Thursday, September 27, 2012

Packer Hi-Lites, 1963

As we all recover from the stunning events of Monday night, we’re going to divert your attention back to April 1963, with the publication of Green Bay Packer Hi-Lites. This was an off-season edition that kept season ticket holders up to date on team news after their second consecutive World Title in 1962. There’s plenty to read so we’ll let you get to it.



NOTE: For anyone interested in the Packers news we used to provide links to, on the right-hand side of this blog you’ll see “Packers News Links,” which will guide you to the places we used to frequent. As mentioned before, please note that the Green Bay Press-Gazette and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel require a subscription after you’ve read a small number of “free” articles.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Packers of the Past Conclusion

This concludes our presentation of the Packers of the Past (1965) publication, and we hope that some of you have enjoyed it and possibly even learned something.






Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Pro-Football 1954

We’re digging back a ways today to spotlight the NFL in 1954. And more specifically, the Green Bay Packers in 1954. This “official” publication is a preview of the coming season, and has a preview of all the teams in the league at the time. How long ago was this? Well, the Detroit Lions were defending champions, if that gives you any indication.

Let’s see, what changes have taken place since then? Baltimore no longer has the Colts, who are in Indianapolis, and were replaced by the Ravens. The Cardinals aren’t in Chicago, or St. Louis, for that matter — they’re in Phoenix. The Rams left Los Angeles for St. Louis, who had lost the Cardinals, and the rest are unchanged. Got all that? 

Here’s a two-page synopsis of the professional game in 1953-54. 


The NFL Commissioner at the time, Bert Bell, was a supporter of keeping football in Green Bay in an era where most of the league thought a team in such a small town was a thing of the past. 

Some writing on the “World Professional Football Championship.”

The Packers’ preview section begins here. 






Pro football records at the time. 


The full 1954 NFL schedule. 

Your guide to watching professional football on that new invention called “television.”

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Sunday History Tidbits

Here are a few things to get you through your first of two consecutive Sundays with no Packers football. Above is a great postcard photo of the 1960 Western Division champions, with a photo legend and 1961 Packers schedule on the back (below)


Nearing the end of our Packers of the Past series today, we are introduced to a real “boob” in Green Bay’s football history. No kidding.


We can’t imagine anything more irrelevant in mid-September than major league baseball, but on Sunday we’ll be attending the Chicago Cubs-Pittsburgh Pirates game at Wrigley Field. It’s a family venture, and it doesn’t conflict with the Packers, so why not? So, we thought we’d dig out a photo from the 1960’s of a Green Bay-Chicago game at the same venue. The Bears played there from 1921 to 1970. Have a good Sunday!

Friday, September 14, 2012

Back from Green Bay

What a great time was had by all (except the Chicago fans, and there were a LOT of them) at last night’s Packers-Bears game at Lambeau. Hopefully, at least some of you have the NFL Network and were able to see the game. Here is the stadium during early pre-game warm-ups.

More pre-game warms-ups from our Packerville, U.S.A. “Gold Package” season tickets. 

A new treatment during the national anthem — four flags instead of one giant one. It was followed by a fly-over of four U.S. Air Force fighter jets with full afterburners.

Game action from our North end zone seats, two rows above the 40 second clock.

This morning, after dropping some serious cash in the Packers Pro Shop, we checked out the progress on the stadium exterior with the new South end zone seating addition. It was a buzzing construction zone with a lot going on simultaneously.

Here is last night’s game program cover.

More from our Packers of the Past presentation, with WR Billy Howton being spotlighted today. 


One of our purchases from the Pro Shop was this new book from Lombardi Era defensive Hall of Famer Willie Davis. Our library grows and grows. It can be purchased here or here. Stay tuned for more Packers historical items in the days to come.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

A “Cub”… Packer

There are five more installments of Packers of the Past (1965), and featured today is Howard “Cub” Buck, the offensive tackle who played for Green Bay from 1920-1925.


Wednesday, September 12, 2012

The Past; The Future…

A Message from the Editor’s Chair: Ever since the end of last season, we let it be known that we were trying to determine the future of the Packerville, U.S.A. blog. We kept it up through much of the off-season, and headed into the pre-season hoping that we’d recapture or rekindle the fire that once burned in our green and gold souls for doing this platform justice. What we have determined is that we just don’t want to invest the hours that have become involved in the daily updates. It has become a chore, and we have no intention of carrying on if we don’t enjoy it.

To understand, let’s have a short synopsis of the history of Packerville U.S.A. in its different forms. It all started back in the early Holmgren Era, when we printed out and saved Packers news stories for posterity, and to share with others who were not yet on the Web. Over the years, what it evolved into was a weekly newsletter that we produced and sent via e-mail to many friends and relatives. If we do say so, it was the best of its kind and will never be equalled. That too, became eventually too burdensome to commit the necessary hours each week. We started up the blog in 2007, and the two ran side by side for several years. The last print edition of the Packerville, U.S.A. newsletter was a commemorative edition produced after Green Bay’s Super Bowl XLV victory over the Steelers in February 2011.

We switched over to running just the Web version of Packerville in early 2011, and used it to post links to all of the types of information that normally went into the newsletter. What most people don’t realize is the number of hours that were spent combing the internet for news to post as links each and every day. This was a tiring process, and it became much more difficult, as we explained earlier this summer, when the Green Bay Press-Gazette and Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel went behind “pay walls” with all of their Packer news. What this means is that non-subscribers can only access a small handful of articles each month — a fraction of what they used to read for free. We understand the business decision of doing this, but it became that much more difficult to find worthy Packers news to post as links here on the blog.

The bottom line is that we’ll no longer be posting links to news here, unless it is really something that we think needs to be passed along. What we will be doing here is sharing the historical Packers’ material that the blog was created for in the first place. Vintage and current magazines, programs, ads, old photos, as well as photos from our trips to Green Bay for training camp, the shareholders’ meeting, etc.

Does this mean some sort of a lack of interest in the Packers for us? Heavens no. We pay to subscribe to the daily Packers news from the Press-Gazette and Journal-Sentinel, and we’ll be no less informed than we’ve ever been. In fact, we suggest that you subscribe to one or the other to get the Wisconsin coverage you used to get here. We will be attending the Packers-Bears game on Thursday night, and hoped to bring back a batch of photos, but the forecast is for rain, so the good camera will stay back in the Packerville, U.S.A. offices, safe and dry. We’re also watching the process of the 6,700 new seats being built for 2013. The latest thing we read is that 3,800 names will come off the “Green” package waiting list — and we sit at #2,570. Your editor will be 50 in a couple weeks (and has been on the waiting list for 26 years), so we’re looking forward to a couple of decades attending every home game at Lambeau Field.

So, that’s the view from the Editor’s Chair. And now, a visit to the past with someone very few of you will recognize:




Tuesday, September 11, 2012

From the Past: Cecil Isbell

We’re nearing the end of our feature of the booklet Packers of the Past (1965), and today we have QB/HB Cecil Isbell in the spotlight.



Monday’s video was from Coach Mike McCarthy on the short week

PACKERS ON THE FIELD:
• McCarthy wants better rush average
Walden reinstated; Ross released
• Jennings questionable?