Have a Coke (or a Smoke) and a Smile [UPDATED]

This photo has been making the rounds a lot lately.

Press-Gazette Archives

And no wonder - it's a beauty.

Vince Lombardi enjoying a Coke in the locker room, surrounded by Jim Taylor, Paul Hornung and Bart Starr. Taylor, like his coach, is enjoying a Coke. Hornung has a cigarette and Starr a rather uncomfortable facial expression.

I don't know when it was taken. Speculation has been that it was after a championship game, and Lombardi's expression certainly leans in that direction.

The uniforms can help narrow our timeframe; the green/white/gold pant stripes were only used through 1962. In 1963 the Packers adopted the green/white/green Braisher stripe pattern they still wear today.

Similarly, that jewelry on Lombardi's finger looks like a men's fashion ring than the Packers' 1961 World Championship ring. That could help us narrow it down even further - perhaps even to that 1961 Championship Game itself.

If we could see more of Hornung's number font, maybe we could know for sure.

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UPDATE 9/26:  We have confirmation - Tom Farley recognized the locker room as County Stadium. Jeff Ash from the Green Bay Press-Gazette recognized the photo as one of theirs, and was able to supply us with this caption:

In the locker room at County Stadium after clinching Western Division championship with a 20-17 victory over the New York Giants on Dec. 3, 1961.

Jeff comes through again! I have added a photo credit to the image above.

I'm glad that our little detective work had us on the right track. I had the year right, and it was a victory party of sorts, just not the one I thought it might be. This was Week 12 out of a 14-game season, when the Packers clinched their conference.

Looking at the Milwaukee Journal's coverage of the game, we get a couple good shots of the game itself, including a photo of the Packers wearing the blue-and-gold sideline capes left over from previous years:

And there, along the right margin, is a photo of Jim Taylor. Note the distinctive cuts on his nose, matching our original post-game photo (although it does appear that his dentist was given new work to do between the two).

Taylor looks pretty pleased with himself, and rightly so; his 186-yard rushing performance against the New York Giants that day was a Packers team record, and remained his career best.

The only thing I love more than a good mystery is a good mystery solved.

Braisher Stripes on Steriods

Several readers emailed me to mention that the Packers' Braisher pant stripes were looking a little larger this pre-season.

After yesterday's game, it sure looks that way.

It's especially noticable when you compare the Packers' stripes with those of the 49ers, as in this photo of Clay Matthews sacking Colin Kaepernick:

What's especially interesting to me is that there seems to be some inconsistency between players.

In some shots, it almost looks like the stripes are overwhelming the pants.

Take a closer look at that last photo - are we seeing last year's pants versus this year's?

I did think that the stripes started looking a bit wider last season, presumably due to the elastic fabric the Packers were using, but not like this. We'll need to keep an eye on it.

Photo Gallery - 1962 Training Camp

The Green Bay Press-Gazette recently posted a photo gallery of the Packers' 1962 training camp.

Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr (15) calls signals as training camp begins on the practice field across from new City Stadium in mid-July 1962. From left, the players include fullback Jim Taylor (31), receiver Boyd Dowler (86), tackle Forrest Gregg (75) and linebacker Nelson Toburen (61). Press-Gazette archives

Looks like they're playing in a cornfield. I love it.

One of the first things I noticed is that nobody's wearing game pants. All of the players are in plain football pants, with nary a Braisher stripe to be found. Lots of classic "GB" caps on the coaches, though:

Green Bay Packers players hit a blocking sled with three coaches aboard as training camp begins on the practice field across from new City Stadium in mid-July 1962. From left on the sled are coach Vince Lombardi, defensive line coach Phil Bengtson and receivers coach Tom Fears. Press-Gazette archives

Of course, no training camp would be complete without a pic of the man himself. Cap and all.

Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, at left center in white T-shirt, watches as center-linebacker Ken Iman (53) tackles rookie halfback Roger Holdinsky, center, during a drill as training camp begins on the practice field across from new City Stadium in mid-July 1962. Quarterback John Roach (10) is at left. Press-Gazette archives

What's #72 wearing? That's a good question, and one that needs its own post.

Green Bay Packers rookie receiver Oscar Donahue (89) goes through a drilll as training camp begins on the team's practice field across the street from new City Stadium in mid-July 1962. Coach Vince Lombardi watches at right. Press-Gazette archives

Just as today, the camp was well-attended by Packer Backers:

Fans watch as Green Bay Packers training camp begins on the practice field across from new City Stadium in mid-July 1962. Press-Gazette archives

I love the large sans-serif numbers:

Green Bay Packers defensive backs Don Ellersick (48) and John Symank (27) run on a rain-soaked practice field across the street from new City Stadium during training camp on July 20, 1962. Press-Gazette archives

I could definitely see those making a comeback the next time the Packers feel like tweaking their uniforms.

Check out the rest here. There's a lot to like in this gallery, and we'll be taking a look at more over the next couple days. Starting with what #72 is wearing.

1987 Training Camp Oddities

This photo from Training Camp in 1987 comes to us from Jeff Ash via Uni Watch.

It shows defensive end Carl Sullivan wearing a helmet with an upside-down "G" logo!

It also shows us how cost-conscious teams would re-use old gear in practice. From 1984 through 1988, the Packers wore a gold stripe down the middle of the Braisher stripes on their pants. That means that the pants Sullivan is wearing are at least four years old.

I don't know what's up with the missing white helmet stripe on #73's shell. I don't know that I've ever seen one missing stripe.

Hipsters

I just noticed a very subtle detail in Nike's new Packer uniforms:

Uni Watch

The swoosh and NFL shield have switched places on the front of the pants.

Here's how it appeared from 2002-2011:

From 1997 until the "NFL EQUIPMENT" patch was introduced in 2002, players wore an NFL shield patch on their left hips:

The manufacturer's logo, at that time Starter, was first added to the Packers' pants in 1993, as seen on the cover of the 1994 Yearbook:

That's a very minor change that most fans won't ever notice. I wonder what the thinking behind it was?

Video - Don Hutson's TD leading seasons

Today we have some rare video of the Lambeau-era Packers in action, including a few fleeting seconds of great color footage: Top Ten Records That Will Never Be Broken, #5: Don Hutson Leads the League in Touchdowns Eight Times. Well worth checking out.

Some screen captures (click for larger):

Yet another color-on-color matchup against the Bears:

This three-image sequence shows Irv Comp passing up the middle to Hutson, who catches it, spins and runs for a few extra yards:

Interesting - those pants look a lot like the canvas-colored version the Packers wore as part of their 1994 throwback.

This is from 1935 or 36, Hutson running in for a touchdown (love the official's snow-white getup and flat cap):

So why won't Hutson's record be broken? He led the NFL in touchdowns eight times - his closest competitors are Lance Alworth, Jim Brown and Emmitt Smith, who each led the league in touchdowns three times.

Hutson was such a dominant player that you can't just compare him to other players of his era—his stats compare favorably to those of entire teams. In 1942 (in which he earned his second consecutive MVP), Hutson made more receptions than three entire teams: the Detroit Lions, the New York Giants and Philadelphia Eagles. In that same season, he scored 17 touchdowns, as many as the Pittsburgh Steelers and more than the Eagles, Brooklyn Dodgers, Chicago Cardinals and Detroit Lions. More, even, than the Cardinals and Lions combined.

There's hardly a word to describe his accomplishments. "Dominant" is diminished through overuse, but if it ever applied to a player it would be Hutson. From his bio at the Hall of Fame website:

Don Hutson’s first touchdown came on an 83-yard pass from Arnie Herber in just his second game as a Green Bay Packer. He wound up with 99 career touchdown receptions, a record that stood for more than four decades. When Hutson retired in 1945 after 11 superb seasons, he held 18 NFL records, including 488 career receptions. That was 200 more than his closest competitor.

Hutson invented modern pass receiving. He created Z-outs, buttonhooks, hook-and-gos, and a whole catalog of moves and fakes. Although he had been an All-America at Alabama in 1934, there were plenty who doubted the skinny speedster could stand the pace of pro football. But it wasn't long before his mere presence on the field had changed the defensive concept of the game.

Don could outmaneuver and outrace virtually every defender in the league. He led the NFL in receiving in eight of his 11 seasons and in scoring five straight years. Twice, in 1941 and 1942, he was named the league’s MVP.

Like everyone in the days before free substitution, Hutson was a 60-minute player who spent most of his career as a very fine safety on defense. In his final six seasons, he swiped 30 opposing quarterbacks’ passes. Often after scoring a touchdown, he would kick the extra point. In one quarter of a 1945 game, he caught four touchdown passes and kicked five PATs for an amazing 29 points.

Curly Lambeau had the vision to bring the passing game into pro football, but it was Don Hutson who made it work.

There will never be another like him.

1994 meets 1944

As part of the National Football League's 75th Anniversary celebration, every team wore throwback uniforms for select games. The Packers dipped into their history to don the navy-and-gold of Curly Lambeau's heyday, as seen in this team photo given away to fans at the Wild Card playoff game against Detroit:

The throwback uniforms, designed to evoke the 1938-1949 togs which saw the Packers win two World Championships, were worn against Philadelphia on September 18th, Tampa Bay on September 25 and New England on October 2nd.

The shoulder patch commemorates the League's diamond anniversary.

A road white version was worn only once, at a Monday Night Football matchup against the Bears at Soldier Field on Halloween.

The canvas-colored pants are an interesting choice, possibly motivated by a bad photograph of the old uniforms. We do know that for at least some of this period the Packers of the day wore gold pants (albeit in varying shades, as the different materials reacted to the dye):

I suspect that the problem might have originated with the Bowman cards from 1950, which featured player photographs traced and hand-tinted. For some inexplicable reason, the Packers' pants were colored a lovely shade of minty green:

Back in 1994, that card set was one of the only available color representations of Lambeau-era Packer uniforms. Might khaki have seemed preferable to light green?

These throwbacks continue to surface at auction from time to time, almost invariably misidentified. In 1998, several team-issued (but not game-worn) home and road throwback jerseys were re-branded with Brett Favre's name and number and sold at auction, leading to a glut of phony "Favre gamers" on the collectors' market.

Although the Packers gave out the throwback photo, they wore their regular home uniforms during that 1994 Wild Card playoff match at Lambeau. It was a great game, as the Packers held Barry Sanders to -1 yard rushing and beat the Lions, 16 to 14.

The fans' euphoria would be short-lived, as the Packers fell to Dallas in the divisional round the following week, but on that one day in December the Packers looked like they might be ready to recapture a little of the magic of Curly's World Champions.

Giving Thanks for Throwbacks

Brett Favre and Ahman Green feast on turducken, Thanksgiving 2001

This Thursday, the Packers take on the Lions in Detroit's traditional Thanksgiving Day game.

Detroit's Thanksgiving legacy goes back to 1934. In 1951, the Packers joined the party and became the Lions' traditional opponent, traveling to the Motor City every year on the fourth Thursday in November. This lasted until Vince Lombardi pulled the Packers out of the annual meeting after the 1963 game, citing the unfair demands of playing a short-week road game every season (it certainly didn't help that the Packers went 3-10 during that span).

Since then, the Lions have faced a rotating series of opponents and the Packers have returned to Detroit for the Thanksgiving game only a handful of times. Twice, in 2001 and 2003, those games have been occasions to wear throwback uniforms, as part of the NFL's "Thanksgiving Classic" promotion (which began with the 2001 game and was discontinued after through 2004).

2001

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The 2001 uniform was based on an alternate introduced in 1939: white jerseys with green numbers, gold helmets, white socks.

I'm not convinced that the canvas-colored pants are historically accurate—the Packers were wearing gold pants with their navy jerseys by 1939—but they are in line with the similarly-inaccurate 1994 throwbacks.

It would be interesting to know how often this white alternate uniform was worn. The Packers had introduced their first white jersey the previous season to avoid the traditional navy-versus-navy confusion when facing the Chicago Bears. They might also have worn them as "clash jerseys" against the Cleveland Rams or New York Giants, who wore royal blue. Pictures from the 1939 season are scarce, but from news accounts we know the Packers wore their traditional navy and gold jerseys in the championship game against the Giants, on the way to their fifth world championship:

The 2001 Packers also fared well in their throwbacks, holding off a late Detroit surge to win the Turkey Day contest 29-27.

In an unusual move, the Packers offered pro-cut throwback jerseys for sale online in various sizes, which has resulted in a glut of Berlin-tagged jerseys on the secondary market. These retail jerseys (principally Favre's #4) are often misleadingly identified as "team issued" or even "game used" jerseys and sold as such at inflated prices.

Readers of Guy Hankel's wonderful blog White Mesh and Green Durene will remember the excellent article he published a few months ago, complete with great pictures of the real thing. If you missed it, go check it out.

2003

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Two years later, the Packers once again found themselves celebrating Thanksgiving in the Motor City. And once again, the Packers wore a classic Green Bay uniform. Trading Curly Lambeau for Vince Lombardi, the Packers took the field that day in an updated version of their 1967 road uniforms.

Unlike the previous encounter, the throwback changes were subtle.

The sleeve and neck stripes were alternating green and gold, unbroken by white, and the home sleeve striping pattern was repeated on the socks. The Packers wore black cleats, standard in the 1960s but wouldn't be re-introduced to the Packers' regular uniform until 2008. The pants striping was narrowed, echoing Lombardi's late 1960s design. Although the Reebok logos would adorn the sleeves and pants, the clunky "NFL EQUIPMENT" patch was nowhere to be seen.

The best part? Gray facemasks.

Although the Packers looked great, they failed to play up to the level of the uniforms, turning the ball over five times as the Lions won, 22-14.

These uniforms are far less common on the collectors' market. Not only did the Packers not sell pro-cut replica jerseys, they didn't offer authentic replicas at all (at least not online). Fans wishing to purchase one of these gorgeous jerseys had to settle for a lower-quality replica with screenprinted numbers.

Game worn jerseys do surface from time to time, though. Brett Favre's complete game uniform sold at auction for $7,582.00 in December 2004.

This beauty, worn by Al Harris, provides us with a closer view of the jersey details.

I would love to see the Packers bring this back as the road jersey. Trying to shoehorn the home jersey stripes into a different color pattern has never worked for me. You can't improve upon a classic, and every tweak of the road uniforms has resulted in another step backwards.

Sadly, the Thanksgiving Classic program was short-lived, so we'll see no such sartorial splendor from either the Packers or Lions this year. This most traditional of regular-season games will see Detroit's newfangled Honolulu blue, silver and black against the Packers' oh-so-close-but-no-cigar modern whites.