in several other cities." The new contract "will insure a continuation of the league's unique TV policy designed to give fans in each NFL city telecast of all of their team's road games," Pete said, adding: "From a business standpoint, we found our previous TV policy of individual club negotiations to be unworkable. The majority of our teams faced the imminent prospect that TV coverage of their road games would be discontinued." Rozelle said a game-of-the-day play with one game televised nationally each Sunday would have brought more TV income for the league, but would have deprived the fans of the road telecasts of their favorite teams. The contract is the first between the league and a single network. Last year, when the league had 13 clubs, 10 had contracts with CBS, two (Pittsburgh and Baltimore) with the National Broadcasting Co., and one (Cleveland) with an independent network. Under the new plan, some of the clubs will receive less TV money, but the majority will receive more. The Bears, for instance, will receive less TV revenue since they were able to TV their road games back home for the first time last year due to the transfer of the Cardinal franchise to St. Louis. Owner George Halas had been seeking a single-package TV setup for several years as a means of balancing the league. The new contract also calls for three national telecasts - Thanksgiving Day (Packers at Detroit) and on the second and third Saturdays of December. The Packers are on the West Coast on those days and their games may be selected for TV. However, under the package plan, fans here would see the games anyway. The package deal includes any divisional playoff games but does not include the championship game or the runner-up contest in the Orange Bowl in Miami. NBC has the championship game locked up for 1961 and 1962 for $615,000 per year. Green Bay was among five cities nominated at the league meeting Wednesday as the site of the NFL Hall of Fame. Other cities are Canton, Ohio; Latrobe, Pa.; Detroit and Los Angeles. Green Bay, Latrobe and Canton said they would build locations for the shrine if it was awarded to them. Detroit and Los Angeles said they had locations available. A decision was expected before league owners closed their annual meeting.
'PRIDE IN WORK' MADE CHAMPS OF PACK: CARPENTER
APR 27 (Bonduel-Green Bay Press-Gazette) - "I don't think we're the best team in the NFL, man for man, but every man takes pride in his work and we are the best prepared team in the NFL." This is how utility man Lew Carpenter explained the Green Bay Packers' drive to the Western Division championship in 1960 at Bonduel High School's annual athletic banquet at Shalgoco Country Club Wednesday night. Teammate Gary Knafelc, referring to last December's NFL playoff with the Philadelphia Eagles, quipped: "I maintain if we played the Eagles five time, we would have beaten them four. The only trouble is we played the fifth game first."
DRAFT PLAN SET IN EVENT OF NFL DISASTER
APR 28 (San Francisco) - If disaster should strike a NFL team, it will be able to rebuild with the aid of $2,250,000 worth of insurance money and a restricted, inter-league draft. That's the gist of a plan which the league's officials pieced together Thursday during the last of a four-day spring meeting. They also named Canton, Ohio, as the site of pro football's Hall of Fame. The two and a quarter million dollars represents traveling insurance which the league had taken out on every club. Any team losing at least seven players would receive half of the sum to buy new material from other clubs in the loop, NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle said. The other half would be used for salaries on a pro-rated basis. A team that sustained six or less losses would not qualify for help. Three selection systems were set up for re-stocking a squad based on losses of 23 or more players, 12 to 22, or 7 to 11. An arrangement also was worked out for rebuilding a coaching unit if all of the staff was disabled. Canton got the ball over four other cities, including Green Bay, in the race to cradle the Hall of Fame. The league was founded in the Ohio city 41 years ago this September.
PACKERS SIGN MOOSE LACINA
MAY 4 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Clarence (Moose) Lacinia, 260-pound tackle from Superior State College, has been signed by the Packers, Coach-GM Vince Lombardi announced today. Lacina, 23, captained the college's wrestling team and reached the finals of the regional Golden Gloves tournament in Minneapolis. Lombardi said the newcomer will be tried at defense. Lacina's coach, Mertz Mortorelli, said the athlete's best position is on defense. "He has good pursuit and is fast for aa big ham," Mortorelli added. A native of Phillips, Wis., Lacina had an 8-2 record in wrestling duels and placed fifth in the mat nationals.
PACKER TICKET SALE COULD HIT 36,000 - VINCE
MAY 5 (Milwaukee-Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The sale of season tickets for the four league games in Green Bay could reach 36,000, Packer Coach-GM Vince Lombardi told a meeting of business leaders at the Oster Manufacturing Co., here Thursday. "Already 30,000 requests for season tickets renewals have been received," Lombardi added. More than 31,000 seasons were sold for the four-game card in 1960 and season ticket holders now are returning renewal-request cards. The capacity of the stadium is being increased from 32,150 to around 38,500 with the addition of new seats. Lombardi reiterated that "season tickets are the lifeblood of our organization" and pointed out that "we are looking forward to an increased season ticket sale in Milwaukee." Playing as Western Division champions, the Packers are attracting new customers in Green Bay and Milwaukee. More than 2,400 new orders for season tickets already have been received in Green Bay and interest has picked up in Milwaukee, Vince said. Lombardi also reviewed the prospects for the team this year, assuring businessmen that "we'll have a good team again."
PACKERS GET PROFIT-LOSS WORD MONDAY
MAY 6 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - What does a championship year look like in a profit-loss statement? That's a real rarity because the Packers' 1960 Western Division championship is the first since 1944 but the statement will be unveiled before stockholders of Green Bay Packers, Inc., at their annual meeting at the WBAY auditorium at 8 o'clock Monday night. General Manager-Coach Vince Lombardi will make his annual report, outlining the progress of the corporation - on and off the field. President Dominic Olejniczak will preside and reports of the officers will be received. Other officers are Richard Bourguignon, vice president; John B. Torinus, secretary; and Fred N. Trowbridge, treasurer. One year ago, the Packers reported a net profit (after taxes) of $75,208, raising the corporation's surplus to $282,937. This profit was reported on the club's first one-million dollar year (Lombardi's first season, 1959), in which operating income soared to $1,006,914...Joe Stydahar, the all-time Bear tackle and former Ram coach who did some assisting with the Pack in '50, says he has no desire to return to pro football. He lives in Glencoe, a Chicago suburb. "Aside from reading about it and watching an occasional game, I've expelled it from my life."
PACKERS REPORT PROFIT OF $115,128 FOR 1960 SEASON
MAY 10 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers' fabulous championship year of 1960 showed a net profit of $115,128.25. General Manager-Coach Vince Lombardi announced the figure at the annual stockholders' meeting of Green Bay Packers Inc., at the WBAY auditorium Monday night. It was the Packers' largest net profit in the last 15 years - and one of the largest in history. One year ago, following Lombardi's Cinderella start, he reported a net profit of $75,208.36 on 1959 operations. The 1960 figure represents an increase of $39,920 over the previous year. Lombardi was quick to point out at least two factors that helped swell the 1960 figure - the championship game and sale of players to the Dallas Cowboys. The Packers realized $50,000 from the title game, via TV, and payment of $12,500 from the Cowboys for the purchase of three players. Most of the Packers' financial figures are record breakers. Most noteworthy is the total operating income - a fat $1,177,733, against the record $1,006,914 of 1959, an increase of $170,819. Thus, the Pack completed its second straight million-dollar year. The Packers reported a total income from football games of $1,026,506 (an increase of $138,284 over a year ago). And, Vince noted, the Packers' net receipts from home games approximated the receipts from out of town games in the club's history. The home receipts totaled $512,192 against $514,314 on the road...HOME RECEIPTS UP: Home receipts went up for two reasons, the GM explained - higher prices at City Stadium and two large crowds in Milwaukee (39,916 and 35,736). Home receipts were up $135,009 over a year ago while receipts on the road went up only $3,275. Radio and TV income in 1960 amounted to $140,250 against $108,100 in '59. In the Department of Expense, Lombardi noted that training expenses in 1960 were down by $3,088 over the previous year "because we traveled less." But all other expenses were up. Season expenses totaled $571,536 against $512,760 in 1959, and about $40,000 of this resulted from higher player salaries. Sharply increased insurance costs helped send overhead and administrative expenses from $269,520 in 1959 to $315,503 in 1960. Vince commented that workmen's compensation insurance rates for football players are higher in Wisconsin than any other state. Lombardi said
that while this was a very fine financial report the corporation must expect expenses to continue to increase, and "over many of them we have no control." He also pointed out that the Packers must pay off about $150,000 for the new seats constructed at City Stadium...35,000 SEASON TICKETS: The Packers showed a profit of $228,064 before taxes of $112,936 were deducted. The profit before taxes in 1959 was $149,951. Lombardi reported a surplus of $398,066 as of Dec. 31, 1960. On the 1961 front, Lombardi announced that 30,604 season ticket renewals have been returned out of approximately 31,000. "With 2,856 new requests for season tickets already in, we should reach 35,000 season tickets. More than 5,000 renewals have been received in Milwaukee," Vince said. The coach noted that the "tough schedule that is awaiting us. Besides the strong Western Division teams, we have to face the two toughest in the Eastern Division - Cleveland and the Giants." Lombardi thanked the stockholders for "your support in 1960. You must be as proud as I am of this team. I can't promise you a championship in 1961 but I can promise you complete dedication." Touching briefly on the team, Lombardi added: "We'll have the same offensive line and it's a good one. We have the three best running backs in Hornung, Taylor and Moore. All we have to do is sign them. Keckin has a chance to make it as a rookie quarterback. Bart Starr is vastly improved and is ready to take charge. We'll need some help on defense but we're looking forward to getting some of it from Wood and Hackbart. We'll be disappointed if Kostelnik (giant tackle drafted No. 2) doesn't make it. He's big, young and strong."
MINNESOTA SIGNS BECK
MAY 11 (St. Paul-Minneapolis) - Ken Beck, defensive end selected from the Green Bay Packers, has signed his 1961 contract with the Minnesota Vikings, it was announced today. Beck, 6-3 and 250 pounds, has been in the NFL for two seasons. "Ken is one of the real good young linemen in our league," Viking Coach Norm Van Brocklin said. "He played a lot of reserve for the Packers last year when they won the Western Division title, so he's got experience back of him."
BOYD DOWLER TABS LANE AS TOUGHEST DEFENSE BACK
MAY 13 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Boyd Dowler, the Packers' long-legged flanker back-end, selects Night Train Lane of the Lions as the toughest defensive halfback he faced as a pro. Here's how Dowler explained it for Dave Rose of the Boulder, Col., Camera: "Lane will gamble with a receiver and win most of the time. He'll bait you by letting you think you're in the clear, then whish; he's swiped the ball. When we play Detroit I might as well be in the stands selling peanuts." Was the transition to pro ball tough? "It wasn't for me. Being a quarterback in college, I hadn't developed any bad habits as an end. I didn't have to shake bad habits. I had the speed and the hands but I did have to learn the moves. I got that with good coaching." Asked about Green Bay, Big Boyd explained: "It's an unusual setup in Green Bay. It's a community project and a lot of people in town hold shares in the team. It makes for a more personal relationship between the players and the fans and I like it." Dowler won rookie of the year honors with the Packers in 1959, leading the team with 32 pass catches for 549 yards and four touchdowns. Watched carefully in the 1960 championship season, Dowler caught 30 for 505 yards and two touchdowns. While he caught just two passes less last fall, Dowler can blame it onto the aforementioned Lane. Boyd caught only one pass in two games against the Lane Lions, that a 10-yarder in the 23-10 loss Thanksgiving Day. Lane was with the Cardinals when Dowler, former Colorado star, was a rookie. Boyd and his new wide, Pat, were guests at a dinner at the home of Miss Joan Mortell, assistant dean of women at the University of Colorado, the other night...The seed is all in on the floor of City Stadium. And the sunshine of the last couple days should bring forth some green next week. Also at the stadium, casting of the seats on the seat-addition has started...PACKINGS: Defensive back and scout Em Tunnell popped into the Packer office Friday with some reports. Tunnell is covering Negro colleges. Norb Hecker is scouting the Notre Dame-Alumni game today, while Red Cochran is looking in on the Minnesota game. Dale Hackbart is playing in the Wisconsin game today, while Fred Thurston has a seat on the sidelines. Phil Bengtson had been at Wisconsin earlier...Coach Vince Lombardi has been placed under Tim Cohane's microscope the last few days. Cohane, long-time friend of Lombardi, is sports editor of Look Magazine and getting the story to match the pictures taken by Look's Frank Bauman here last fall...Dad Braisher, left home while the Braves went to the West Coast, is looking over the Packer equipment. Braisher works in the Braves' clubhouse when they're home...Paul Hornung, representing sports at the Milprint parley here Monday, will be the speaker at the Mike and Pen Club Luncheon Monday noon.
BETTER BLOCKER: HORNUNG OR TAYLOR? IT'S STARR!
MAY 16 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Hornung and Taylor! Their hard-hitting runs helped the Packers to the Western Division championship and stacked up over two-third of the club's rushing yardage. But how about their blocking? Red Cochran, the Packers' backfield coach, was asked, "Who's the Better Blocker of the two?" at the Mike and Pen Club Luncheon at the Elks Club Monday noon. Cochran grinned and answered: "Starr." Red righted himself by explaining that "neither of them (Hornung or Taylor) are real good blockers but that's true of all your good running backs in the league - Jimmy Brown and the rest. Nick Pietrosante is probably the best blocking back." He added: "If I was to pick the best blocker of the two, I'd say Hornung because he has more natural ability. He can use it in making the different kinds of blocks. We're hopeful that Hornung and Taylor will become good blockers - the best in the league. In order to be a good blocker, the desire to become a good blocker must be there. That's why Pat Harder (ex-Cardinal and Lion) was such a good blocker. He wanted to be the best in blocking as well as running." Cochran had good news from Michigan State University where he scouted the annual Oldtimers' game there Saturday: "I'm happy to report that our three veterans there looked like they are ready to start playing right now. Quinlan is down to 242 and he looks great. Currie was all over the field making tackles and intercepting passes and Masters did well in the line." On Herb Adderley, the Packers' No. 1 draft choice, Cochran said "they played him at flanker, which is the same position he'll start in our practice. I was happy to see him do one thing and that was catch passes on the inside. A lot of flankers just want to run down the sidelines or into the open and won't go to the inside (where the linebackers can chop 'em down), but Adderley caught several passes there." Asked about Adderley's speed, Cochran said the MSU star "isn't as fast as Boyd Dowler on the straightaway but he's quicker," adding: "Adderley stands 6-1 and he'll play about 210 pounds. He's a good-sized halfback. I've watched him in four straight oldtimers' games, the first
when I was with the Lions, and he has always impressed me." Cochran was a last-minute replacement for Paul Hornung, who was speaking in Indiana.
UNITAS, STARR, BERRY INTERCEPTION LEADERS? THEIR 'EQUIVALENTS' DID IT
MAY 19 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Times Have Changed Dept.: Can you imagine John Unitas, Bart Starr and Raymond Berry finishing one, two, three in pass interceptions? These three offensive stars just don't play defense in this day of professional football specialists. Unitas ranked as the NFL's No. 1 passer, Starr the No. 5 passer and Berry the No. 1 pass catcher. Rummaging around in the record book the other day, we discovered the "equivalents" of Unitas, Starr and Berry actually finished as the league's top three in pass stealing in 1942. Those three would be Sammy Baugh, the Redskin passing immortal who led the league with 11 pass interceptions as a right safety; Irv (Hard Rock) Comp, the Packer passer who stole 10 as a cornerbacker; and Don Hutson, the Packers' peerless pass catcher who stole eight enemy passes while moving back to safety on defense. Thus, these three high-powered offensive players intercepted a total of 29 passes. Baugh was the league's leading passer, Comp the No. 5 pitcher and Hutson No. 1 pass receiver - just like Unitas, Starr and Berry. These three, of course, played before unlimited substitution and most times they went the entire 60 minutes. Hutson's place at end on defense was filled by blocking quarterback Larry Craig. Record of the early Packers aren't available because statistics weren't always kept. Complete records start with the season of 1939, although in the early days admiring fans would keep personal yardage figures on the various athletes. Thus, there are some figures on the passing of Arnie Herber, the famed West High alumnus who was Hutson's first passing partner. It had been established that Herber had completed a total of 410 passes in his nine seasons with Green Bay for 6,741 yards. However, Herber's pass attempt total just isn't known. "I never really knew how many passes I attempted," Herber explained, "because nobody kept the figures half the time. We never did much passing. The most passes I ever threw in one game was 20 and I thought that was a lot. I'd usually throw about 10 or 11, sometimes only 5." We asked Herber if he thought he completed half his passes, which would give him about 820 attempts. "I'd say that about half. Somebody wrote a story about me one time and said I completed half of them." So Arnie now has been "credited" with 819 attempts, to give him a fraction over 50 percent. And speaking about records, the books show Ted Fritsch made a 79-yard kickoff return against the Giants in 1949. It's the fourth longest in Packer history. "No, I didn't score but I should have received a touchdown," the genial Premontre coach beamed. "I stepped on the yard line (the Giants' 10-yard line) and kicked up the chalk. When I got in the end zone, the official put the ball on the 10. He thought I had stepped on the sideline. I wasn't even close." Andy Uram seems to make a specialty of long runs, ranking among the leaders in longest runs from scrimmage and on punt and kickoff returns. Andy made so many long ones he had a tough time remembering the teams he ran them against. His 97-yarder against the Chicago Cardinals still is the Pack's longest from scrimmage. He also had a 70-yarder in 1938 "but I'm not quite sure who it was against," Andy explained, adding later: "That must have been against Detroit. I usually had good luck against them."
STARR, NO. 1 AT LAST, MAN WITH MISSION; MASTERS SET
MAY 24 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The "new" Bart Starr, at long last the Packers' undisputed No. 1 quarterback, is a man with a mission. Starr, whose signing for a sixth season of Packer employment was announced today, confides with customary candor, "I'm just real anxious to start - anxious to justify Coach Lombardi's decision." Welcomed back with him was veteran offensive tackle Norm Masters, pointing for his fifth semester in the NFL, his fourth with the Packers. The unassuming Starr's mission, as may have been divined, is more than indirectly related to that "decision." It was made last winter when Lombardi, in a tacit expression of confidence in Starr's ability to direct Packer field operations, dealt Lamar McHan to Baltimore's Colts. Bart, as all Packerland is well aware, had shared the signal calling burden with McHan the last two seasons. Before that, he also had been forced to divide the responsibility with Vito (Babe) Parilli and earlier had understudied the indestructible Tobin Rote. Today, the job is his and the soft-spoken Alabaman, weary of sharecropping, is convinced he's ready. "I think we're going to find - we're going to be all right," he declared Wednesday. "I think everybody has in the back of his mind that the loss to Philadelphia in the championship game took some of the gloss off a good season so we all have something to shoot for." As far as Starr is personally concerned, he describes himself as "anxious to correct the mistakes I made last season - I've already started on that by studying films. Now I'm anxious to get onto the field to see how the studying is coming out. I've sure looked at a lot of films." The records will show, it might be interposes, that the one-time high school All-American didn't make too many "mistakes" in the process of guiding the Packers to a Western Division championship last autumn. He set a team record by completing 98 of 172 passes for a 57 percent completion average, best in Packer history and third best in the NFL. What about the "mental toughness" Lombardi demands of his quarterbacks? Did he feel he now has enough? "I definitely do," came the reply, without hesitation. "Playing under Coach Lombardi, I've gained a lot of of confidence, a lot more than I ever had before and the more I play the more I gain." "He has you so well prepared that you're completely ready to call a game come Sunday," Bart revealed. "It makes your job real easy. Of course, it's in your hands from there on." There is another basis for his calm confidence, Bart confessed. "That's playing behind a real great line," he said. "It's a real pleasure to play behind 'em. They can make your job real pleasant." Bart, who matched Ed Brown for the longest touchdown pass of the 1960 season on a 91-yard collaboration with Boyd Dowler against the Rams, declined as expected to name the Packers' prime contenders for Western Division honors in '61 competition. "They're all tough. I don't like to pick a favorite. I'm convinced of one thing, though, the team that's going to win is the one that's going to be mentally ready on the most Sundays," he said. "That's Coach Lombardi's philosophy and I firmly believe it. It boils down to that - mental attitude, I'm convinced."...The 6-2, 245-pound Masters was a prominent member of that "real great" offensive line so heartily commended by Starr. Norm, who came to the Pack in the 1957 Tobin Rote trade with the Detroit Lions, performed at both tackle spot with distinction last season in Line Coach Bill Austin's rotating system.
PACK TICKET SALE SOARS OVER 36,000
MAY 25 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers, getting just what the NFL's defending Western Division champions deserve, were accorded a resounding "vote of confidence" today. It came in the form of a delightfully concrete testimonial from the faithful with announcement by GM-Head Coach Vince Lombardi that the 1961 season ticket sale has rocketed to a record 36,104 - just short of capacity. Although 6,200 seas are now being added to City Stadium, the record total leaves only 1,400 of the 38,350 to be sold, Lombardi said. "We are receiving from 40 to 50 new orders in the ticket office daily," he added. "At this rate, the remaining 1,400 tickets could be gone before the end of June." In this connection, he observed, "At least two games will be completely sold out - those with the Bears and the Baltimore Colts. In fact, for all practical purposes, they are sold out now." Highly pleased with these developments, as might be expected, Lombardi declared, "It's real proof of the support we get here in this area. I don't know where all the orders are coming from,' he chuckled, "but it's nice." The spectacular sale will not affect the Packers' current Stadium expansion project, Vince said, noting with a laugh, "We're going to have to pay for what we're putting in first." The additional seating is being installed at a cost of $120,000. The present total shattered the old record of 31,019, set a year ago, by more than 5,000, Lombardi was happy to note. This is in startling contrast to the figure for the last season in old City Stadium (1956), which was a modest 12,117. With construction of the new stadium, dedicated in 1957 with a frenetic 21-17 victory over the Chicago Bears, the total soared to 23,064, then to 26,078 in 1958. Then, with the resurgence of interest as Lombardi arrived upon the scene in 1959, it increased to 26,508, despite a dismal 1-10-1 record the year before.
NO, STADIUM LAYOUT HASN'T CHANGED
MAY 26 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - So you're wondering too? No, the layout of City Stadium, we hasten to report, has not been changed, as you may have assumed from scanning Thursday's Press-Gazette. For the benefit of those few (it seems like everybody did) who didn't notice "retouched" aerial photo of City Stadium was presented on the first sports page to illustrate the small number of Packer season tickets remaining in the wake of a record demand. Said "re-touching," consisted of painting in the new 6,200-seat addition, presently under construction. It seemed like a good idea at the time but, alas, a Press-Gazette darkroom technician (who shall remain anonymous) had "flopped" the negative in printing the picture. Thus, north became south, etc. This contretemps went unnoticed until after the paper went to press - but not much longer. P-G Artist Harold Elder, who had been "credited" with the art work in the picture's caption, grew arm-weary from answering a barrage of telephone calls from confused reader-fans. "One lady said, 'I didn't buy my tickets for the north end zone. I just wonder where I'm sitting,'" Harold reported with a chuckle. "And another one said, 'That picture must be wrong. The shadows don't fall that way.'"
JULY 9 EARLIEST NFL CLUBS CAN OPEN DRILL
MAY 29 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The earlier opening of NFL action also means an earlier start of training for most teams. League rules allow nine weeks of training as follows: "A player under contract may not be asked to, and/or report, to training camp for practice prior to nine weeks prior to the first league game except for championship team preparing for the Chicago Tribune All Star game." Thus, the earliest practice can start under that rule is July 9 - which is a long time to Christmas. Coach Vince Lombardi will call out the Packers for practice around July 17 - about one week earlier than a year ago, thus making up for the earlier league-play start. This date is tentative, Vince said. The Minnesota Vikings, however, will start rookies a-sweating July 7 and they're getting a few days head start since they're new in the business. The veterans will come in July 17. Coach Norm Van Brocklin will train the Vikings at Bemidji State College. The St. Louis Cardinals, a real darkhorse candidate to win the Eastern Division championship, go into training July 9 at Lake Forest, Ill. Pop Ivy is wasting no time in training a "rookie" quarterback who isn't exactly a first-year man. That would be Sam Etcheverry, the sling-shot artist who played in Canada nine years...Two more Packer veterans are in the fold - Dave Hanner and John Symank, Lombardi announced Sunday. Defense tackle Hanner is the daddy of home-grown Packers, starting his 10th season here. Symank, the defensive halfback, is opening his fifth season. They are the fourth veterans announced as set thus far. Bart Starr and Norm Masters came through last week...Publicity directors of NFL clubs, including the Packers' Tom Miller, will meet in Minneapolis June 6-7 to talk over their problems and get acquainted with the league's newest club, the Vikings. Commissioner Pete Rozelle will preside, assisted by Jim Kensil, the league's new publicity chief. A similar meeting was held in Dallas last year...When the Packers battle the Redskins in an exhibition in Columbus, Ga., in September, they'll have a special Green Bay cheering section. The Marathon Division, American Can Co., opened a plant in nearby Newman, Ga., five years ago and transferred in a number of Packer Backers, most of them Green Bayites. They're making up a busload to form a rooting section.
BETTIS, BUCKING FOR STEADY JOB, SIGNS; SKORONSKI SET
JUN 1 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Tom Bettis, a taxpaying resident of Allouez, and Bob Skoronski, who pays his taxes in the City of Green Bay, signed today for another season of football with the Packers. This was announced by Coach-GM Vince Lombardi. Bettis was the Packers' first draft choice in 1955, which makes this his seventh season. Skoronski, No. 5 pick in '56, is opening his fourth campaign. Bob missed the 1957-58 seasons due to service. Bettis, 28, a resident of 314 Towerview Drive, hopes to get back on the playing track this season. The middle linebacker missed the last four games - the last three league games and the championship contest in Philadelphia. There are indications that there will be a hard-fought battle between Tom and Ray Nitschke for the starting middle linebacker post. Lombardi said recently that "they'll be starting even in training camp." Bettis and Nitschke make up half of the Packers' famed Fearsome Foursome. They share the title with Dan Currie and Co-Captain Bill Forester, who play the outside for the most part. Bettis stands 6-2 and packs around 225 pounds. Skoronski, 27, who lives at 1585 Forest Glen, has an iron grip on the offensive left tackle position. Bob fought tooth and nail with his buddy, Norm Master, and won employment as a starter. Bettis and Skoronski are Big Ten products but originate from different part of the country. Bettis is a native of Chicago and played at Purdue. Skoronski, who played at Indiana, hails from Ansonia, Conn. Both were co-captains in college football. Lombardi has announced the signing of five veterans thus far...Green Bay's opponents in the championship game, the Eagles, also were busy with contracts this week, announcing Bobby Jackson and Chuck Bednarik. Ironically, these two stopped Packer Jim Taylor eight yards from the winning touchdown on the last play of the championship game. Jackson started the 1960 training season with the Packers and finally caught on with the Eagles when injuries leveled their secondary. Bednarik, now 36, is back for his 13th season. He ranks behind Bobby Layne, Charley Conerly and Em Tunnell, who are starting their 14th seasons...Lombardi again will head the coaching talent at the Original Coaching Clinic to be held at Superior State College June 29 to July 1. Clinic Director Mertz Mortorelli, in making the announcement, said, "We've received many letters and personal calls from last year's visitors. They were unanimous in the opinion that the few days spent in lectures and conferences with Coach Lombardi were among the most rewarding in their coaching careers."
PACK STARTS WESTERN TITLE DEFENSE JULY 17
JUN 8 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers start defending their 1960 Western Division championship Monday, July 17. That seems a bit early but, like Coach Vince Lombardi says, games are won on the training field. Twenty-one rookies will report at the Packers' headquarters at St. Norbert College Sunday night, July 16. They'll be given physical examinations and draw equipment the next day. The veterans have been asked to report Tuesday, July 18. The team's annual Picture Day is scheduled for Sunday, July 23. Close to 60 players, the limit allowed by the NFL, will take part. Some 36 veterans are expected to report. The Pack's first action is scheduled for Aug. 11 against the Cowboys at Dallas. There will be a preliminary to practice - A Four-Day School For Packer Quarterbacks, opening at 349 S. Washington (the Packer offices) next Monday. Prof. Lombardi will welcome six signal callers, topped by Bart Starr, who is opening his sixth season, and Joe Francis, who broke his leg last year as a halfback. Joining the veterans will be four highly-touted rookies - Danny Brides of Southwest Louisianan Institute, Roger Johnson of Whitewater State, Val Keckin of Mississippi Southern and Phil Nugent of Tulane. Lombardi will take part in two college football clinics - in Florida State and at Superior State. He's presently teaching football in Florida and the Superior clinic is set for the weekend of June 30. On the ticket front, Lombardi revealed today that the season ticket count for the four league games in Green Bay has reached 36,712 - just short of capacity. The figure is already far above the record 31,000 sold for the 1960 City Stadium card. The stadium capacity is being increased close to 39,000 and the seats are now under construction. The Packers' Milwaukee office is opening its drive today to sell 20,000 season tickets for the club's three games there. Ockie Krueger, in charge of Milwaukee operations, reports that the sale already is approaching 10,000. Capacity at County Stadium is just under 45,000.
NFL TO HAVE ANOTHER RECORD PAYOFF; IT COULD BE HERE
JUN 9 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The 1961 championship game of the NFL will have "another record payoff" and it could be here. The game will be played in the home stadium of the Western Division champion this year. And the Packers have every intention of successfully defending their Western title. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle announced out of New York today that the playoff game will be held Sunday afternoon, Dec. 31. Thus, Green Bay could have a rip-roarin' New Year's Eve. "The only thing that would prevent the world championship game from being played on New Year's Eve afternoon will be a triple tie on one or both of the conferences. In that event, the title game would have to be moved back to Sunday, Jan. 7," Rozelle said, adding: "We couldn't conceive of a better way to end a year that promises to be the best of our 42." The regular season ends Dec. 17, leaving Dec. 24 open for possible conference playoffs. Incidentally, Rozelle also announced that Baltimore will play in two nationally-televised Saturday game on the west coast. Earlier, the Packers have been tentatively scheduled to play the 49ers and Rams on Dec. 9 and 16. Now, the Packers will play the 49ers Dec. 10 and then move down to LA to meet the Rams Dec. 17, while the Colts meet the Rams Dec. 9 and the 49ers Dec. 16. League rules provide that the Western Conference is the host in odd-numbered seasons. Last year, the Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia Eagles won at home over the Packers. For that victory, each Eagle player received a record $5,116.55 while each losing Packer got $3,105.14. The title game, from which the players receive 70 percent of the net receipts, again will be televised nationally by the National Broadcasting Co. And under a new contract with NBC, the revenue for radio and TV rights to the championship game has been increased from $200,000 to $615,000. At a recent meeting in San Francisco, league clubs voted $300,000 of that total into the Bert Bell Player Benefit Plan, which provides insurance, sickness, accident and retirement benefits to all players in the league. The remaining $315,000 goes into the overall title game receipts. "With the addition of over 6,200 seats in Green Bay City Stadium, every park in the Western Conference has a minimum potential of 40,000 attendance and five of the seven can top 50,000, including Los Angeles with 100,000. Therefore, with the added broadcast money and continued high interest in the league, I foresee another record payoff for the players participating and increased incentive for all through the new revenue for the benefit plan," Rozelle said. If the Packers can repeat, they will be playing their first championship game in Green Bay. The only other "home" playoff they were involved in was the 1939 game, and that was played in Milwaukee State Fair Park. Like the Packers shouted after the loss in Philly last Dec. 26, "we'll get 'em in Green Bay next year." Green Bay quarterbacks won't have to be reminded of that by Coach Vince Lombardi when they gather for classroom work next Monday.
CAN FREE AGENT QB MAKE PACKER GRADE?
JUN 12 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Three free agents made the Packers in the championship year of 1960. So take heart Danny Bridges and Roger Johnson. With a shorter draft (20 players against the previous 30), the free agents' chances of making the majors are increasing. But it's tough for quarterbacks. Bridges and Johnson are two of the six quarterbacks attending Coach Vince Lombardi's three-day school at 349 S. Washington St. They join veterans Bart Starr and Joe Francis and draftees Phil Nugent and Val Keckin. Bridges played at Southwest Louisiana Institute and Johnson won all-time honors at Whitewater State. Keckin, Mississippi Southern, was the Bays' 11th choice and Nugent was No. 3 out of Tulane. Starr is the Pack's No. 1 quarterback and Francis, out last year with a broken leg after starting out as a halfback, ranks No. 2. Free agents in '60? Willie Wood, a quarterback out of Southern California, made it as a defensive halfback, playing behind Em Tunnell. He stands a chance of stepping into a regular berth this year. Ken Iman, a nobody out of Southeast Missouri College, won the No. 2 spot behind center Jim Ringo. Iman is a comer. The third free agent, Dick Pesonen of University of Minnesota at Duluth, was the sixth man in the secondary as a rookie. He was one of three players selected by the new Minnesota Vikings...Lombardi is just back from a football clinic at Florida State University. He'll take part in one more before training camp opens - the Original Coaching Clinch at Wisconsin State College at Superior June 28-July 1. Packer practice opens July 17...Big Bill Forester and bigger Jim Temp are in the fold. The signing of the veterans was announced by Lombardi Sunday. Forester, captain of the defensive platoon, is back for his ninth campaign. He's outranked in service only by Dave Hanner, who has signed for his 10th year. Forester, a fast-moving ball hawk, is a combination linebacker-defense back, thanks to his speed. Temp is back for Season No. 5 and he's looking forward to a big and complete year. Defensive back Temp, former Wisconsin star, was sidelines for more than half of the 1960 season with a shoulder separation. Temp underwent surgery during the winter and has been working out at the YMCA on his own. "It feels stronger and it shouldn't bother me," said Jim.
PACK TICKET SALE HITS 37,000
JUN 13 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Between lectures at the Packers' annual School For Quarterbacks, Prof. Vince Lombardi announced today that the Pack's season ticket total has reached 37,019. This is a fantastic total; it's more than half the population of Greater Green Bay; and it's 5,951 more than the season ticket record, 31,068, of 1960. The increase over a year ago almost "takes care" of the 6,200 seats now being constructed at City Stadium. Capacity of the stadium is just short of 39,000 - 38,663 to be exact. Construction of the new seats, which are additions to the east and west stands at the south end, is now in progress. The steel framework holding the pre-cast seats is now going up. With slightly over 1,000 season ticket left and orders coming in to Ticket Director Earl Falck every day, a sellout for the season is practically assured. Tickets, however, are still available and they remain as the one sure way to see the Packers play in Green Bay. A season ticket also "clinches" a seat a championship playoff here if the Packers can repeat as Western Division champion. Season ticket sales have leaped by more than 11,000 in 3 years, which reflects the success of Lombardi in his first major league head coaching assignment - a 7-5 record in 1959 and an 8-4 championship mark in 1960. The season ticket increase was around 500 in 1959 when Lombardi arrived in '59 to pick up the remnants of a 1-10-1 season. The sale was 26,078 in 1958 and 26,580 in 1959. It jumped all the way to 31,019 in 1960 and the third leap is now in progress. Lombardi presently is occupied with acquainting Packer quarterbacks with offensive plans for the 1961 season. He's discussing basic strategy with the signal callers and showing films. The school will close Thursday and that will be it until formal practice starts July 17.
JOE FRANCIS HAPPY MAN - FOR 2 REASONS
JUN 14 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Joe Francis is a happy young man, for a couple of reasons. The muscled Hawaiian, in Green Bay this week for Prof. Vince Lombardi's School for Packer Quarterbacks, has (1) a completely healed leg and (2) a chance to play quarterback. Francis, elevated to the position of No. 2 quarterback behind Bart Starr with the trade of Lamar McHan to the Baltimore Colts, suffered a broken leg while running a pass pattern as a halfback in scrimmage during preseason practice last season. Joe spent the 1960 championship season assisting on the sidelines. And who can forget Francis in his white shirt (sans coat) on a bristling cold Thanksgiving Day in Detroit - clipboard in hand? Francis has given the leg the supreme test - which is a football game, the annual Alumni-Varsity at Oregon State University in Corvallis recently. "I got bumped around plenty and suffered no aftereffects, so I guess I can forget about it now. I've been working with weights to strengthen it," Joe said. Francis had himself quite a day completing nine out of 12 passes for 179 yards and one touchdown. "But I tried to run three times and lost about 25 yards," Joe laughed. He did most of the QB'ing in the Alumni's 22-21 loss. Francis said he was "pleased to get back to quarterback." Starr and Francis are the Packers' only veteran quarterbacks. Four rookie signalists are in town, getting the word on Lombardi's offensive plans. They are Phil Nugent, Danny Bridges, Roger Johnson and Val Keckin. Francis, though he's returning for his fourth season, will be engaged in only his third "action" campaign due to his injury last year. Joe was the Bays' fifth draft choice in 1958. Although he played and starred as a single wing back at State, Francis was tabbed as a pro prospect for quarterback. He made the switch as a rookie and played considerable in the last two games of 1958, completing 15 out of 31 passes for 175 yards and two touchdowns. Francis threatened to pass Starr in the QB race in 1959 but Bart made a sharp comeback and really came into his own midway in the season, winning the last three seasons. Joe completed five passes in 18 attempts for 91 yards as a sophomore. Starr, who keyed the Packers to the Western title in the last three game last year, is starting his sixth season.
BISHOP'S CHARITIES GAME TICKET SALE PASSES 10,000
JUN 15 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Tickets for the first annual Bishop's Charities football game are selling at a delightfully brisk pace for this early in the sales campaign, it was reported today by Gene Sladky, ticket chairman for the Labor Day evening event. Sladky said that more than 10,000 tickets were sold through the regular Packer season ticket mailing and that more sales are being reported every day by the Packers and the Holy Name Societies conducting drives in the individual parishes. The game will pit the Packers, champions of the Western Division, against the potent New York Giants in City Stadium at 8 o'clock the night of Sept. 4. It will be the first professional gridiron contest to be played under the new lighting system installed at City Stadium last year and it will be the Packers' first home night game since 1956. In addition, the game will mark the Packers' first home appearance since they annexed the division championship in only their second year under Coach Vince Lombardi last year. Sladky noted that the proceeds from the ticket sale, no matter where the tickets are purchased, will be turned over to Bishop Stanislaus V. Bona, head of the Green Bay Diocese, for his charity work, "Some people have the idea that if they buy the tickets from the Packers or a Packer ticket outlet the money will not go to the Bishop," Sladky pointed out. "This isn't true," he continued, "because every single ticket sold will be counted toward the Bishop's charities." Bob Callahan, who is assisting Sladky, reports that many parish organizations are purchasing blocks of tickets in order that the members can all sit together at the game and make a real party of it. Many parishes and parish organizations are even chartering buses or making plans for car caravans for the trip to Green Bay," Callahan said. Almost 200 Holy Name Societies are covering the 16 Northeastern Wisconsin counties in the Green Bay Diocese in the ticket campaign. The president of each Society is in charge for his parish and tickets in any amount can be bought through him.
A.D. WILLIAMS TO MINNESOTA
JUN 16 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Minnesota Vikings have acquired A.D. Williams on waivers from the Browns. Williams, an offensive end, was the first player acquired by the Vikings under a NFL arrangement giving the Minnesota club first rights on such players this year. Williams joined the Rams in 1958, a high draft choice, and then was claimed by the Packers for the 1959 season. He was traded to the Browns for Willie Davis, a veteran defensive end who played as a Packer regular last year...Packer tickets have been delayed two weeks in arrival from the printer, Packer ticker director Earl Falck said today. This will delay mailing of the tickets for about two weeks. Season tickets for the four-game league schedule at City Stadium are still available at the Packer office, 349 S. Washington...When Don Hutson, all-time NFl pass receiving champion, first started to play with the Packers in 1935 he received two checks - one for $100 and one for $75. He didn't want the bank tellers to know he was making such a fabulous salary.
THREE PACKER PLAYERS IN ALL-AMERICA BOWL
JUN 17 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Three Packers will be among the 29 NFL players taking part in the first annual All-America Bowl game at Buffalo June 23. They are halfback Herb Adderley of Michigan State, the Bay's first choice; quarterback Phil Nugent of Tulane, No. 3; and end Lee Folkins of Washington, No. 6. Sixty college seniors have been selected for the game and approximately 50 of them have indicated they will play professionally in the United States or Canada, making the NFL figure roughly 60 percent of the total. All five quarterbacks who will play in the U.S. after the Buffalo game are under NFL contracts.
VIKINGS TOUGHEN: ADD WILL SHERMAN
JUN 27 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Dick (The Bruiser) Afflis, former Packer tackle who now makes a living wrestling, ran into Les Bingeman, the giant ex-Lion who is now on the Detroit staff, the other day. Quipped Dick: "You made me quit pro football. All 350 pounds of you fell on my leg on a frozen field and nearly broke it." Afflis, the badman in the mat world, spoke at the University of Detroit student meeting recently and started his talk this way: "I'm a rat."...Ray Nitschke, a member of the Packers' famed Fearsome Foursome, was married in Ontonagon, Mich., Monday to Jackie Forchette of Ewing, Mich. Nitschke hails from Chicago but has been living in Green Bay the past year. They'll take up residence at 1287 Shawano Ave., after the honeymoon...Those Minnesota Vikings are getting tougher every day you turn around. Last week, they nabbed A.D. Williams from the Browns. Today, they obtained veteran defense back Will Sherman of the Rams. Sherman, 31, who cost the Vikings a draft choice, is a good one...Bill Redfield, sports editor of the Michigan City, Ind., News-Dispatch, drove past City Stadium the other day on his way down from Canada (he made the swing over the bridge) and wrote: "Why not put "home of the Packers" on both sides of your big stadium. I wasn't sure until we took another look as we went by."
PACKERS HOUSE-HUNTING STARTS IN JUST 16 DAYS
JUL 1 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - This is July 1 and the Packers, champs of the Western Division, will start stretching muscles and sprinting in less than three weeks. Practice will start for the rookies July 17. And that reminds: Chief Talent Scout Dick Voris is on the lookout for furnished apartments and houses for the Packer players and their families. Call the Packer office if you have a line on furnished places. Bill Forester is moving up with his family from Dallas July 8 already. He'd like to "move in" then; need a two or three-bedroom house..The late Jack Lavelle, noted game scout of the Giants, rated Arnie Herber, onetime Packer and Giants, as "the greatest passer over 40 yards. He had fantastic accuracy at a distance."...Premontre Coach Ted Fritsch, the Packers' former fullback and placekicking great, boots the ball during field goal practice for his Cadets but he doesn't lose any toenails doing it. "I always lost the nail on my big toe during the season. We didn't have that big square kicking toe like they use now." Fritsch led the NFL in scoring in 1946 with 100 points on 10 TDs, 13 PATs, and nine field goals...Ten rookie per team cracked NFL rosters last year. And the total of 125, among last season's 13 clubs, is expected to go up this year with the addition of the Minnesota Vikings; as many as 13 rookies made the Browns a year ago. The world champion Eagles had 10; the Western champ Packers six.
KEEP GAME AT FAST PACE, LOMBARDI TELLS OFFICIALS
JUL 3 (Chicago-Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The NFL season went into full swing Saturday a couple of months ahead of schedule - in the Blackstone Hotel. There were no fans present, no hot dog vendors and only two coaches - George Halas of the Bears and Vince Lombardi of the Packers. But there was plenty of football - of the oral variety. The occasion was an unprecedented full scale meeting of the league's officials. Mike Wilson, the NFL's veteran supervisor of officials, gathered the men in the striped shorts together for the league's first such mass meeting in history. Out of the two day seminar, Wilson hopes, will come greater consistency in interpreting the complex maze contained in the NFL rules and record manual. In previous years, all such meetings have been regional in scope. Forty-four of the 45 NFL referees, umpires, field judges, back judges and head linesmen were present. The absentee was Charley Berry, who doubles as an umpire in the American League. Lombardi, addressing the morning session, paid tribute to the group. "Our officials have played a tremendous part in the growth of the league," the Packer coach and general manager said. Lombardi declared that one of the most important jobs of an officials is "keeping the game at a fast pace. We have a fast game, and we must work to keep it that way," Pete Rozelle, NFL commissioner, took no part in the proceedings, but was an avid listener. Rozelle left no doubt that he was heartily in favor of the proceedings. "We're going to have more frequent meetings from now on," the commissioner vowed. "There is no doubt in my mind that the sharing of ideas will be beneficial." The officials spent Friday night viewing films of unusual plays submitted by NFL coaches. Saturday's sessions were devoted to lectures on specific phases of officiating by the group's senior members. Rules governing pass interference and obstruction came in for special attention. "I suppose interference is about our most delicate judgement call," Wilson said. "But it can be a simple thing if the official is right on top of the play." Officials were cautioned that, in order to call a clipping penalty correctly, the official must see the entire play. "If you see just the end of the clip," Wilson explained, "you may get a distorted idea. You must see the initial contact. Don't be misled when a player being blocked twists his body to make a legitimate block look like a clip." The officials were an intent, serious group. But there was time for an occasional football anecdote. What was the greatest pass catch Wilson ever saw? "That's easy," answered Mike. "That catch Harlon Hill of the Bears made of a pass from Ed Brown against the Giants jn 1956. Never saw anything like it."
PACKER COACHES GET LAST FREE WEEKEND
JUL 6 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - If the Packer coaches play a collective 200 holes of golf this weekend, they can't be blamed. This is the last free weekend, and Head Coach Arnold (Vince) Lombardi will probably be leading the golfing way for such noted swingers as Sam (Phil) Bengtson, Cary (Norb) Hecker, Jay (Red) Cochran and George (Bill) Austin. They may get the sticks out for a brief fling along the way somewhere but after this weekend, the Bay coaches will be working football. Training camp at St. Norbert College opens the following weekend (July 16) and the Packers will then be in action every weekend until ('tis hoped) Dec. 31 - the date designated for the championship game in the home park of the Western Division champion. The playoff game would be the 25th weekend. The players are starting to drift in already. John Symank moved up with his family from Arlington, Tex., Wednesday. Bill Forester and family are due up from Dallas Saturday. While the Packers are relaxing briefly, one team, the new Minnesota Vikings, will be taking a head start - courtesy of Commissioner Pete Rozelle, who allowed the Vikings to "break" the starting deadline of July 16, Coach Norm Van Brocklin will open training Friday at Bemidji State College. The Dallas Cowboys also were given an earlier starting date because hey have an early August exhibition game with the Vikings. The Cowboys will work out at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn. Rozelle also granted the Philadelphia Eagles an earlier date because, as the defending champion, they must play the College All-Stars Aug. 4 in Chicago. The Eagles will open practice July 11 at Hershey, Pa. St. Louis will start July 16; Baltimore, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and Pittsburgh on July 17; Washington July 18; Cleveland July 23; Detroit July 25; and San Francisco July 26...BEARS SIGN CORNISH: A pair of rookies, Earl Cornish, a 215-pound end from Colorado State University who tried out with the Packers last year, and tackle Paul Ward, a 240-pounder from Whitworth College in Burbank, Calif., were signed Wednesday by the Chicago Bears. Prior to his collegiate career, the 6-4 Cornish served with the Air Force in London and was named end on the all-European service team. He was with the Pack as a free agent.
PACK INKS 3-YEAR MILWAUKEE PACT
JUL 10 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The Packers will perform in Milwaukee for at least three more years. This became a certainty over the weekend when Packer GM-Coach Vince Lombardi signed a contract with the Milwaukee County Park Commission extending through the 1963 season. Previous contracts were for one year. No definite number of games were stipulated, although the Packers are scheduled to play three games in the home of the Braves during the 1961 season, one more than a year ago. Lombardi, who declined to disclose rental terms, said they 'were the same as in the past." The three-year agreement does not include the annual Shrine game, to be staged Aug. 26, which matches the Packers and Bears in County Stadium for the third year in a row. The Packers open defense of their Western Division championship in Milwaukee Sept. 17 against the Detroit Lions, runners-up in last year's race. In announcing the contract, Lombardi revealed that 11,000 season tickets have been sold to date for the Milwaukee games. More than 37,000 have been sold for the four home games in Green Bay. The Packers, who will be starting their third year under Lombardi's direction, open training at their St. Norbert College camp a week from today.
COLTS PACK $40,000 TO MATCH 'JONESES'
JUL 11 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Although Vince Lombardi and his aides are fast zeroing in on the start of 1961 practice, as all good Packer fanatics know, at least one of their number has one eye fixed on the future. He is Dick Voris, the club's new personnel director who Monday reported to the Mike and Pen Sports Club of Green Bay on the high cots of keeping up with the Joneses, the NFL "Joneses." The Pack will have spent $40,000 in the pursuit and evaluation of collegiate talent before the year has run its course, he disclosed. This imposing tab will stem, in part, from the addition of 18 scouts to the Packers' nationwide network, which now numbers 60 paid "agents." "We also have 40 non-paid scouts we can count on for reliable information any time we call," Voris said. "These, of course, are in addition to members of the coaching staff," all of whom beat the nation's bushes during the offseason and Voris himself. "In all, we cover 52 conferences and a total of 145 colleges and universities," the former University of Virginia coach revealed. "We divide the country into seven sections and each coach is assigned a section. He then works in that area during the colleges' spring practice. We send the coaches to schools we will not get a report from, plus the major schools."...ACCORDING TO CONFERENCE: This is the best, but not the only, source. "We also send forms to our scouts, asking them to list only those boys capable of playing National League football. When all the reports are in, we have approximately 10 ratings on each boy." All this information then is transferred to the new card index file introduced by Voris, in which each player is rated according to conference and alphabetized by name, assuring that a complete file on every prospect is at the fingertips whenever Lombardi or his aides should need it. "When we go to the draft meeting late in December, we'll take 350 names with us. Considering that we will have 20 draft choices," Voris said, "we feel that will be entirely adequate." A bumper crop is in the offing, he added. "This year, we're told, there are more good college players who can make the pro ranks than in the last two years." Naming names, he listed such prominent performers as Wilbur Hollis, Ohio State's accomplished running quarterback; Guy Gillis, a 6-7, 220-pound highboy from TCU, another QB who "could be a real great one," according to the Packers' Phil Bengtson; and Ernie Davis, the 230-pound Syracuse bulldozer Voris rates "one of the finest backs I've ever seen. Coaches who have both play in college rate him better than Jimmy Brown was at that stage." The Packers will go to the '61 draft meeting weighing four major considerations, Dick said. "First, we'll be considering the age factor in relation to our club; seconds, we'll be going for the best football player in the country; next, we'll be looking for an offensive halfback with great speed; and last, we'll be looking for a big, strong lineman."...'HIGH ON ADDERLEY': Before that comes to pass, however, the Packers faithful should have some other new faces to cheer about - such as Herb Adderley, the Michigan State mercury, Phil Nugent, defensive halfback from Auburn, and Ron Kostelnik, the huge young tackle from Cincinnati, among others. "Adderley is faster than any back we have right now," Voris said. "He has good hands, fine speed and he's very intelligent. The coaches are very high on him. They also have high hopes about Kostelnik and Nugent, who showed fine ability at playing the defensive corner in an all star game at Buffalo last month."
HUNGRY? KEY PACKER VETS REPORT EARLY
JUL 12 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Hunger, every coach and/or manager will readily admit, is essential to athletic success. Thus, the early arrival of several key Packer veterans cannot help but cheer Vince Lombardi, who shortly will welcome back the NFL's Western Division champions for a go at the 1961 title. This, at first glance, is hardly a situation to inspire appetite. But the bittersweet memory of that Dec. 26 denouement with the Philadelphia Eagles for pro football's grand prize, which ended with Jim Taylor being run to earth on the Philadelphia nine-yard line, still rankles in the breasts of Green Bay's favorite sons...DELIGHTFUL DEPARTURE: It, undoubtedly, is what has lured such 1960 stalwarts as Bill Forester, Forrest Gregg and John Symank into our midst ahead of schedule. Forester, who has been here for nearly a week, and his early bird comrades are not due to report to Headmaster Lombardi until next Tuesday. A fourth, defensive halfback Hank Gremminger, is expected momentarily. This is a delightful departure from the recent and unlamented part when the veterans were somewhat more leisurely about showing their faces here in mid-summer. It is doubly significant because the veteran is not over-fond of practice routine, or the prospect thereof...COMPETITION STIFFER: There is, of course, another aspect to this situation. The competition for employment will be even stiffer than a year ago because the NFL's player limit has been reduced from 38 to 36, and, Packer Personnel Director Dick Voris has emphasized, there are several rookies who well may land among those final 36. Although the veterans are not due until Thursday, the Packers' official 1961 business will begin 48 hours earlier. The rookies are scheduled to report at St. Norbert College headquarters by mealtime (6 o'clock) Sunday evening and will be scrutinized in uniform for the first time Monday morning. The quarterbacks, including Bart Starr and Joe Francis, and centers also will check in Sunday night for preliminary briefing.
PACKER PACT DETAILS SET
JUL 12 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - Ten percent of the gross gate after taxes for each game is basic rent in a new three-year Milwaukee County Stadium lease with the Green Bay Packers, a Milwaukee County Park Commission spokesman said Tuesday. The contract provides for the Packers to pay 10 percent of the gross revenue after taxes for each league game. If this 10 percent does not equal $10,000, the Milwaukee County share will increase to 15 percent of the gross gate after taxes. The contract does not specify the number of league games to be played in Milwaukee during the coming three games. Three are scheduled for this fall. The Packers pay rent by the year for use of City Stadium in Green Bay. The Packers pay $30,000 a year as their half of the $960,000 bond issue for the $1.2 million stadium, which is committed by ordinance to the construction debt. In addition, a $5,000 rental increase was agreed upon this year. There is a difference in the services provided by the Milwaukee and Green Bay stadiums under the rental contracts in that the Milwaukee County Stadium provides all of the help needed to stage football games while at Green Bay the Packers provide this help. For this reason, rental figures paid at each stadium are not comparable. Green Bay operated parking at City Stadium and leases out concession rights, income which is estimated at $22,500 in the 1961 city budget. The budget appropriated $30,795 to operate the stadium. The Milwaukee Braves have a year-around contract to operate concessions at Milwaukee County Stadium, and the county operates parking lots.
RAIDERS INK DITTRICH
JUL 12 (Oakland) - The Oakland Raiders of the AFL announced Tuesday offensive guard John Dittrich, former Green Bay Packer and University of Wisconsin guard, has signed his 1961 contract. Also signed were quarterback Tom Flores, halfback Tony Teresa and defensive end Charles Powell. The four 1960 regulars are expected to form the nucleus of the 1961 squad.
PACKER YEARBOOK OFF THE PRESSES
JUL 13 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - The 1961 edition of the Green Bay Packer Yearbook made its second annual appearance on area newstands today. Published by Art Daley, Press-Gazette sports editor, and Jack Yuenger, the slick magazine-like Volume is in every respect superior to the high standards set by the two publishers in their initial effort a year ago...TAKEN DURING MUDBATH: Outstanding features of the book includes a cover photograph and a picture story by Robert Riger, widely known freelance writer photographer of New York. Riger, who is one of the main contributors to Sports Illustrated magazine, has contributed phots of the playoff game with the Philadelphia Eagles as well as an informal interview with Vince Lombardi, an old friend. Riger's cover photo is particularly striking. A mud-spattered head shot of Forrest Gregg, taken during the mudbath at San Francisco last fall, the picture later won the grand award into Look Magazine's sports photo contest over 700 entries from the nation's top press photographers. Two exceptionally well done stories by Lee Remmel add up to perceptive word portraits of Maxie the Taxie McGee and former Packer coach Curly Lambeau. There is also another about Dave Hanner that carries no byline, but the general style points to Remmel as the author, too. A section devoted to the championship playoff contains both Art Daley's story of the game as well as the account by Red Smith, which appeared next day in his sports column in the New York Herald-Tribune. Smith, a former Green Bay resident, included the story in a book of selected pieces he published early this year...EXPANDED LEAGUE SECTION: A greatly expanded League Section outlines the assets of every other club in the NFL, while the Packer possibilities, naturally, come in for a lot of ink. Daley leads off with an analysis of the Pack's chances to repeat, there's a story on draft choice Herb Adderley, contributions from Bud Lea of the Milwaukee Sentinel, Chuck Johnson of the Milwaukee Journal and Cooper Rollow of the Chicago Tribune, and detailed information on Packer veterans plus features on Jim Ringo and the "Katzenjammer Kids" - Jess Whittenton, Hank Gremminger and John Symank. The figure nuts have plenty of dope to chew on including the statistics of every game of the 1960 season. Jack Yuenger contributes a rundown on the Packers' all-time individual scoring table and Len Wagner, recent addition to the P-G sports staff, as well as Tom Miller, Packer publicity chief, have their time at bat...FEATURE BY STARR: Also not to be disregarded is a feature by Packer quarterback Bart Starr, in which the quiet Alabaman lets his butterflies flap their raucous wings as he relives the pregame hours prior to the title-clinching game with the Rams on the Coast. By and large, the book is a treat, complete, attractive and beautifully laid out. The book is unhesitatingly recommended - not because Daley and Yuenger are friends and colleagues of mine, but simply because it's a damned good job.
VETERANS' DESIRE HOLDS KEY TO PACKER TITLE HOPES: VINCE
JUL 12 (Green Bay Press-Gazette) - What of the 1961 Packers? Square-shouldered Vince Lombardi, obviously primed for the task at hand, saw one ominous chink in the armor of his NFL Western Division champions today as he and his aides stood poised for defense of that title on the eve of training camp. "We need help at defensive back," 1959's NFL coach of the year admitted with customary candor. "We need all-around help (at both cornerback and safety) there." He mentioned no names but there can be no little doubt some concern exits over the physical status of the Packers' grand old man, loquacious Em Tunnell, who like Archie Moore admits to varying ages, in this case beginning at 36 and ranging up to 41. Tunnell, also like his ring counterpart, is an apparent exception to natural laws, however, and can be hardly be counted out. Should he be unable to answer the bell, there are several comforting possibilities, Lombardi revealed. "Dale Hackbart, with a year's experience, should help us there," he said. "It's only speculation, of course, but Phil Nugent (a rookie out of Tulane) looks like he should help us. There also is a possibility that Herb Adderley (the Pack's No. 1 draft choice from Michigan State) could play there, too." The defensive backfield is not his only concern, he conceded, observing, "We could stand held in the defensive line and possibly could stand some in the offensive backfield. We have three running backs (obviously Paul Hornung, Jim Taylor and Tom Moore) but that's about it. With a 14-game schedule, it looks like we're going to need some running backs. We have Larry Hickman, of course, who had had some experience. We're going to use more running backs than we did before," he noted ruefully, "and yet we have two less players to do it with." He had reference to the new player limit, reduced to 36 for 1961 from 38 a year ago. "This means, of course, that the injury factor will be considerably greater than in the past," he pointed out. The kicking problem is a familiar one to the dedicated Italian but familiarity thus far has failed to breed a solution. "As I've said many times before, asking Hornung to placekick and run is too much to ask," Vince emphasized. So much for the weaknesses - what of the strengths? "The bright points, of course, are the offensive line, the linebackers and three running backs, who are excellent," Lombardi itemized. "The receiving group (Max McGee, Gary Knafelc, Boyd Dowler, Ron Kramer, Lew Carpenter) is good, too." Quarterback also falls into this category, he intimated. "There is no question in my mind that Starr can do the job," the Packer headmaster declared. "Behind him we have Joe
The Sporting News - January 11th 1961
Final resting place of Walter LeJean, a member of the Packers in 1925-26 - Oak Hill Cemetery, Clermont, FL (Source: Findagrave.com)
Who was Packers' first African-American player? Walter Jean might have been first to break color barrier (Jan 28th 2016)
(By Cliff Christl - Packers.com) - On Dec. 2, 1950, a week after Bob Mann had joined the Packers, Art Daley wrote in his Green Bay Press-Gazette sports column that he was the first African-American to play for the team in a league game. Ever since, Mann, an offensive end, has been acknowledged as the player who broke the color barrier in Green Bay. Now, more than 65 years later, there's evidence to show that Walter Jean actually earned the distinction a quarter-century before Mann signed with the Packers. That revelation was first published on a website titled, "Oldest Living Pro Football Players: Pro Football's Online Encyclopedia." The story was the work of Steve Jubyna, who lives in Marietta, Ga., and has researched the genealogies of early pro football players since the 1970s. The Packers signed Mann on Nov. 25, 1950, the day before a home game at old City Stadium against San Francisco. At the time, Mann was a free agent after playing two seasons with Detroit and Gene Ronzani was in his first year as the Packers' head coach. Mann played his first game with the Packers the day after he signed and into the 1954 season. He was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1988. (Photo of Mann to the left thanks to Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, Inc.) The Packers announced Jean's signing on Aug. 5, 1925. He had played the previous season with the NFL's Milwaukee Badgers and for two years prior to that with the Akron Pros. Jean appeared in 19 games for the Packers during the 1925 and '26 seasons, and played all three positions on the line – guard, tackle and center – at a time when players doubled on offense and defense. He started nine games and played the entire 60 minutes in six of them. Total Football: The Official Encyclopedia of the National Football League, first published in 1997, listed him as Walt LeJeune (aka Walt Jean) and correctly credited him with playing in 19 games for the Packers. NFL.com lists him as Walt LeJean and incorrectly credits him with playing for the Packers only in 1926 and in only 10 games. The first Official National Football League Encyclopedia, written by Roger Treat and first published in 1952, listed him as Walter Jean and had him playing for the Packers in 1925-26. Jean was born in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Jan. 12, 1898, according to Jubyna and Karen Schaffer, a great niece who has done extensive genealogical research on her family. Jean died on March 28, 1961, in Jacksonport, Wis., along the Lake Michigan shoreline in Door County. The 1900 United States Federal Census confirms what Jubyna and Schaffer separately unearthed. Walter M. Jean was living in Chillicothe and listed as 2 years old and black. His father, Marcel, also was listed as black. His mother, Elizabeth, was listed as white. Walter Jean was subsequently listed in the 1910 and 1920 censuses as mulatto and in 1930 and 1940 as white. He was listed as Walter Le Jean in 1940. Jubyna found that on Jean's 1917 draft card, he was listed as white, but that on a list of Ohio soldiers in World War I, he was listed as colored. Schaffer said her grandmother was Jean's sister. Schaffer also said she had her DNA tested on her maternal side. "I think my family decided at some point they weren't going to be black anymore," she said. "(Walter Jean's) mom was white and kind of integrated into the white world and the rest of the family integrated into the black world. There are some members who look like they have some black in them and others that don't. The family lore has always been Cherokee. There must have been a little bit because there's a little bit in me, but way more black in my DNA profile." Later in life, Jean split his time between Jacksonport and Clermont, Fla. Bob Schutt said the Jeans were next-door neighbors in Jacksonport and he remembered as a teenager peeking in on some of their parties. The Door County Advocate even reported on one in its July 22, 1952, edition. It said about a dozen former players and the team's current coaching staff attended what it referred to as the third annual reunion at Le Jean's cottage. "Curly Lambeau would come over. Johnny Blood," said Schutt. "I never went over. I looked through the bushes when they were giving it hell. He probably had 10, 15 people over here. I remember it twice. It was Packers, all Packers." Schutt also assumed Jean was white, but said he never gave it much thought. "Funny you said that because my mother said, 'I wonder if he is black,'" said Schutt. "She didn't think he was white." In his 29 years as coach of the Packers, from 1921 through 1949, Lambeau never had a black player. He also never had a black player as coach of the Chicago Cardinals from 1950-51 and as coach in Washington from 1952-53. In all likelihood when Jean played for the Packers, he was considered to be white by Lambeau, his teammates and fans. In researching her ancestry, Schaffer found that Jean's mother was white, as were her parents. Based on her own DNA, Schaffer believes one of Jean's grandparents on his father's side was black and the other was half-black and half-Cherokee. As for the different last names, Schaffer said she couldn't explain it. "I find no LeJeans," she said. "It's all Jean, all the way back to 1840. I don't know if he did that to make it sound better. His middle name was Learmand. Maybe he combined the two." When Jean was with the Packers, he was listed by that name only in team publications, as well as in stories and box scores that appeared in the Green Bay Press-Gazette. The headline over his obituary in the March 28, 1961, edition of the Door County Advocate read: Walter LeJean Passes Here; Former Packer." An obituary in the March 28, 1961, edition of the Tiffin Advertiser-Tribune spelled his name, Le Jean, with a space. Schaffer said the name on his tombstone in Florida also is spelled Le Jean. But she said she was certain it was the same person and that his given name at birth was Jean. Jean was certainly well-traveled. When he signed with the Packers at age 27, the Press-Gazette noted that he "roved a bit during his college career as he played football for the University of Missouri, West Virginia U., and Bethany and Heidelberg colleges. He coached for one year at the Bowling Green State College in Ohio." His obituary in the Advertiser-Tribune in Tiffin, Ohio, home to what is now Heidelberg University, said he was a former football star at the school better known as "Bolo" Jean. The paper said he attended Heidelberg "in one of the most brilliant periods of its football history," transferred to Bethany College and received his degree from Marquette University. Jean registered for classes at Heidelberg in the fall of 1916, but never graduated, according to records in the school's archives. Its 1918 yearbook referred to him as a "gridiron giant." He also was a member of the Student Army Training Corps, which existed at Heidelberg from Oct. 1 to Dec. 20, 1918. Bowling Green provided confirmation that Jean served as head coach of the school's 1920 football team. Jean was listed in the 1922 Bethany College (W. Va.) yearbook as being a member of the school's 1921 football team. Under his photo, it read, "Jean, the Bisons' plunging fullback, completed his fourth year of college football this fall." Jean was not listed among the all-time lettermen at either West Virginia or Missouri. Nor could Jean's name be found in digitized yearbooks, alumni magazines or local newspapers in the University Archives at Missouri. He joined the Akron Pros in 1922 and played in eight games in what was his first NFL season. Despite Jean leaving Heidelberg before his class graduated, the obituary in the Tiffin paper said he "retained his affection and loyalty" to the school and "returned here frequently to attend homecoming games and meetings of the Alumni H Association." The 1942 Heidelberg Alumni Roster, preserved in the school's archives, listed him as Walter LeArmond LeJean and the recipient of a B.S. degree from Marquette. Marquette had no record of Jean (or other variants that he used) attending school there, much less graduating, according to Michelle Sweetser, the university's archivist. She checked the school's alumni database, university catalogs and bulletins, and also digital collections, which included the student yearbook and student newspaper. Despite the gaps and many contradictions in Jean's background, Jubyna said there's no doubt he is a member of a select group of pro football players. He's "one of the now '13' African-American professional football players during the 1920-1946 era," Jubyna wrote on the website for which he now does his research.
Francis, who has had some experience, although I'll grant it hasn't been too much, and a kid named Keckin (Val, from Mississippi Southern) who I think has some chance." Is there an possibility in view of Moore's spectacular 1960 emergence, that he will employ a three-running back offense? "No, I won't use the three-back setup because Hornung is not a flanking back type." He did leave the door slightly ajar, however. "I may possibly go to such a situation with Moore and Adderley," Vince confided. How, by the way, did he assess Adderley's chances? "Adderley has a good chance to make it," He said. "So have Nugent, Ron Kostelnik (giant rookie tackle from Cincinnati) and Nelson Torburen (Wichita lineman). Pitts (Elijah, a halfback from Philander Smith) has great speed, good hands and he's intelligent. Novak (Jack, a linebacker from the University of Miami, Florida) could make it, too. We've got a pretty good draft," Lombardi added, not without a modicum of satisfaction. Is it possible for him to see any improvement in last year's Western champions on paper? "No, I can't tell at this point whether we're improved," Vince replied, adding with a grin, "I'll have to wait until the middle of August for that. As I have mentioned, several of the rookies could make a difference. And all the veterans have the proven ability to do the job - it's a matter of whether they want to pay the price. Certainly, it's not going to be easy," he asserted. "We have an extremely difficult schedule. I don't know of anyone else in the league who has a more difficult schedule, considering that we have to play both Cleveland and the Giants from the Eastern Conference. I know there's not a Western club that has the schedule we have." Any predictions? "I don't know what would win it. Ten-and-four should win it - that's a lot of games to win, ten," he appended with a twinkle. "Nine-five could tie for it. In fact, we could have three or four teams tied for first place, at least three. We could be playing football," he chuckled, "until the end of January."
