Bradley Ruzicka

I consider myself a sports fan but don’t spend a lot of time watching games either in person or on television. In fact, the older I get, the less I watch, following developments on-line, in the paper, or on highlight shows. Seems I just don’t have the patience anymore to sit through an entire game, at least one that doesn’t involve a Wisconsin team. However, as time goes on, my enthusiasm for football, in particular the Green Bay Packers, hasn’t diminished. Football has been one of my passions since I was a teenager and continues to be a part of my life more than fifty years later.

I remember playing football for my high school team, the Iowa-Grant Panthers, on a warm September Friday night. Listening to a radio broadcast of my favorite college football team, the Wisconsin Badgers, on a crisp October Saturday. Watching the Packers on an overcast November Sunday. Playing Stat-O-Matic football on a beat-up game board with my brother Jeff on a snowy December Saturday. Watching the Super Bowl with my friend Mike Peterson on a cold January Sunday. I also remember watching my first Green Bay Packer game with my brother and my dad on a small TV (not sure we even had a color television yet) when I was 12 years old.

It was the 1971 season opener against the New York Giants played at Lambeau Field. The game was close throughout but, in the end, the Packers lost 42-40. Towards the end of the game, some Green Bay and New York players tumbled out of bounce and crashed into first year Packer Head Coach Dan Devine. None of the players were hurt but Devine ended up with a broken leg. Unfortunately, I missed out on seeing the great Green Bay teams of the 1960s. By the time I developed an interest in football, the “glory years” were but a memory. It’d be 25 years until I’d finally have the opportunity to see the Packers play in, and win, a Super Bowl.

I started this series in 2015, the fiftieth anniversary of the Super Bowl, professional football’s world championship. It was June 8, 1966, when the National Football League and its rival, the American Football League, announced a merger agreement creating what is generally considered to be the modern era of pro football. As part of the merger, the two leagues agreed to play an annual AFL-NFL World Championship Game, matching the league champions (conference champions after 1970) beginning in January 1967. As of January 1969, that game formally became known as the Super Bowl.

Over the years, the NFL’s championship game has become the second most watched annual sporting event in the world. Super Bowl Sunday is even considered by many Americans to be an unofficial holiday. In honor of both professional football’s biggest game and my favorite NFL team, I’m publishing a series of posts featuring a description of each Green Bay season during the Super Bowl era, including regular season and post season highlights, beginning with 1966. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them!

To end this post, I’ve attached a tribute to the greatest coach in Packers history and, after his death on September 3, 1970, at the age of 57, the man for whom the Super Bowl Trophy is named, Vincent Thomas Lombardi. The video is narrated by the legendary John Facenda. John’s dulcet baritone would earn him the nickname “The Voice of God” and was a perfect match for the videos produced by NFL Films beginning in the mid 1960s. During the 1970s, Facenda’s voice, the stirring narrative, the classic music, and the dramatic footage all combined to make these NFL Films productions one of the primary inspirations for adopting the game of football as my own and they remain one of my best memories of that decade!

Your feedback is appreciated!