Lambeau: The Man Behind The Mystique

by David Zimmerman

There are precious few individuals who through the sheer magnitude of their success or personalities come to transcend their sport. Truly, they are larger than life. Breaking legendary hallowed ground, these figures are remembered far beyond statistics, victories or trophies. Pioneers, innovators, icons – they are members of a select inner circle of extraordinary achievers. In The Man Behind the Mystique, the reader is privileged to meet just such a man – Earl Louis "Curly" Lambeau, a figure who lent a strong guiding hand to help make football the game that it is today. Astonishingly, even though Lambeau died in 1965, The Man Behind the Mystique is the first definitive biography ever written about the colorful founder of the Green Bay Packers, the National Football League’s most successful team ever. Fans around the world know all about Lambeau Field, home of the Packers. But who really was the man whose name graces the stadium’s walls? Who was this man who dreamed of a football team in tiny Green Bay, Wisconsin, sold the idea to his hometown, and then pushed his Packers into the national spotlight? Through exhaustive research, author David Zimmerman paints a colorful portrait of Lambeau – a ruggedly handsome man, star athlete and revered coach whose pitch-black curly hair and deep, captivating dimples charmed men and women alike. Ladies from Wisconsin to Hollywood loved him – literally and figuratively. Men who played football under him were willing to run through walls at his command. Player, coach, salesman, executive, self-promoter, and team psychologist. Lambeau was all of these things. He also was a paradox. An arrogant hero, who laid down the law to those around him, yet was willing to compromise his own moral integrity. Zimmerman peels away the layers of Lambeau’s evolving character to reveal a man of equal parts greatness and human failing. The reader sees Lambeau through the eyes of many who knew him best, · NFL and Chicago Bears founder George Halas who fought Lambeau tooth and nail, yet admitted privately that he seriously doubted pro football would have survived without the likes of Lambeau · Don Hutson, the incomparable Packer receiver, who was able to stake his claim to greatness because Lambeau was one of the few coaches of his day who believed in the forward pass · Clarke Hinkle, Johnny "Blood" McNally, "Iron Mike" Michalske, Tony Canadeo and many more Packer greats who remembered Lambeau as a motivational genius, but not much of a football strategist · Mary Jane Van Duyse, the Packer Golden Girl and drum majorette, who despite being half his age, was Lambeau’s girlfriend and fiancé when he found peace in his later years. She held the football legend in her arms as he lay dying at her house in 1965. From a small town hero and national figure whose private indiscretions contributed to his fall from grace to a mellowing man whose many accomplishments were finally acknowledged at the end of his life, Zimmerman illustrates how Lambeau’s life went full-circle. And why sports fans, and football fans in particular, must never forget him.

Genres: Sports, Biography, Football

280 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2003

About the author

David Zimmerman was raised in Atlanta, Georgia and attended Emerson College and the University of Alabama. He spent several years living and working in Brazil and Ethiopia. After winning the Three-Day-Novel Contest, Anvil Press published the resulting novella, Socket. His debut novel, The Sandbox, was published by Soho Press in 2010, and his newest novel, Caring is Creepy, will be released in April of 2012. He now teaches at Iowa State University.

Reviews

[Shawn Budiac · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great history of Curly Lambeau with plenty of peaks into his personal life. Loved the overall content and pace of the book, what didn’t make it a four out of five was the editing...it got a bit repetitive in certain areas, pulling that content out wouldn’t hurt the book and wouldn’t be distracting.

[Marc Brueggemann · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to the humanity behind Curly Lambeau. Until there is a more detailed biography, this a great start to knowing the man beyond being the founder and coach of the Green Bay Packers.

[Jeffrey Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zimmerman did an adequate job with the limited material that he had. It was an easy read, though redundant in a lot of places. I learned a few things about Lambeau, though most of it was a rehash of old material that's been floating out there for quite awhile.

He does an excellent job in discussing some of the players of a bygone era, though he doesn't describe much as to the way the game was played back then and the different rule changes that have occurred during his 30+ year reign. The NFL today is drastically different than the game in Lambeau's era and Zimmerman did not do that justice. As a football historian, this part disturbed and distressed me greatly.

The stuff about Lambeau's personal life was the area that Zimmerman excelled at, which makes up for some of the deficiencies in the football narrative.

[Mike Prochot · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining and interesting details on the life and times of Curly Lambeau and the founding history of the Green Bay Packers.

The book is arranged in a historical timeline - easy to follow, easy to read. The writing sometimes suffers a bit from repetition and less than elegant prose, but for those of us interested in how backwoods Green Bay became a football powerhouse, it is well worth reading.

I enjoyed the book overall and intend to follow up on some site visits to several Door County and Green Bay locations mentioned within.

[Papias · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is great book if you are a Packer's fan, but it could have used some tighter editing. It feels like each of the chapters were independently written an then chronologically arranged. As a result there was much redundancy.