Championship Memories

My favorite football team is playing for the world championship today. It happens to be the 9th such time since I've been around that they'll be doing that. At the risk of sounding like an "old timer", I actually do remember the championships of the Lombardi era, beginning with the tough loss in the 1960 NFL Championship game against the Eagles in Philadelphia at old Franklin Field. That game would be the only playoff game a Lombardi team would ever lose and in reality it was a game the Packers probably should have won.

The 1961 championship was held in Green Bay and was the game that spawned the moniker "Titletown USA". The Packers throttled the Giants that year 37-0 and I can still remember a headline that appeared in either the Green Bay or Appleton paper the next day, proclaiming "New York can have Tittle,Green Bay has Title", a reference to the Giants great QB YA Tittle, who was frustrated and harassed all day by the Packer D while Bart Starr and the great Packer offense was nearly flawless. The scenes of the goalpost being torn down and hauled through the streets of Green Bay were priceless indeed.

1962 saw a Packers-Giants rematch, this time on the cold, windy turf on Yankee Stadium. The Pack once again prevailed, 16-7 in a game that many of the players said years later, was nearly as cold as the famed Ice Bowl. Guard Jerry Kramer kicked 3 clutch field goals in difficult conditions and the Pack prevailed in a gritty contest.

After missing the playoffs for 2 years straight, the Pack returned to the top after the 1965 season, this time prevailing over the Browns in Green Bay. I remember that day very well. It had snowed 6 inches or so during the night and I remember my Uncle Gib and his son Bob(I think) stopping at our home in Navarino on the way to the game. The Pack prevailed as they held Browns Hall of Fame running back Jim Brown in check on the way to victory. It was to be the first of 3 straight championships for the Packers, the only NFL team to win 3 in a row, and our Green and Gold has done it twice.

1966 and 67 saw two thrilling contests with the Cowboys with the first tilt being in Dallas, that victory sealed by a late interception of a Dandy Don Meredith pass by the Packers Tom Brown. 1967 was culminated by arguably the most famous game ever played, The Ice Bowl. With the 67 title game being played in Green Bay, the game was not on TV around here. That was in the days when home games were "blacked out", the thought being that televising games in areas close to where the game was actually being played would cause attendance to suffer. How wrong that thinking was for the most part. I can remember pacing feverishly around our living room as the Pack drove down the field on that fateful drive that culminated in Bart Starr's famous QB sneak. I do believe I jumped so high when he scored, that I hit my head on the ceiling. That was probably the biggest"air" I ever got in my life.

Pacing is something that comes with the territory I guess it you're a fan of any sport. I know I did my share of it a few weeks ago during the final minutes of the NFC Championship against the Bears, and I'm sure I'm in for a lot of it later today.

Those two wins were followed by the first 2 Super Bowls, although it wasn't even known by that name back then. Boy, that seems like a long time ago and I guess it was.

Most everyone reading this will remember the 1996 and 1997 seasons, the first culminating in the victory in New Orleans over the Patriots is Super Bowl XXXI. What a feeling that was to have the Lombardi Trophy coming back to Green Bay! Sadly, the following year we lost to the Broncos, a real downer. I'm sure many of us thought that might be the last trip to the "Big Game" that we'd see in our lifetimes. I know I had my doubts from time to time. But football, especially NFL football, is a hard game to figure out sometimes. Look at this season. In spite of all the injuries, tough overtime losses early in the year, an almost unforgivable defeat at the hands of the Lions when they could least afford it, these guys have jelled and gotten hot at just the right time. Hopefully, that hot streak will continue in just a few hours and our guys will return home tomorrow, with another Lombardi Trophy in hand. GO PACK!