September 14, 1919: The football team of the Indian Packing Company of Green Bay, Wisconsin, coached and captained by local hero and former University of Notre Dame quarterback Earl "Curly" Lambeau, a Green Bay native, defeats the Menominee North End Athletic Club, 53-0 at Hagemeister Park.
Thus debuted the team that would come to be known as the Green Bay Packers, the most successful team in the history of professional football, with 13 NFL Championships.
Because they were made up of co-workers, the Packers were a "company team," or what the British would call a "works side." This would also be true of the team that would become their arch-rivals, the Chicago Bears, who began the following season as the Decatur Staleys, representing the A.E. Staley Starch Company of Decatur, Illinois.
The Staleys/Bears, run by George Halas, were a founding team of the NFL in 1920. The Packers were not, but joined in 1921. The Packers won the NFL Championship in the single-division, no-playoff era, 3 straight times: 1929, 1930 and 1931. They won the NFL Championship Game in 1936, 1939, 1944, 1961, 1962, 1965, 1966 and 1967, meaning they won 3 straight NFL Championships for a 2nd time. No other franchise has done this. Vince Lombardi coached them to those last 5 titles. They also lost NFL Championship Games in 1938 and 1960.
Those last 2 titles, 1966 and 1967, were won by defeating the Dallas Cowboys, the former on New Year's Day 1967 at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, the latter on New Year's Eve 1967, in frigid conditions that got the game nicknamed "The Ice Bowl."
That game was played at their new stadium, built in 1957, which, like its predecessor, was named Green Bay City Stadium. Curly Lambeau, who played for them from 1919 to 1929, coached them from 1920 to 1949, and later coached the Chicago Cardinals and the Washington Redskins, died before the 1965 season. In his memory, the 2nd City Stadium was then renamed Lambeau Field.
Those last 2 NFL titles sent the Packers to the games that would retroactively be named the 1st 2 Super Bowls, and they won both. After a long down period, they won Super Bowl XXXI in 1997, and lost Super Bowl XXXII in 1998, both under head coach Mike Holmgren. They have usually been at least competitive since. In 2011, they won Super Bowl XLV, under head coach Mike McCarthy.
Because Green Bay is a small city -- population 62,888, according to a sign shown in a 1967 NFL Films documentary, and 107,395 according to the 2020 Census -- the Packers often played regular-season games in Milwaukee, including the 1939 NFL Championship Game at the State Fair stadium in suburban West Allis, now a racetrack known as the Milwaukee Mile; and at Milwaukee County Stadium, home of baseball's Braves and later the Brewers.
They stopped doing this in 1994, as Lambeau Field had been expanded to be bigger than County Stadium, and it had become more costly to move everything from one "home field" to another and back than it did to stage the games in the much bigger city.
Green Bay is the only one of the NFL's early small cities to survive -- R.I.P. Providence, Rhode Island; Hartford, Connecticut; Rochester, New York; Pottsville, Pennsylvania; Canton, Massillon and Dayton, Ohio; Muncie and Hammond, Indiana; Decatur and Rock Island, Illinois; Racine, Wisconsin; and Duluth, Minnesota.
How? Halas, despite his rivalry with Lambeau, stepped in to use his influence to keep the Packers in the League. And the NFL's TV revenue-sharing agreement means that the Packers can compete on an even level with big cities like New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Without that, most likely, the Packers would have begun "groundsharing" with the Brewers at the Milwaukee domed stadium now named American Family Field.
Since the team now known as the Arizona Cardinals, despite claiming an official connection to a Chicago athletic club that began playing professional football in 1898, hasn't played continuously since then, the Packers are officially the NFL's oldest franchise, older than the NFL itself. And their rivalry with the Bears is the NFL's oldest, and probably its best, helping to give first the NFC Central Division (1970-2001), then the NFC North Division, the nickname "The Black and Blue Division."
Interestingly, while the Packers named their stadium for Lambeau, and dedicated a statue of him outside (along with one of Lombardi), they have never retired his Number 20.
*
September 14, 1919 was a Sunday. Because the Commonwealths of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania still prohibited professional sports on Sunday, it was difficult for pro football leagues to gain traction, prior to the NFL's founding the next season. And some baseball teams were forced to take the day off. But these baseball games were played that day:
* The New York Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns, 8-1 at the Polo Grounds. The newly-acquired Carl Mays went the distance for the win. Wally Pipp hit a home run. George Sisler went 0-for-4 for the Browns.
* The New York Giants lost to the St. Louis Cardinals, 3-1 at Robison Field in St. Louis. Rogers Hornsby went 1-for-4. The Giants got only 4 hits, 2 by Art Fletcher.
* The Detroit Tigers beat the Washington Senators, 9-4 at National Park (later renamed Griffith Stadium) in Washington. Ty Cobb went 2-for-3 with 2 walks, a stolen base, and 2 RBIs. Harry Heilmann went 4-for-5 with 2 RBIs.
* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Boston Braves, 1-0 at Redland Field (later renamed Crosley Field) in Cincinnati. Ray Fisher pitched a 6-hit shutout. Edd Roush, the Hall of Fame center fielder about to lead the Reds to a World Series win over the Chicago White Sox -- and he insisted until his death that the Reds would have won even if the White Sox had played on the level -- went 4-for-4.
* And the Chicago Cubs beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-0 at Weeghman Park -- later renamed Cubs Park and Wrigley Field -- in Chicago. Elwood "Speed" Martin allowed the Phils 10 hits, but kept the shutout.
No comments:
Post a Comment