[Music] greatest franchise in the National Football League the most unique story and all of sports you heard all the time people made reference to it as Titletown the story of the Green Bay Packers really resonates throughout this country and hopefully throughout the world it is the historic place in the NFL when you get right down to it there's nobody that matches up with this place right here in Green Bay Wisconsin is the most important play we have [Applause] [Music] you franchises such as the Packers which represent small communities and have had a rich history between the team the players the coaches the administrators and the community that's that's priceless this town may not be in New York City it may not be Philadelphia Chicago these worldly cities they may think they're better than Green Bay Wisconsin but when it comes to football not so much it cannot just be about bigness and size it's got to be about merit talent innovation change in competition and in many ways that's what Green Bay represents that strong link that strong sense of identity that this football team is part of this community in Green Bay people care about the Packers how can you not love a small city team competing with the biggest cities throughout the country not only competing but excelling Valentine's Day 1930 the Fox Theater opens in downtown Green Bay more than 5,000 people stand in line anxious to view scenes from the Packers fall victory over the New York Giants and route to their first NFL championship certainly their biggest game in the 1920s one of the biggest games ever 1929 what did they give up 22 points the entire season so he just didn't score on the package that year there were enough folks back then who believed and then who wanted them to survive the Green Bay fans love their Packers and of course a good time no liquor flowed freely in Green Bay prohibition was practically non-existent here it's always been a bit Billis community and particularly during Prohibition there were a number of stills that were set up right in the community there was 15,000 gallons of mash in this little bitty house when they figured that they were turning out about a thousand gallons of alcohol a day and nobody saw anybody coming and going really really okay it was pretty well open on the street you got to understand that it didn't have the communication ability that we have today the only communication you had was word of mouth and telephone because of the way the telephone system worked at the time the switchboard operators at the telephone company knew exactly what was going on when the feds would call from Milwaukee to notify the local police that there was going to be a raid in Green Bay by the time they got here everything was gone Johnny blood said if you fell in love with this city shortly after he got here because there was a prohibition raid and they arrested all the Barkeeper's but the federal prohibition agent is the one that ended up serving time and the bartender's all got off scot-free one of the reasons why the mob didn't get a foothold into Green Bay was because Green Bay didn't need them Green Bay didn't need anybody to provide illegal liquor because it was here with a snub to prohibition visiting teams and their fans found entertainment at every corner football fans when they came to town they were speakeasies all over the place that they could go to and celebrate and drink all weekend Green Bay also had a thriving red-light district on the north side of town a favorite an establishment called the Silver Slipper it was built in 1928 as a speakeasy he went to a trap cover that was at the old kitchen and you went down and it was about a six and a half foot clearance overhead then he went down two steps into the drinking room it had six bedrooms upstairs the girls entertained people up there this has been party town since since the beginning it certainly hasn't hurt the Packers Johnny blood was playing for an apostille Maroons in the Pennsylvania in the NFL early Lambo is highly an emirate of Jonny's talents he said a note took Johnny over following the 1928 season he said Dear John if you'll join the Green Bay Packers for the 1929 NFL season I'll pay you $100 a game if you do not drink after Wednesday night before each game I'll pay 110 dollars a game the Johnny wrote back I said I'll take the hundred that was one of the things about out-of-town teams coming to Green Bay was that they knew they were gonna be able to have a good time Packers players are staples in the community almost all the players stayed at the Astor Hotel the single players for sure they only needed a place to stay for a couple months they devour all you can eat meals at the YWCA for the sum of 75 cents go to movies at the Orpheum and attend church on Sunday Green Bay it was a special place a unique place and you could always feel how special it was to be there for a game and how important football was to the community it was a much more intimate relationship between the players and the townspeople and that relationship consists of not only being in a bar with them but seeing them in the grocery store seeing them downtown seeing them all over the place people left him alone they weren't all looking for autographs and things like that I don't think he'd find a better place know where I live at play for above all the people in the city certainly knew you observes you I would speak to you except when the Bears beat you then we always walked down the alleys and you might find somebody there to speak to you Packers got an awful lot of publicity and Calhoun had something to do with that he was not only the sports writer there's covering the team but he was also serving as the PR man for the Packers George Calhoun would entertain the visiting writers who came to Green Bay it was almost like a salon the day before or two days before whenever they got to town Calhoun also takes the show on the road and when he go to places like New York and Chicago rather than go around and make the rounds of the the newspaper offices he'd invite all the sportswriters to his hotel room George would set up in a hotel room with a bathtub full of beer and these reporters would come by shoot the breeze of George and learn about the Packers it is crucial to the Packers survival that they draw big in the NFL's biggest cities time and time again Lambeau would talk about how critical it was for the Packers to field a good team a competitive team that could beat these big city teams because what was most important to their survival or at the gate anyway was drawing well on the road even as a small city Green Bay carries some luxuries opening is the largest hotel in Wisconsin away teams are hosted at the hotel Northland the visiting teams at that time dressed at the Northland hotel and then took city buses to City Stadium the police were there to stop the pedestrians and let the buses through we happen to be the last people they didn't let cross so I'm standing with my dad and my uncle the bear players are all on the bus which arm under wind owners jerseys and one of the bear players reach down he must my hair and said enjoy the game today Buckshot and I thought well they can be bad guys they have to win big or at least win it happens in grand style in October 1930 11,000 fans at City Stadium watched read done past a halfback johnny blood blood scrambles 55 yards for the winning touchdown in the fourth quarter the Packers beat the New York Giants 14 to 7 the victory proves to be the difference in the 1930 race Green Bay takes the championship title for the second straight year it's a great equalizer if fans have been there from day one part of it is it's a small town relative to the other NFL cities very small in fact without the Green Bay Packers Green Bay is just another mid-sized Midwestern town there is no major professional team in this type of a setting that alone is the main accomplishment of the Packers in November 1931 for a New York Polo Grounds crowd of 35,000 the Packers beat the New York Giants again this time 14 to 10 this helps them retain the inside track and winning a third straight NFL championship the team with the best regular season record was called the champion and they become the first team to win three straight championships 1929 1930 1931 no team at ever won three in a row their defense was the best in the league their offense with red Dunn and Lavvy dill Whig Johnny blood as always a threat George Halas that Johnny blood was the first big play specialist in the NFL who was running back but also a fantastic receiver he may have made a even bigger impact on the passing game during their three-year championship run the Packers play - three of the six biggest crops in the NFL we need three straight championships is equate accomplishment and no team is done and other than the Packers we came very close to one and four enrolled the 32 season we had ten three in one record the Bears were six wins one loss and six ties the unique element to the the standings was most games at that time were more low scoring so ties were much more common they actually had the most wins in 1932 wins than the Chicago Bears who actually won the NFL title in 1932 of course it's before the NFL had the playoff system so it's strictly by standings if they had calculated the the standings the way they do today we would actually have won four in a row which would have been amazing November 10th 1932 the Packers embarked on a 32 days six-game road trip to end their season Johnny said to me one day in the room he said highs like go to Oy less than 48 hours after their return they head to Los Angeles where they board an ocean liner destined for Hawaii to play two exhibition games plus two more in California there were 19 of us went over and spent 22 days on the island waiver promoting football on the west coast it's time trying to establish between the two trips they're gone for roughly three months in travel 15,000 miles we had to take courier Lambo because Curley said that you can't go and use the Green Bay Packer name unless I go along we had to give him $1,000 as guaranteed to do that enter Miss California Billie Copeland Curley affectionately calls her sue Miss California she happened to be on the ocean liner two players got in a fight over this beauty contestant and curly interceded and walked away with a woman he informed my agreed to his high school sweetheart and wife at the time of about 13 years that he wanted a divorce despite the winds the championships the fandom the Packers as well as most teams throughout the league continued to face financial woes even with the success on the field they're not making a lot of money it was all based on ticket sales there was no television the Great Depression eliminated wealth huge amounts of wealth in this country there's financial concerns pretty much throughout that entire period for years the team lost money it's throughout the 20s the 30s the forties even going into the 50s it was a great year if we could just break even it was very unstable in those years and then the instability was sort of underscored by the depression it was a long time before we started seeing people buying season tickets and getting to the point where we were sold out on a regular basis so it was tough sledding for for many many years in the National Football League lots of franchises came and went the depression hurt Beane Bay that at the same time it really didn't affect Green Bay as much as it did a lot of other cities it helps that the Packers started out as a winner it's easier to sell a winning team than a losing team even though they had some financial concerns off the field 1931 the second game of the season one of Willard bent was attending the game and he purchased the ticket for $1 for the 1931 Packers Brooklyn Dodgers game at City Stadium they had some temporary bleachers set up he got up to cheer at some point and when he went to sit down something went wrong he fell and injured his back and he sued the team for $20,000 if you read the court testimony of the trial it came out in that testimony that Ben was an alcoholic was suffering from an advanced case of syphilis and was prone to Falls and injuries nevertheless local jury awarded of money a judgment came down for around $5,500 the Packers appealed all the way to the state Supreme Court but the judgment was upheld team goes to the insurance company to take care of the claim and the insurance company doesn't have the money during the Depression the Packers surance company that corne bankrupt so they weren't covered August 15th 1933 the darkest day in Packers history the Green Bay Packers go into receivership now we're hurting now we're hurting and thanking us for lijo Inez it is believed he loans the Packers six thousand dollars out of his own pocket to help the team survive I don't know if he ever got his money back or not but it wasn't a problem for him to step up and put some money where his mouth was with all his his help in that situation who knows as the team survives Judge grass picked a friendly receiver who was Frank John and Judge Henry grass hands John at seventy-six dollars and 18 cents in cash along with judgments and unpaid bills amounting to more than fifteen thousand dollars obviously the people in Green Bay did everything they could to make sure this franchise survived their financial troubles during that period they just sneakily put the franchise in Joe Inez named Joe Inez actually owned the team from the 17 months that the Packers were in receivership I don't really think anybody knew that other than probably the inner circle the Packers organization perpetually on its deathbed time and again the community and its leaders refused to let go that is when the hungry five really came into play the people that led them out of those dark days they were described as a hungry five not because they were hungry for food not because they were hungry for football but because they were hungry for money always able to find the funds these long-standing Green Bay businessmen were a critical component to the survival of a franchise be hungry fight these were successful people they had imagination and dedication there's Gerald Clifford who is the attorney for the Packers he guides them through this receivership and the leadership of Curly Lambeau dr. W W Kelly Andrew Turnbull and then Lee Jo Inez who's the president at the time it's a civic pride in terms of being part of the PAC organization and making sure that the Packer organization keeps going if all the businesses in the industry that pooled our resources and try to promote the city of Green Bay all of that money could not purchased for the city Green Bay what the Green Bay Packers did to its spirit and pride and enthusiasm January 29th 1935 following 17 months in receivership Green Bay's NFL franchise reorganizes as the Green Bay Packers incorporated yet again the Packers look to the community for much-needed funds calling up the second stock sale in their history the team was not doing well financially and they raised roughly 12,000 13,000 dollars and that money from the stock helped them to move forward past those dark days another crisis that we were able to overcome because of the people in this community Gerald Clifford was the one who drafted the Articles of Incorporation the second time around they were done in such a manner that they've remained a community owned team of course curly continued to produce good football teams you know how to pick down that was his one quality I think that superseded everything else added to the mix is a tough and wily guy by the name of Hinkle he was a fullback at 202 pounds linebacker II averaged over 58 minutes a game he did the kicking as well the old-timers used to tell me Clark King Cole was Jim Taylor on offense and Ray Nitschke Editha pretty hard to talk back you just look at photos of inkle at the time he looks like he's gonna be vicious about to hit someone and it's it's almost scary he was a phenomenal football player tougher than rattlesnake was Hall one of his teammates describing he left in 1942 and enlisted in the service for World War two and never played after that when he left he was a leading rusher in the history of the national football way and that Ricker was not broken to eight years later Puckett's Goldenberg 1933 to 1945 longest tenure of any player packers history during the Lambo years an outstanding guard an immigrant from odessa ukraine who moved to Milwaukee at the age of four he played college football for the University of Wisconsin Madison I always dreamed to playing football with the Green Bay Packers even though I could make more money with another team so much of it is what Curley did he had that eye for talent he just knew what he was looking for in a player he built championship teams here with total free agency throughout the entire decade of the 20s into the 30s there was no college draft so it was very important which players you could lure to play on your team one such player Arne Herbert considered one of the greatest long passers of all time his fingers were short and stubby so he couldn't rip the football the way a normal quarterback would first passer in the history of the league to pass for a thousand yards Green Bay native will Football Hall of Famer for his throwing the long pass and 50 60 70 yards and I competitive and the word go he taught me an awful lot about the long pass we were out in California playing a few exhibition games and MGM made a little movie about the Green Bay Packers and when we went out from the movie set one day they hung up by a pane of glass three feet square the goalposts and they gave Herber the ball at the 50-yard line and told him to throw it through the glass he's through the past before the cameras are on got a rash and broke the window pane and they asked him me told me how to do it again and he broke the pain the second time he threw the first two right through the glass from fifty earth now that's accuracy wouldn't flip them her knee her brain needed that end that could stretch the field and they got such an end in mr. Don Hudson in 1835 known as the Alabama antelope Curly's recruitment of Hudson is a key factor to the Packers success he makes big plays catches touchdown passes he had a ability to go out for a pass kind of fool the defender into thinking well Don's at top speed I'm staying with them and then he'd pick it into another gear and he'd separate and make the catch there were a lot of teams in the NFL at the time that featured the passing game the week early did and that helped me packers very successful with Arne Herber having somebody he could throw the ball deep to that really broke the team out of all of a slump the NFL Draft was not established until 1936 so that was the year after we got Hudson when we were getting ready to go to California to play in a Rose Bowl and it was a fellow named shipwreck Kelley owned a Brooklyn Dean and he came down to see me he said if you will promise me that you will sign with Brooklyn if I meet the best price you can get from anybody else I'll give you five hundred dollars of spending money the popular narrative is that Hudson eventually signed with both teams and NFL President Joe Carr awarded him to Green Bay there is little or no evidence Hudson signed with footballs Brooklyn Dodgers in fact Hudson denied it at the time and the NFL has no record if I had gone I might have never had a weird pole ball at all they had no pastor that was prickly Ohio State offense his impact is immediate he is not without his critics there was actually a business guy in Green Bay who had a radio show Emmitt platon 64 230 pounds outspoken fan local radio personality backer shareholder he would criticize anybody he wanted to in Green Bay cuz he was such a big guy no it was gonna take a month it's sort of a robot oh yeah he was kind of a black sheep in the family really and he was he was a packer fanatic and he would rent time on the local radio stations to criticize curly Lambos everything about we'd be in locker room when our butter to listen because he's critical ambled and this time he spent us into her 30-minute program tell him what a lousy deal he made them sign and download so he talked about Hudson saying that he was not big enough he wasn't gonna last he wasn't impressed with them this kind of motivated Hudson Packers were playing the Bears second week of the 1935 season was the Packers first play from scrimmage Ernie Herbert takes the ball fades back to his four yard line Hudson is streaking toward midfield and Ernie Herbert lets that ball go on the first play I called a bashful 80 yards for touchdown that's the first time the Packers have ever scored on the very first play of the game now 83 yard pass silenced them and that was the last word about this guy on a radio for a while October 27th 1935 the Packers play the Bears for the second time this season still down here at Wrigley Field ladies and gentlemen in Chicago they about to get on the way again and has been timeout thus far is 14 to 10 in favor of the bear the beer is fumbled like on the first play in the Packers got the ball back there's the whistle calling the boys back into action Chemical Packers have the ball about the 30 35 yard line run a couple blazer down to the 4 yard line time's running out Herbert Hudson again we win the game three two touchdowns by Hudson in the last three I can still remember my aunt Eleanor screaming at the radio Herbert Oh Hudson an unstoppable combination game after game it goes back to the Curly Lambeau and Don Hudson being really pioneers of the passing game in the National Football League the legendary dye nuts and as they say he can't say Don Hutson let's just say the legendary Don Knotts a in grade school and in high school the Packers and especially Don Hudson were more important than girls the following years September 20th 1936 the first Packers Bears game of the season is at City Stadium over 14 thousand fans attend including the infamous Emmett platen Emmett went to all the games he was a consummate fan okay and he hated the people who ever came to play and sometimes it got kind of rough this bears tackle was continuously offside and the referees never called it evident had and he leaped over the rail punch this guy out he got so mad that he came out of the stands across the track and went right out on the field and knocked a heck and afterward heck but knocked the heck out of the person who was coming after the packed my bear player they had to take the guy how do they behave they ended up landing a punch to the jaw of Ted Rose quiz to the Bears and knocked him flat course in those days that was no great transgression and then the next day he wrote a word letter to the press cos at defending himself wrote that somebody had to do something over this rotten official an excerpt from platen sledder reads as a packer stockholder looking out for the interest of this corporation I tried to approach the ref to remind him of his faithful promise to give unbiased decisions the press Cosette's response mr. platen will have a hard time convincing football fans that mr. Rose wish took the first swing at him did not mr. platen have one of these sudden outbursts of temper some others Chicago Green Bay game more power and good football for the Packers with less noise from mr. platen the Packers are championship bound for the first time in five years set to play the Boston Red skins for the title the NFL had enacted a playoff system they divided the league into two divisions in 1933 and enacted a championship game and that was the Packers first the three that they won previously where they were awarded by which team finished on top of the standings now there's a playoff if you're in the Western Conference you have to play the winner from the east it was played at a neutral site the rules of the day called for the Eastern Division and Western Division champions to rotate hosting the game Boston and Green Bay play the 1936 championship game in New York City the Packers practice field Central Park we played the Boston Red skins but the championship game was played in New York at the Polo Grounds the interesting story about 1936 is the Boston Red skins and Boston's ownership at the time is not happy with the attendance George Preston Marshall who was the owner of the Redskins was very upset with the city of Boston's support of his team that's why he moved the championship game to New York so the NFL championship game is actually played in a neutral setting it's the only NFL championship game that was ever played at a neutral site prior to the Super Bowl era the significance of the fourth NFL championship would be the first NFL title that's one playing an NFL championship game another party big banquet at the Columbus club prohibitions over so it's legal to drink Lambos scouting abilities and recruitment skills keep the team strong you did just run one or two players in a game you used four or five or six different running backs and these running backs had to be able to block and they had to be able to occasionally pass the ball and catch the ball in 1938 the Packers added Cecil Isbell he was a great great all-around back Hurra was starting to get towards the end of his career but Isabelle he was a tremendous passer Isabelle was special in his rookie year already George Halas said that the difference between the Packers from the previous year was that Isabelle was already better than Arne Herbert yes the nose day is that they control the game basically I had the running ability in the the knack of moon but of course I always get throw the ball well Isabelle was a runner he was a pastor and he would go on to become the first player in NFL history to throw for more than 2,000 yards I love the game and when I did a play it played him best of my ability to win and a person knows when he's before him he hasn't because if he hasn't but at 110% ever he's gonna business in a uniform he led the NFL in passing and 42 and retired after the season I was offered a job at my alma mater for the University as a coach looking for the future I thought that would probably be the better for me there's no question about it if you got the afterthought if it means anything I should have continued bland you regretted his decision for the rest of his life had he not retired I can't imagine that he wouldn't be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame that year Korea drafted the Charlie Brock City 1939 I don't think he could find a better football player than charlie broccoli beef instantly enough instantly he was really a ball hawk he was a very steady player he played center and he was also a line back around the defense Charlie Brock was as great a pass defender as any linebacker we ever had a Green Bay he was uncanny if you're smelling a forward pass over the middle he saved a lot of games for us with his with his ability to intercept passes and stay with his stay in his own big names and big plays simply aren't enough to bring in the money the Packers so desperately need the league had gotten rid of all its other small town franchises serious questions were raised about whether Green Bay was big enough teams were now reluctant to come to Green Bay because of the small gates cruelly Lambeau decided to play games of Milwaukee because he thought Green Bay wasn't big enough the annual NFL owners meeting in 1938 determined to keep a stronghold in Wisconsin Packers President Lee Joe Inez presses owners to extend Green Bay's territorial rights to include Milwaukee the owners vote is unanimous the future seems secure the fact that they were granted that territory and that Lee joannec took that impetus was critical to their survival this little town couldn't support us we would have lost this team we needed Milwaukee and they saved us the idea of expanding the Packers territory may generate cash but certainly controversy Curly Lambeau in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal November 1939 if the Packers host the NFL championship game it'll be played at State Fair Park in Milwaukee it will not be played in Green Bay's City Stadium Curley creates an uproar 1939 NFL championship game the first time the Packers actually ho NFL championship game it's played in Milwaukee you're finally in a championship game and it's not gonna be played in your city that did not sit well with a lot of people that was a fifth of the six championships that they want under Curly Lambeau and they had yet to have a championship game here fans approached the association of Commerce to demand the game be played in Green Bay to no avail they played in State Fair Park which was held about 32,000 they added some seats for the championship game but that brought in a lot more income than if the game had been played in Green Bay Packers President Lee Jo Inez explains the rationale due to NFL pressure and the fact that the gate could be almost 30 thousand dollars greater with increased capacity at State Fair Park for a team that is perpetually on the precipice of peril it is hard to argue we had to be more than just Green Bay we had to be a state team if we're just gonna stay in Green Bay we're not gonna make it the Packers disposed of the New York Giants 27 to nothing in Milwaukee the fans really felt cheated they are upset with Lambeau they were set with Lee Jo antes despite their fury thousands of fans gather at the Green Bay freight depot to welcome the Packers home always forgotten after they won and Lambeau made a point of thanking them for embracing the players in him again after winning the championship it's winning it all otherwise we're not gonna celebrate it and I love them but on went wild and of course Curley was acclaimed he was a heroine Lambeau said it's well of Green Bay fans to give us such a turnout we didn't think they would because they were sore about the playoff site Packers co-founder and his storied team close out the football season with their fifth NFL title five championships in that short of tie the prize for the last two of those championships the Ed Thorpe Memorial Trophy in 1934 the National Football League renamed its championship trophy the Ed Thorpe Trophy in honor of notable official a referee named ed Thorpe for most of its lifetime the Thorpe trophy was mistakenly called the Jim Thorpe trophy but it went to the championship team and the Packers won or more than anybody else introduced in 1934 it is awarded to the NFL champion until 1969 in all Lambos Packers will win it three times success should have been inevitable you start in the 20s their first sponsor once they join the NFL Acme packing goes broke before the first season is over they get back in it and then a few years later the league cuts most of its small-town franchises Green Bay survives again then you've got the Depression you've got the Packers going into receivership those aren't little things little obstacles to clear I mean it was one calamity after another but when it comes to football our team on the field can beat your team the fans have been there the cast of characters has been incredible Lambeau the only coach the team has ever known 20 years at the helm he treated you like a man they knew that you should know what it takes really to be a winner the legacy that he built here was all the championships he had here the caliber of players he had here I don't think people realize the impact that he had on the game initially how he changed the game Curly Lambeau [Music] there goes back to throw fires a pass complete the game [Applause] draftin come into being until 1936 so curly had signed a little a number of players on his own prior to them but one point years offered Gerald Ford a contract so that the east-west even in San Francisco the coach of the Green Bay Packers Curly Lambeau offered me $200 a game in 14 games when I got a I thought a better offer from Yale University to be an assistant coach and I could go to law school that looked like a better deal [Music] President Ford he slightly decided to go to law school at Yale and then the company come present a United States [Music] it turned out to be the better part for him I guess [Music] whether it jail for team degree Envy in 1976 to formally indicate the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame [Music] [Applause]
