70s Grounds Crew Jacket on eBay

This eBay listing caught my eye, purporting to be a Lambeau Field grounds crew jacket from the 1970s:

The jacket itself is fairly unremarkable, a simple green nylon shell with sheepskin lining.

The jacket features a single-bar gray facemasked helmet graphic common to the period. What's uncommon, and what caught my eye, is the logo on the helmet: the green and white are reversed.

Ordinarily, this might be considered the mark of bootleg merchandise, except that the Packers themselves used a reverse-colored logo on occasion. The earliest example I can think of was in 1962, when the watch given out in lieu of a championship ring featured a reversed logo.

That was only one year after the logo itself was introduced. More recently, the 1997 stock certificates also featured this green-on-white logo.

For a while, the reversed logo was even seen on the side of Lambeau Field, such as this glimpse from the 1980s:

So it's certainly possible that this is an authentic grounds crew jacket. Is it worth $559.99 plus shipping? That is entirely up to you.

Auction Gold: 1960s "Put On" Sweater

I don't usually cover eBay auctions, but Uni Watch tipped me on to a beauty, ending this afternoon:

The auction description is skimpy and boring:

Totally sweet sweater for a Great Wall hanger in man cave. Perfect Xmas gift. Free from any smells or holes. Looks like it was hardly worn Zipper works says size 34 chest and size 18. The put on shop is in label.

The pictures, on the other hand, are great. Always love the single-bar gray facemask, and the sweater's oversized O-ring pull is fun.

This sweater was sold at Sears. Here's a vintage ad from the famed catalogue:

So here you go. Packers fans. Bid early, bid often. Your kid could look like one of the sporty young gentlemen in that photo. Kennedy haircut not included.

"Champions of Them All"

Heritage Auctions

This amazing team photo comes from Heritage Auctions. They have a pair of championship banquet programs to be auctioned off next month, and this is the preview of the first.

The Packers had held a championship banquet for the Packers following every title won to this point, starting in 1929. This, the fifth World Championship, was no exception.

The Packers had been strong all season, finishing 9-2. The only team with a better record was the Eastern Division champion New York Giants at 9-1-1. On December 10, 1939, the two teams faced off at Wisconsin State Fair Park in the Championship Game. You might have expected two such dominant teams to play an even game, but when they took the field the Packers dismantled the visiting New Yorkers, 27-0.

Four days and 120 miles later, two thousand fans packed the Columbus Community Club building on South Jefferson Street in downtown Green Bay. Among the revelers was Wisconsin governor Julius P. Heil, "perhaps as real, honest to goodness sports fan as ever sat in the governor's chair".

In the words of the Milwaukee Sentinel, the room was

"jarred to the rafters with the flood of adjectives as speaker on speaker lauded the Bays for their marvelous performance all season and for the "greatest football display in the game's history" last Sunday. The Packers, themselves, took the adjectives like blushing school girls, but actually beamed with and more than one made a passing remark: "Gee, boys, this Green Bay town is the place to play your pro football."

The venue itself had a long history with the Packers; the Columbus Club building opened in 1925 as a recreational and social center, and immediately began playing an important role in Packer history.

Columbus Club Building circa 1930

There is a Packers Heritage Trail plaque on the building, listing some of that history:

In the 1920s, before radio broadcasts of Packer games, large crowds gathered on Sunday afternoons when the team was playing on the road. A play-by-play was transmitted by telegraph wire from the site of the game, and the results were posted here on a large board built in the shape of a football field.

From 1927 until the mid-1930s, the Packers used the top floor as a clubhouse. For five years, starting in 1930, their ticket office was located here, as well.

The building also was the site of championship celebrations and rousing public rallies that helped save the franchise. Banquets were held in the first-floor auditorium after the Packers won NFL titles in 1936 and 1939. On April 11, 1950, more than 1,500 fans filled the auditorium to kick off the Packers' third stock drive. And on March 31, 1956, more than 1,000 fans attended a rally in support of building what is now Lambeau Field. George Halas and Curly Lambeau were among the speakers. Three days later, the city-wide referendum passed in a landslide.

This also was where the Vince Lombardi Show was taped by WBAY-TV.

The building is now studios for WBAY, the ABC affiliate in Green Bay.

Google Maps

Columbus Club Building in 2012

Let's take a closer look at that team photo. Curly Lambeau is in the front row, far left, and on the far right of the second row we can see assistant coach Red Smith. Smith spent his offseasons as a catcher, coach, and eventually general manager for the Milwaukee Brewers, and in the early 1940s managed the Brews' farm team in Green Bay.

This is Lambeau's classic blue and gold uniform, introduced in 1937 and emblematic of the franchise through the 1949 season. Their socks still had stripes in 1939, although those would only last for a few years.

You can also see that the players are wearing at least two different number styles; undoubtedly the result of old uniforms being carried over (we would see this happen into the Lombardi era as well).

Some of the players are wearing "4"s with a "foot" on the bottom of the vertical line, and some are a fully sans-serif version.

For what it's worth, the photos I've seen of the Packers' white alternate jerseys from that season featured the sans-serif font.

The numbers on Hutson's jersey don't match any I've ever seen before on a navy jersey, and in any case by 1943 he would be wearing the "footed" 4.

What an amazing piece of Packers history this banquet program is. It's going to make some lucky collector very, very happy.

1950 Exhibition Program; The Day Curly Came to Town

Heritage Auctions has an interesting artifact up for auction; the program from an exhibition game played at City Stadium in Green Bay on Wednesday, August 16th, 1950.

The Packers were hosting the Chicago Cardinals, and what's interesting about this game is not the revelation to our younger readers that the Arizona Cardinals used to play in Chicago but the identity of the Cardinals' coach: Packers founder Curly Lambeau.

There he is, right on the cover. As strange as it seems to us now, it must have been doubly strange back then. Curly had coached the Packers since their inception thirty years earlier until January 31, 1950, when he abruptly quit to take the Chicago job. Now, less than seven months later, he was back for the first time, standing on the wrong sideline.

This was a game of many firsts: Curly's first return, and new coach Gene Ronzani's first home game since taking over from him. But for the fans, there were also some holdovers from the previous administration, including most of the squad (most notably Tony Canadeo) and the uniforms they were wearing.

For that August exhibition, Ronzani dressed his men in the navy jerseys, gold pants and gold helmets of the 1949 season, as seen in the Milwaukee Journal's coverage of the game. Curly had introduced the solid navys as an alternate to his gold-yoked jerseys.

I love the headline: "Packers Beat 'Lambeau'".

Although Ronzani's troops were dressed in Lambeau finery for that game, that would quickly change. Ronzani was quoted as saying "We are the Green Bay Packers" and would soon set about proving it, with green jerseys over green pants.

Proxy bidding on this program ends tomorrow, August 16th, at 10:00 pm CDT. Get those bids in now!

Auction Gold: Lee Joannes' Super Bowl I cufflinks!

Wow. There's an amazing find in Heritage's current auction:

1967 Green Bay Packers Super Bowl I Championship Gold Cufflinks....

Originally owned by former Packers president Lee Joannes!

1967 Green Bay Packers Super Bowl I Championship Gold Cufflinks.  It was Milwaukee Journal sportswriter Oliver E. Kuechle who coined the moniker, "The Hungry Five," a somewhat pointed commentary on the quintet of Green Bay Packers board members who seemed always to be in desperate need of cash to keep their fledgling team afloat. Today their founding franchise of professional football stands as one of the most iconic in American sports, but the team's very survival remained very much in question in those earliest years when most gridiron fans considered the collegiate game to be the only one that mattered. But together with coach and star player Curly Lambeau, Green Bay Press-Gazette publisher Andrew Turnbull, attorney Gerald Francis Clifford and team physician Dr. W. Webber Kelly, grocer Lee Joannes formed a united front against looming bankruptcy, serving as team president during the darkest days of the Great Depression. Each pioneering executive is properly immortalized in the Packers Hall of Fame.

Beyond the odd signed legal document and team correspondence, almost nothing exists in the collecting hobby from Joannes today despite his supreme relevance to the very existence of the Green Bay Packers. Presented here is a thrilling exception to that rule, a pair of gold cufflinks awarded to Joannes following the Pack's victory in Super Bowl I. Those familiar with Championship hardware from this first edition of football's most celebrated contest will note the striking resemblance to the rings presented to Starr, Hornung and the gang, but these are the only cufflinks we've ever encountered. It is safe to say that they are considerably more rare than the rings from which their design is cribbed.

Packer-green emeralds are set inside a clever design incorporating the shapes of both a football and a globe, encircled by raised text announcing, "1966 World Champions Green Bay Packers." The circular portion of each cufflink is stamped on verso with the Josten's logo and a "10K" gold content, while the clasps are stamped "1/20 12K GF," the result of two ring faces having been fashioned into tasteful sleeve adornments. Each cufflink survives in pristine original condition.

The small handful of Super Bowl I rings that have appeared on the hobby's auction block have commanded solid five-figure prices, and this offering is every bit their equal--some would argue that the connection to a "Hungry Five" member, and the duplication of the ring's primary design, would give these cufflinks the edge. It's unquestionably one of the most exciting Packers offerings to tempt the advanced collector in recent years, accompanied by a letter of provenance from esteemed Titletown collectibles purveyor Packer City Antiques. Letter of provenance from Packer City Antiques. LOA from PSA/DNA.

"Rare" is an understatement. Lee Joannes is a towering figure in Packers history. Some lucky collector is going to treasure this connection to our team's Founding Fathers.

It's also worth noting that these cufflinks reflect the original design of the Packers' Super Bowl I rings, before Vince Lombardi replaced the emerald with a diamond. Outstanding.

As much as I love Lombardi's style, I actually prefer the emerald to diamond; the green added to yellow gold really brings the Packers' colors to life.

As we get nearer to another Packer season, it's worth pausing to remember those heroes who brought the first NFL-AFL Championship Trophy home to Green Bay:



The auction ends next week: bid early, bid often.

Auction Gold from Heritage

Heritage Auctions has a fantastic auction ending this weekend, inclding some amazing Packers artifacts.

First and foremost is this incredibly rare, game-worn 1940s helmet, worn by Packer Hall of Famer Charley Brock.

From the second era of Glory Days, this flag flew over Lambeau Field in the 1960s:

The 1962 Packer squad is widely regarded as one of the best teams in sports history, let alone the NFL. This ball was signed by the entire squad:

Turning to sideline gear, Mary Jane Sorgel occupies a unique place in Packer history. During the Vince Lombardi era, she was the Lumberjack Band's majorette and romantically involved with team founder and former coach Curly Lambeau. This is the outfit she wore as the "Golden Girl" in those days:

There's something from every era in Green Bay's glorious gridiron history. I love this 1989-90 Tony Mandarich game-worn jersey, one of the last before the NFL added its logo to the collar:

I'm also partial to this 1980s helmet worn by Hall of Famer Jan Stenerud. Single-bar facemask cool! It's signed by Stenerud and others such as Bart Starr, Paul Hornung and Ray Nitschke.

This lot of ticket and two buttons from the first Super Bowl at the LA Coliseum show us that the nickname "Super Bowl" was applied to the game from the start, even if it didn't become official for a couple years:

They also have programs from many championship games - the 1962 World Championship against the Giants in Yankee Stadium, 1965 World Championship Game against Cleveland at Lambeau Field, the 1966 NFL Championship in Dallas and the Ice Bowl, as well as Super Bowls I and II.

This just scratches the surface of Heritage's amazing offerings - check out the whole assortment here. Bid early, bid often!

Auction Gold - Charley Brock's 1940s Leather Helmet

If you liked the clean gold shells the Packers were wearing yesterday, Heritage Auction has something special for you: a 1940s leather helmet worn by center Charley Brock.

Heritage Auctions

1940's Charley Brock Game Worn Green Bay Packers Leather Helmet.   An esteemed member of the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame, Charley Brock was also named as part of professional football's 1940's All-Decade Team, and was a key player of the offense on the Packers' 1939 championship squad.

Heritage Auctions

Offered here is Brock's yellow leather helmet from the 1940's, complete with his number "29" stenciled in green ink on the back and "Brock" noted in the interior.

Heritage Auctions

Exhibiting great wear throughout, it is one of only a handful of game-worn leather Packers shells ever sold at auction. "Rawlings" is branded in the front, while "Rawlings VMI [SIZE] 7 1/4" and the player's numeral is in the rear. Style-matched to a 1943 photo of teammate Don Hutson, with the notable four large airholes on top and rounded front piece, this is a superb artifact from the days of Curly Lambeau, Tony Canadeo, Hutson and the like. LOA from MEARS. LOA from Heritage Auctions. Guide Value or Estimate: $3,000 - up.

Brock was a center who played 90 games for the Packers from 1939-1947. He was selected out of Nebraska by the Packers with the 24th pick in the third round of the 1939 draft. In his rookie year, he played eight games for the squad on its way to the World Championship. He was one of eight players to pick off nine passes against the Lions on October 24, 1943, setting an NFL single-game mark. The record was tied in 1965 by the Philadelphia Eagles against the Steelers, a record which the teams share to this day. After missing the last half of the 1943 season due to appendicitis, he returned to play all ten games in 1944 on the way to his second (and the Packers' sixth) title.

In nine years with the Packers, he only missed seven games, all in either his rookie season or the illness-shortened 1943. Brock was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 1973.

This photo shows Brock in front of Rockwood Lodge, the Packers' training camp facility from 1946 through 1949. He's wearing the same style helmet, perhaps even the same one.

You might remember that I profiled this same helmet a little over four years ago.

Leather Packer helmets are exceedingly rare. I'm only aware of a half-dozen in private collections.

This is your chance to join a select group of Packer fans. Bid early, bid often.