Green Bay Packers

Played in the 1970s on mostly losing teams and during one of the most turbulent periods in club history. The Green Bay Packers, arguably the most storied franchise in the National Football League, were organized on Aug. 11, 1919 , in the dingy second-floor editorial rooms of the old Green Bay Press-Gazette building, located on Cherry Street in downtown Green Bay. Never imagining what might become of the semipro football team being formed that day, nobody documented who was there or how many were on hand. There had been no announcement of the meeting beforehand, and the Press-Gazette provided no details about it the day after. Whatever the case, the Press-Gazette in its Aug. 13 edition revealed that the Indian Packing Co. would sponsor the team and referred to it for the first time as the "Packers." The paper said home games would be played at Hagemeister Park; listed 38 prospective candidates for the team, mostly former standouts at Green Bay East and West high schools; and noted full uniforms would be provided to up to 20 players. "It will be the strongest aggregation of pigskin chasers that has ever been gathered together in this city," the Press-Gazette proclaimed. A second meeting was held at the Press-Gazette on Aug. 14, three days after the initial one, and nearly 25 players were in attendance. Curly Lambeau was elected captain of the team, and George Whitney Calhoun was named manager. Lambeau was a former star at East High School and played on Coach Knute Rockne's first team at the University of Notre Dame in 1918. Back home after dropping out of school in December, Lambeau was working for Indian Packing at the time. Calhoun, great-grandson of Daniel Whitney, founder of the city of Green Bay, was city editor at the Press-Gazette. The story handed down for decades was that the impetus for the initial meeting was a chance encounter at a downtown street corner between Lambeau and Calhoun. In his 1985 book about the history of the Packers, longtime executive committee member and onetime Calhoun colleague John Torinus changed the setting to a conversation over a glass of beer. Whether it's mostly urban legend or if there's a true story in there somewhere will remain a mystery for the ages. Too much time has passed. But Lambeau and Calhoun have long been regarded as the Packers' co-founders and there's little or no evidence to dispute that. The first season, the Packers won 10 games and lost one against opponents representing mostly nearby towns in northeastern Wisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Packers again played an independent schedule against mostly neighboring towns the next year and again dominated the competition, finishing 9-1-1. C.M. "Neil" Murphy, a local typewriter salesman, was named business manager in July, and he organized a committee to build a fence around the Hagemeister playing field so the Packers could charge admission. Thanks to the support of Indian Packing, the local Association of Commerce, local contractor Ludolf Hansen and fans who provided volunteer labor, construction of the fence began in late August and was completed before the first game in late September. By mid-October, two large sections of bleachers were erected so fans would no longer have to stand along the sidelines to follow the action. On Aug. 27, 1921, the year-old American Professional Football Association awarded a franchise to the Acme Packers of Green Bay during a league meeting in Chicago. The Acme Packing Co., based in Chicago, had purchased Indian Packing eight months earlier. Less than a year later, the APFA would change its name to the National Football League. Most of the APFA's 21 members that second year were located in small hotbeds of football rather than big cities – places like Canton, Ohio, Hammond, Ind., and Rock Island, Ill. Green Bay was the smallest city in the league when it joined in 1921 other than Tonawanda, N.Y., which played one game on the road and folded. And except for a brief