Some of the footage is shared with the Don Hutson TD-leading seasons video, but there's plenty of new stuff here as well.
"Hutson and Herber were the absolute perfect combination for a quarterback and a receiver. You had a guy who could throw the ball 65 yards in the air, and you had a reciever who could get downfield and outrun everybody. I mean, the first time Herber completed a pass to Hutson was in a game against the Bears for 83 yards for a touchdown."
- Dan Daly, The Washington Times
That's evident in this set of screencaps showing Herber dropping back and tossing a bomb to Hutson, who separates himself from the defenders and runs it home:
No color this time, unfortunately. But we are treated to a few seconds of the 1937 short film Pigskin Champions, which featured the World Champion Packers in an intrasquad exhibition of football skills.
That's Herber leading the offense in borrowed white jerseys. The defense is wearing the 1935-1936 uniform, kelly green shirts with gold sleeves and pants, topped off with the striped helmets. As Curly leads the men in calisthenics, we get a pretty good look at the uniforms:
This might have been the last appearance of this uniform set - by the time the film was distributed in October of 1937, Lambeau had brought back the navy-and-gold color combination and introduced his classic gold-yoked uniform.
Pigskin Champions is extremely hard to find. I know that it was played on Green Bay television as part of special programming around Super Bowl XXXI. Taped copies of that presentation circulate every now and then - if anybody has a copy, please drop me a line.
1 comment:
I own a copy of Pigskin Champions... As far as the videos above go, half of the footage they show in the "Herber to Hutson" video is actually of Hutson catching passes from Cecil Isbell. The "Hutson TDs" video also incorrectly refers to Isbell as Herber, even though Herber wasn't even on the team in 1942. Contemporary books and articles I have read from the 50's and 60's often refer to Isbell and Hutson as one of the greatest passing combos of all time, not Herber. And Lambeau himself referred to Isbell as the greatest passer he ever coached. Nowadays, not only do people not remember or recognize his name, but a bunch of "experts" at NFL Films can't even identify him. Cecil Isbell: the ghost of NFL history.
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