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The History of the Green Bay Packers, The Lambeau Years, Part One
Packers. Green Bay. The Green Bay Packers. No matter how it’s said, one can’t say Green Bay without thinking of the Packers or say Packers without thinking about Green Bay, the greatest little city in all of professional sports. But when and how did this legend in pro sports begin? That question is answered in the first detailed history of the Green Bay Packers.
Larry Names tells the myths that color Packer history. Then he strips away the legends and finds the truth behind the tales. Did Curly Lambeau really start the Packers? What was George Whitney Calhoun’s role in Packer history? How did George Halas help save the Packers from extinction? Were the early executives of the Packers anti-Semitic? How did Gerald Clifford create the most unique franchise in all of professional sports?
Then there was the team, the players. How did the coach and general manager a small town team in the frigid north entice so many stars to play professional football for him for less money than they could get in bigger cities? Jug Earpe, Charley Mathys, Cub Buck, Vern Lewellen, Red Dunn, Lavvie Dilweg, Johnny Blood, Cal Hubbard, Mike Michalske, and more. Hall-of-Famers all.
The Green Bay Packers. The team and franchise too tough to die.
Larry Names tells the myths that color Packer history. Then he strips away the legends and finds the truth behind the tales. Did Curly Lambeau really start the Packers? What was George Whitney Calhoun’s role in Packer history? How did George Halas help save the Packers from extinction? Were the early executives of the Packers anti-Semitic? How did Gerald Clifford create the most unique franchise in all of professional sports?
Then there was the team, the players. How did the coach and general manager a small town team in the frigid north entice so many stars to play professional football for him for less money than they could get in bigger cities? Jug Earpe, Charley Mathys, Cub Buck, Vern Lewellen, Red Dunn, Lavvie Dilweg, Johnny Blood, Cal Hubbard, Mike Michalske, and more. Hall-of-Famers all.
The Green Bay Packers. The team and franchise too tough to die.
220 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 1, 1987
1 person is currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Larry D. Names
46 books12 followersLarry Names is a prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction books. He is a recognized authority on the Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, and Green Bay Packers. Names has had 43 titles published to date, 26 of them novels, and the remainder non-fiction all dealing with sports teams or sports figures. He resides in central Wisconsin with his wife Peg on a family farm that has been in his wife’s family since 1854. They have two children: Torry and Tegan; four children from his first marriage: Sigrid, Paul, Kristin, and Sonje plus a football team of grandchildren; cats: Teti and Cleo; and are caretakers to their daughter and son-in-laws horses: an escape-artist horse Lucky Moondancer, Amerrah, Mikah, Windy and Mae. The author was born in Mishawaka, Indiana in the shadow of the Golden Dome, the University of Notre Dame. He is an avid researcher and traveler. Besides being a passionate history buff, he is also an informed and enthusiastic sports fan and memorabilia collector.
Names researches his novels and non-fiction extensively. As he puts it, "I can’t write about a place I haven’t seen or touched." He and his family have averaged two months of travel a year since he took up writing full-time in 1976; often logging 30,000 miles annually. The settings for his books range from Mexico to New York to California and almost every place in between.
For more information about Larry Names and his books, go to https://www.larrynames.com/
“Like” Larry Names on his Facebook Fan page at: https://www.facebook.com/LarryNames/
Names researches his novels and non-fiction extensively. As he puts it, "I can’t write about a place I haven’t seen or touched." He and his family have averaged two months of travel a year since he took up writing full-time in 1976; often logging 30,000 miles annually. The settings for his books range from Mexico to New York to California and almost every place in between.
For more information about Larry Names and his books, go to https://www.larrynames.com/
“Like” Larry Names on his Facebook Fan page at: https://www.facebook.com/LarryNames/
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 9, 2023
RICK “SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: LOMBARDI TAKES PACKERS FROM THE OUTHOUSE TO THE PENTHOUSE… AND THE AFL IS BORN
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To true knowledgeable fans of the NFL… and even to motivated… competitive… street fighting salespeople… at corporations large and small throughout the United States… Vince Lombardi is a truly hallowed name. Vince is synonymous… with winning… with motivation… with competitiveness… toughness… fairness… belief… and faith… BOTH… on and off the field! Even young fans watching the Super Bowl… and non-football fans who watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials… have no possibility of not knowing who Vince Lombardi is after watching one Super Bowl… because the most hallowed trophy in all of professional football is the LOMBARDI TROPHY… which only the winning team receives!
There have been untold books written about Lombardi over the years… and there will undoubtedly be more… so what makes this gem of a book by author Larry Names worth reading? First of all it is the fifth volume of this author’s love affair with the entire history of the Green Bay Packers. This volume… so rightfully about Lombardi’s first four years with Green Bay… where from 1959-1962… Lombardi took the Packers from last place to a division championship in two years… AND… to the NFL Championship in three years… and miraculously… to *Back-To-Back* NFL Championships in four years! Lombardi definitely took Green Bay from the “outhouse-to-the-penthouse” of professional football. This book is so well researched by the author… that his copies of historical newspapers and data collected during his tireless research was subsequently turned over to the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio!
The story starts with what made Lombardi… Lombardi… before he came to Green Bay… and the how… and with whom… did the Packers sink into mediocrity with before Lombardi. Of course throughout this historic tale… there are the Packer fans… the publicly held team… the growth of the team and the stadium. Many fans may not be aware that Lombardi was not only hired as the coach… but as the general manager as well. Vince answered to no one… when it came to what players he wanted… what players… he got… and how he used them on the field… and how long they stayed on the team. It was obvious Harry Truman had nothing on Vince… when it came to “the buck stops here!”
During the time covered in the book The American Football League (AFL) was being born and brought to fruition. Many complete books have been written about this… and many books have made tangential brief comments when the AFL wasn’t the main subject. The author took a slight risk in my opinion… and it resulted… in a wonderful… almost seamless… integration… in just the right amount of doses… of not only the AFL's aspirations… but of how the original AFL owners were forced to form their rival league… because they were lied to… deceived… and outright flim-flammed… when attempting to become NFL expansion owners. So as the author leads you chronologically through Lombardi’s creation of a championship team (actually by the time the next volume of this story comes out you can… and must… call it a dynasty)… the AFL starts sneaking into the story at the exact historical dates that intersperses with the Lombardi/Packers story. All of a sudden teams are starting to form… the AFL has a college draft… the NFL has a draft… they start lying to each other about who’s eligible to be drafted… they lie to each other about who they’re contacting and when… gentleman’s agreements are made and broken. Meanwhile the week to week… season to season… story of Lombardi’s Packers continue. Then there’s the court cases between the NFL and AFL… and the Packers keep winning… and the reader is kept abreast of both situations concurrently… as fast as a left-right-combination in a Frazier-Ali Heavyweight Championship bout.
The great Packers players are all here… and there are so many great ones from Taylor to Hornung to Starr to Nitschke to Adderley… Davis… Ringo… Gregg… (I just stopped here at random… with no disrespect to any of them… but rest assured they’re all in this book!). The point in time that this portion of the Packers dynasty covers… was also definitely a different place in time off the field… as a number of Packers were called up to active military duty… including Hornung… Nitschke and Dowler. As these players were sometimes allowed to play on a weekend while on a weekend pass from the military leads to the inclusion by the author of a column by my favorite sportswriter of all-time Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times. The author has the full column… but I’ll just include a short intro: “Today… in the Coliseum, the Los Angeles Rams will play the final game of the 1961 season. The opposition will be the U.S. Army. “Not all the Green Bay Packers are soldiers on leave from the cold war… Just the good ones.”
In my opening of this review… I mentioned that Lombardi also influenced and motivated salespeople in large and small corporation’s throughout the United States… so I’d like to share a personal story. Over forty years ago I worked for a billion dollar international computer sales company. I was selected as one of the top salesmen in the country… at the awards banquet I was given two things… one was a championship diamond sales ring… and the other was a plaque with Vince Lombardi’s speech “WHAT IT TAKES TO BE NUMBER ONE.” That plaque has gone with me to every office and now my home the rest of my career.
I was contacted by the publisher of this book prior to the release and asked if I would like to read and review the very first pre-release copy of this book. I am very happy that I said yes. I’m already looking forward to “part two” of “Lombardi’s Destiny”… and the first one hasn’t even officially hit the stands yet. This book is obviously a work of love from someone on the front lines of fan support for “his” team and their glorious history!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To true knowledgeable fans of the NFL… and even to motivated… competitive… street fighting salespeople… at corporations large and small throughout the United States… Vince Lombardi is a truly hallowed name. Vince is synonymous… with winning… with motivation… with competitiveness… toughness… fairness… belief… and faith… BOTH… on and off the field! Even young fans watching the Super Bowl… and non-football fans who watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials… have no possibility of not knowing who Vince Lombardi is after watching one Super Bowl… because the most hallowed trophy in all of professional football is the LOMBARDI TROPHY… which only the winning team receives!
There have been untold books written about Lombardi over the years… and there will undoubtedly be more… so what makes this gem of a book by author Larry Names worth reading? First of all it is the fifth volume of this author’s love affair with the entire history of the Green Bay Packers. This volume… so rightfully about Lombardi’s first four years with Green Bay… where from 1959-1962… Lombardi took the Packers from last place to a division championship in two years… AND… to the NFL Championship in three years… and miraculously… to *Back-To-Back* NFL Championships in four years! Lombardi definitely took Green Bay from the “outhouse-to-the-penthouse” of professional football. This book is so well researched by the author… that his copies of historical newspapers and data collected during his tireless research was subsequently turned over to the NFL Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio!
The story starts with what made Lombardi… Lombardi… before he came to Green Bay… and the how… and with whom… did the Packers sink into mediocrity with before Lombardi. Of course throughout this historic tale… there are the Packer fans… the publicly held team… the growth of the team and the stadium. Many fans may not be aware that Lombardi was not only hired as the coach… but as the general manager as well. Vince answered to no one… when it came to what players he wanted… what players… he got… and how he used them on the field… and how long they stayed on the team. It was obvious Harry Truman had nothing on Vince… when it came to “the buck stops here!”
During the time covered in the book The American Football League (AFL) was being born and brought to fruition. Many complete books have been written about this… and many books have made tangential brief comments when the AFL wasn’t the main subject. The author took a slight risk in my opinion… and it resulted… in a wonderful… almost seamless… integration… in just the right amount of doses… of not only the AFL's aspirations… but of how the original AFL owners were forced to form their rival league… because they were lied to… deceived… and outright flim-flammed… when attempting to become NFL expansion owners. So as the author leads you chronologically through Lombardi’s creation of a championship team (actually by the time the next volume of this story comes out you can… and must… call it a dynasty)… the AFL starts sneaking into the story at the exact historical dates that intersperses with the Lombardi/Packers story. All of a sudden teams are starting to form… the AFL has a college draft… the NFL has a draft… they start lying to each other about who’s eligible to be drafted… they lie to each other about who they’re contacting and when… gentleman’s agreements are made and broken. Meanwhile the week to week… season to season… story of Lombardi’s Packers continue. Then there’s the court cases between the NFL and AFL… and the Packers keep winning… and the reader is kept abreast of both situations concurrently… as fast as a left-right-combination in a Frazier-Ali Heavyweight Championship bout.
The great Packers players are all here… and there are so many great ones from Taylor to Hornung to Starr to Nitschke to Adderley… Davis… Ringo… Gregg… (I just stopped here at random… with no disrespect to any of them… but rest assured they’re all in this book!). The point in time that this portion of the Packers dynasty covers… was also definitely a different place in time off the field… as a number of Packers were called up to active military duty… including Hornung… Nitschke and Dowler. As these players were sometimes allowed to play on a weekend while on a weekend pass from the military leads to the inclusion by the author of a column by my favorite sportswriter of all-time Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times. The author has the full column… but I’ll just include a short intro: “Today… in the Coliseum, the Los Angeles Rams will play the final game of the 1961 season. The opposition will be the U.S. Army. “Not all the Green Bay Packers are soldiers on leave from the cold war… Just the good ones.”
In my opening of this review… I mentioned that Lombardi also influenced and motivated salespeople in large and small corporation’s throughout the United States… so I’d like to share a personal story. Over forty years ago I worked for a billion dollar international computer sales company. I was selected as one of the top salesmen in the country… at the awards banquet I was given two things… one was a championship diamond sales ring… and the other was a plaque with Vince Lombardi’s speech “WHAT IT TAKES TO BE NUMBER ONE.” That plaque has gone with me to every office and now my home the rest of my career.
I was contacted by the publisher of this book prior to the release and asked if I would like to read and review the very first pre-release copy of this book. I am very happy that I said yes. I’m already looking forward to “part two” of “Lombardi’s Destiny”… and the first one hasn’t even officially hit the stands yet. This book is obviously a work of love from someone on the front lines of fan support for “his” team and their glorious history!
September 5, 2022
Good history of the early days of the Green Bay Packers.
October 4, 2012
Even as a diehard Packers fan, I found this a bit dry. The author goes into minute detail of nearly every week of the first years of the team and soon runs out of adjectives and verbs for two football teams playing one another. For the most part it read very much like an encyclopedia, listing each member of the team every year.
I also found it a little annoying how smug and superior he sounded as he pointed out just how well researched the book was and how he reveled in previous historians' failure to uncover what he did. We get it, Larry, you did your homework.
That said however, I still enjoyed it. I found the early NFL politics and team maneuvering to be quite interesting and there was certainly things about the founding of the franchise that I didn't know and feel like a bigger fan now that I do. I'd recommend giving it a shot if you're a big fan. If you're a casual one, not so much.
I also found it a little annoying how smug and superior he sounded as he pointed out just how well researched the book was and how he reveled in previous historians' failure to uncover what he did. We get it, Larry, you did your homework.
That said however, I still enjoyed it. I found the early NFL politics and team maneuvering to be quite interesting and there was certainly things about the founding of the franchise that I didn't know and feel like a bigger fan now that I do. I'd recommend giving it a shot if you're a big fan. If you're a casual one, not so much.
January 9, 2014
Green Bay Packers: The Lambeau Years Part One is a history of the beginning of the storied National
Football League franchise from its days as a city team in 1918 and before to its fight to become and to stay a team in the NFL. Larry D. Names relies on many articles from the Green Bay Post-Crescent and seems to remain objective even though the newspaper accounts aren't always. Names tries to look at both sides of early leaders as Joe Carr, the first president of the league, Curly Lambeau, and George Halas. This is an honest book although the writing leaves something to be desired.
Football League franchise from its days as a city team in 1918 and before to its fight to become and to stay a team in the NFL. Larry D. Names relies on many articles from the Green Bay Post-Crescent and seems to remain objective even though the newspaper accounts aren't always. Names tries to look at both sides of early leaders as Joe Carr, the first president of the league, Curly Lambeau, and George Halas. This is an honest book although the writing leaves something to be desired.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews