Check out the picture of George Calhoun on the 5th page. Now that's a statue we need somewhere.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wmh/...05_scotter.pdf
Check out the picture of George Calhoun on the 5th page. Now that's a statue we need somewhere.
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/wmh/...05_scotter.pdf
After lunch the players lounged about the hotel patio watching the surf fling white plumes high against the darkening sky. Clouds were piling up in the west… Vince Lombardi frowned.
That's the only one I have ever seen. I just archive the shit I run across. Over time it's added up. Packer history is probably the most interesting thing I like to read about in my downtime.Originally Posted by HowardRoark
If you look at the photo of Green Bay's river front from 1922 in HowardRoark's link you'll see a tall white building that is still standing! I think it is on the corner of Walnut & Washington Street (but it might be Adams).
10 years ago when I still lived in GB I sang with a group of women called the Angels. We performed in nursing homes in the afternoon once a week. I'll never forget one afternoon at a GB nursing home one of the nurses there pointed out a beautiful but elderly lady in a wheel chair watching our little production. This woman was in her upper 90's but her face was as smooth as a 30 year old. That woman was Marguerite Lambeau! She had Alzheimer's so you couldn't really talk to her. But it would have been cool to pick her brain if she hadn't had dementia like that!
I've always wanted to play rugby. Too late for that now... I've also wanted to learn about cricket. That's for another forum I guess.Thanks Vince. It helps a lot!
In Oz, we have a team for each age. No matter what grade we are in, we play all our sports at our own age group. No matter how talented.
We also two teams from Grade 3 to Grade 6. Junioers and Seniors. But in High School, from Grade 7 to grade 12, we have a team per Grade/Age.
We don't have the cool looking jackets, no symbols of "belonging".
The worst thing is, we don't have cheerleaders!!
Now, I'm talking about Sydney in the 70's. Quite possibly, things have changed. Also worth pointing out: I was the captain of my cricket team and rugby League team and it made zero impression on the ladies.
....
what, too soon?
Busting drunk drivers in Antarctica since 2006
I've read a bit about her and she was a fascinating woman. Curly had numerous affairs which ultimately led to their divorce, but she came to peace with their relationship and carried no ill will in her later (sane) years. She spoke very glowingly about him and their relationship and spoke about how great of a man he was. I've got some love letters that Curly wrote to Marguerite that I'll post, and you'lll see that Curly was quite fond of her before they married.
Here's part of another letter. Can't tell who it's written to...
From when I was a kid:
After lunch the players lounged about the hotel patio watching the surf fling white plumes high against the darkening sky. Clouds were piling up in the west… Vince Lombardi frowned.
I think that guy on the left was married to Jackie Brockington. She was a famous TV personality in Green BayFrom when I was a kid:
[QUOTE=George Cumby] ...every draft (Ted) would pick a solid, dependable, smart, athletically limited linebacker...the guy who isn't doing drugs, going to strip bars, knocking around his girlfriend or making any plays of game changing significance.
Just heard this on the local newscasts, one of the Packers TEs from the early 60s, Ron Kramer passed away today at the age of 75.
-digital dean
No "TROLLS" allowed!
These two made quite a tandem back in their heyday.I think that guy on the left was married to Jackie Brockington. She was a famous TV personality in Green BayFrom when I was a kid:
KY and I are the only Rugby players on this forum. Friggin' tough game. A bit like football during the leatherheads period in terms of "does it really hurt?".
Cricket, on the other hand is a lot like chess. A real thinking man's game. One of the most wonderful games ever invented. I heard a legend that it was invented by women to keep their men home from going off to war. Great legend, but I don't know how true it is.
Earl L. "Curly" Lambeau - The Coach
As a coach, Curly Lambeau flew in the face of common practice. He was the first pass-minded coach in the NFL and his teams were like their leader, impatient and explosive.
Despite rules that made it difficult to use the forward pass, Lambeau's Packers were a team whose main offensive weapon was the pass; at any time, on any down, from anywhere on the field.
By 1927 Curly began devoting more time to coaching and managing the team and less time to playing halfback.
He signed a number of players in 1927 who would contribute greatly in the championship years ahead. From the dissolved Milwaukee Badgers, he picked up end LaVern Dilweg and quarterback Red Dunn. All of these additions helped bring the Packers to a 7-2-1 record which allowed them to come in second to the New York Giants.
In 1929, after he retired as a player, the Packers remained a powerhouse under his watch for more than two decades.
Curly replaced himself with future Hall of Fame quarterback, Arnie Herber.who became the NFL's first great long-distance passer.
Curly Lambeau's gift for recognizing and obtaining talent reached new heights this season when he acquired three future Hall of Famers.
Over the summer, the New York Yankees had folded and Lambeau plucked guard Mike Michalske, from Penn State, from the remains. From the Giants, Lambeau signed disgruntled tackle Cal Hubbard, a giant of a man at 6-5 and 250 pounds.
His most colorful addition, however, was halfback John 'Blood' McNally who he lured away from the Pottsville Maroons.
The Packers won the first of three consecutive championships that season. From 1929 through 1931, they won 34 games, lost only 5, and tied 2. During the 1931 season, the Packers played in front of 107,000 spectators on the road.
Under Lambeau's leadership the Green Bay Packers had become one of professional football's first great dynasties.
After signing future Hall of Fame receiver Don Hutson in 1935, they won three more titles in 1936, 1939, and 1944.
So advanced were Lambeau's coaching theories and Hutson's abilities that many of Hutson's records stood for four decades or more.
During the later half of the 1940s the Green Bay Packers held training camp at Rockwood Lodge, a piece of land that was purchased for use as a training facility by Curly Lambeau. It's understood to actually have been the first self-contained team training facility in pro football history.
A sometimes-hot headed disciplinarian, Lambeau always got the most out of his players.
Lambeau, the man responsible for laying the groundwork for everything that came after him in Green Bay.
Seven members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame played with and/or under Lambeau, including Tony Canadeo, Johnny “Blood” McNally, Clarke Hinkle, and Don Hutson – maybe the greatest receiver that ever lived.
He wed the former Susan Johnson, a former "Miss California," the second time around and the former Grace Garland, the ex-wife of two Hollywood film directors, when he took unto himself a third wife.
As to Lambeau's relationship with Lombardi, Vince made it clear that he had little use for Curly or his lifestyle.
Curly won six NFL championships and 226 games in 33 seasons as a head coach.
He is the winngest coach in team history.
Only three coaches in pro football history have won more games (Don Shula, George Halas and Tom Landry).
And when the Pro Football Hall of Fame opened its doors in 1963, it selected 17 charter members.
Earl L. “Curly” Lambeau was one of them.
I never heard of Rockwood Lodge. The Packers must have had a pretty reliable income stream to afford those sweet digs.
Does anyone know if it is still around and where it might be?
EDIT: http://packerville.blogspot.com/2009...ood-lodge.html
Rockwood Lodge is a park now.Rockwood Lodge was the training facility of the Packers from 1946 through 1949. It is believed to have been the first self-contained team training facility in pro football history. Located approximately 17 miles north of the city on a limestone bluff overlooking the eponymous Green Bay, the 53-acre complex included player housing and a natural outdoor “amphitheater” in which team meetings were held. The then-extravagant $32,000 purchase by team president and head coach Curly Lambeau was controversial among the team’s board of directors, and contributed to the deteriorating relationship that eventually led to Lambeau's departure.
On January 24, 1950, Rockwood Lodge burned down. One week later, Lambeau resigned his position with the Packers and moved south to coach the Chicago Cardinals. The team eventually received $75,000 from its insurance company.
After Rockwood Lodge, the Packers moved their training camp to Grand Rapids, Minnesota from 1950 through 1953 and then Stevens Point, Wisconsin from 1954-1957 before settling in at St. Norbert College in DePere, Wisconsin, where they house the players during camp to this day.
[QUOTE=George Cumby] ...every draft (Ted) would pick a solid, dependable, smart, athletically limited linebacker...the guy who isn't doing drugs, going to strip bars, knocking around his girlfriend or making any plays of game changing significance.
George W. Calhoun
The cigar-chomping former Green Bay Press-Gazette sports and telegraph editor was a cantankerous man whose enjoyment of a cold beer was surpassed only by his love and dedication to the professional football team he covered, promoted and was the business manager for.
Calhoun was as instrumental behind the scenes as Lambeau in building the Packers into one of the National Football League's great franchises, winning six world championships from 1921-'44, including three consecutive titles from 1929-'31.
He gave the club the name "Packers," publicized the team and created interest in the community and later across the nation with his Packer Football News publication.
He passed a hat among spectators at games to help support the organization in tough financial times.
As a newspaper reporter and team secretary, "Cal" traveled with the team through 1944 and became a popular national sports figure.
Calhoun attended every home game for nearly 40 years, from the first contest against Menominee North End A.C. in 1919 to the finale in City Stadium against the San Francisco 49ers in 1956.
He had a great respect for statistics and amassed one of the most complete collections of NFL game results during his career.
When the Green Bay native who dedicated his life to the Packers franchise died in December 1963, his ashes were strewn over the City Stadium field adjacent to Green Bay East High School along the banks of the East River.
Calhoun was paralyzed for a time after being tackled and striking a goal post. Instead of playing sports, he helped cover them or organize them. After graduating from college, he began his newspaper career at the Buffalo Times before moving back to his hometown in 1915.
"Cal had been a football player in his youth and a good one, but the game had given him the injury that crippled him for life," Jack Rudolph wrote in a 1963 Press-Gazette article. "A sentimental softy beneath his irascible exterior, Cal still loved football, and the Packers gave him the chance to enjoy it secondhand.
When the present corporation was formed in 1921, Calhoun was designated the traveling secretary and publicity director.
Calhoun had a unique method of networking with his colleagues in other NFL cities.
Sportswriters were eager to meet with Calhoun when Green Bay would visit their city, as Calhoun would fill his hotel room bathtub with ice and beer. He'd then call the newspapers and let them know where he was staying. From Chicago to New York, the sportswriters flocked to his room to hear the Packer news and have a few.
After a tough loss to the Giants, Calhoun invited Lambeau up to his hotel room to drown his sorrows.
"Lambeau did so, and my recollection is that Curly and I each drank about two or three bottles of beer and went to the case for another when we found it empty," John Torinus said in his book, "Packer Legend."
"Cal had finished off about 18 of those 24 bottles all by himself."
As part of his role as the team's traveling secretary, Calhoun was guardian to the pass gate at stadiums home and away. He took great pride in his reputation as a vigilant watchdog that let no unauthorized personnel into a game free.
"To him, trying to see the Packers play for nothing always was the most heinous form of treason, and he could spot a freeloader as far as he could see one," Rudolph said.
He was inducted in the Packers Hall of Fame in 1978 and his plaque, designating him as the team's co-founder, is on display in the Hall's ultimate showplace, the Trophy Room.
Calhoun, standing far right in this 1919 team photo, was one of the most colorful and influential characters in the history of the Green Bay Packers.
I first learned of the fabled Rockwood Lodge through Packer Palace.
http://www.packerpalace.com/index2.html
C.H.U.D.
Andrew B. Turnbull
Turnbull personally bailed Lambeau out on numerous occasions to keep the Packers from going under, initated the effort to make the Packers a publicly-owned team, and became the first president of the Green Bay Packers Football Corporation. He was never repaid or paid a penny for his service to the team.
A.B. Turnbull was the general manager of the Green Bay Press-Gazette in the early 1900’s.
Beginning in the 1920’s and spanning more than 25 years, Turnbull led his newspaper’s - as well as the city’s - support for the fledgling football team.
He insisted that the coverage in the Press Gazette be very supportive of the Packers at all times because it was important to the team’s survival. He believed the Packers’ survival was vital to the city’s business and social climate.
His instructions to the sports writers were that, “The Packers never lose a game. They may almost win sometimes, but never lose.”
1922 – The Year From Hell
A number of forces and events combined to make 1922 a year in which the Packers’ survival was almost miraculous. The team only survived because the undeniable will of Curly Lambeau – and the financial resources of Andy Turnbull.
The Packers’ second NFL season almost never happened in the first place, as the Acme Packing Company, who was experiencing business challenges itself, elected not to sponsor the team for another season.
Multiple Bailouts
Turnbull personally nurtured the Packers organization through the financial hard times in the 1920’s by giving money to Lambeau and Calhoun to keep the team afloat at the most dire moments in the team’s history.
Without his personal donations, the Packers would be long forgotten today.
Because the team had no sponsor and was on such shaky financial ground, the Packers had taken out a rain insurance policy which would enable them to pay the visiting team's guarantee in case it rained at least .10 of an inch.
On October 8, it rained long and hard before a game against the Racine Legion. The game was played before a crowd too small for the team to cover its visiting team guarantee. The insurance company denied their claim for reimbursement, maintaining that it had rained .09 of an inch, one-hundredth of an inch less than the policy stipulated.
Later in the year, at a home game against the Columbus Panhandlers, it once again rained long and hard. The Packers were $1,600 in debt with a $500 guarantee to meet and little likelihood of help from the gate because of the weather. And because the team had no money, they had let their rain insurance policy lapse.
Here’s the account of Chuck Johnson, author of “The Green Bay Packers – Pro Football’s Pioneer Team” regarding that day’s events.
When the guarantee was paid, the Packers’ debt to Turnbull had risen to more than $2,000.Lambeau and Calhoun sat by the window of the dressing room before the game, silent and gloomy, watching the rain form puddles outside.
Finally, Lambeau broke the silence.
"Well, Cal, this is it," he said, "We might as well call off the game. Then we won't have to pay the whole guarantee. There's no use going into debt any farther. We can't even meet the obligations we've got now."
Calhoun nodded, knowing that to forfeit the game would probably mean that the Packers would also forfeit their National Football League franchise.
"Wait a minute, Curly," Calhoun said. "First let me call Mr. Turnbull.”
Calhoun, who was sports editor of the Green Bay Press-Gazette as well as publicity man of the Packers, telephoned A. B. (Andy) Turnbull, publisher of the newspaper. A few minutes later, Turnbull himself walked in.
"What's the matter, boys?" he asked.
Lambeau and Calhoun told him.
"Play the game," Tumbiill said, forcefully. "We’ll work things out later, somehow."
On another occasion, after traveling to Detroit for a game, there was no money to pay Green Bay's guarantee. The Packers had no way to get home. Calhoun called his boss and Turnbull spent $500 of his own money to pay for train fare for the team.
To help pay some of the bills, a Thanksgiving Day non-league exhibition was scheduled against the Duluth Kelleys. In fitting form of this nightmarish season, heavy rain caused Green Bay to consider canceling the game.
But Andrew B. Turnbull once again told the team to play the game and he would see to it that expenses were covered. Turnbull feared that if the game were not played, and the Duluth team was not paid, Green Bay would lose its professional football franchise forever.
What an ironic twist Turnbull’s fears and the story of the 1922 Packers would take from there. It turned out that BECAUSE they played that game that the Packers would have their NFL (called the American Professional Football Association at the time) franchise license revoked.
NFL Franchise License Revoked
If all the financial problems were not enough, the Packers had their NFL franchise license revoked for that Thanksgiving Day game in a controversial witch hunt.
The Packers were accused of using college players in the game.
The Packers did use college players, but so did every other team in the league at the time. One of the players used by Lambeau was Notre Dame's Heartley "Hunk" Anderson, a former teammate of Lambeau's and a native of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
It so happened that George Halas, owner and manager of the Chicago Bears, coveted Anderson's services, and with Lambeau’s small-town Green Bay team in the league, Anderson would more than likely sign with them.
Halas's college players just so happened to spot Lambeau's college players at the Milwaukee non-league game. They told Halas, and he devised a plan designed to get his man Anderson to the Bears.
Everyone knew at the time that sportswriters, particularly the Chicago writers, did not like the professional football league. They felt it undermined college football which had a far bigger following, particularly in the big cities and large school havens, than the professional league at the time. Halas told a Chicago sportswriter, who was not even at the game in Milwaukee about Green Bay’s use of college players.
The sportswriter was easily persuaded by Halas to blow the whistle on Green Bay by writing a scathing article against the league and publicly called for the league to revoke Green Bay’s license.
The league, in its second year of existence, was desperate to gain the favor of the public, was pressured to drop the Packers from the league, even though the league didn’t have jurisdiction over the non-NFL sanctioned exhibition game in the first place.
The Clairs (owners of Acme Packing Company and the Packers’ NFL license at the time) quickly complied with the league’s inquiry and agreed to drop its franchise license. They felt the prospects for the team surviving without additional capital infusion was dire anyway, and they had no interest in owning the team or giving it any more money.
The illegal use of college players in a non-league game forced the team’s league license to be forfeited, but Lambeau refused to have his team denied of it’s place in the league. His determination would ultimately pay off.
He traveled to Canton, OH for a league meeting and pledged to get the team back in the league. The league agreed to allow him back in, with some big strings attached. He had to re-pay another franchise fee of $250, but also needed to secure $1,000 in reserves to ensure the team would remain solvent.
Lambeau once again turned to Turnbull for help. And in yet another ironic twist of fate, the witch hunt over college players, initiated by George Halas and spurred on by the Chicago sportswriter who disliked professional football, would end up turning the Green Bay Packers into the greatest success story in the history of sports.
The Hungry Five
To figure out how to meet the NFL’s demands, A. B. Turnbull had lunch at the Attic Room of the Beaumont Hotel with Lambeau and three his business colleagues. They included his attorney Jerry Clifford, grocer and the land owner who owned land adjacent to the team’s playing field at the time, Lee Joannes, and Dr. Webber Kelly, another well-to-do Green Bay business man.
These men would come be called the “Hungry Five” because they ultimately worked feverishly to gain community support and raise money to enable the football team to meet the NFL’s demands and establish a firm foundation for the team’s future.
Their idea was to come up with a corporation that would be owned by people willing to buy stock in the team. The result of their efforts was the formation of the Green Bay Football Corporation, a non-profit organization dedicated to operating professional football in Green Bay.
In the spring of 1923, the "Hungry Five" called a town meeting at the Elks club. A capacity crowd of 400 people attended. Pledges were taken for a share of stock at five dollars. Every purchaser of five shares was guaranteed a box at Green Bay home games that fall.
The first stock sale generated $5,000 by offering 1,000 shares for $5 apiece, including a stipulation that the purchaser buy at least six season tickets.
Further, fifty leading businessmen of the community were prevailed upon to put up one hundred dollars a piece in case the team lost money. Through al the lean years and crises which followed, the terms of this pledge were never exacted.
On August 14, 1923, new articles of incorporation were drawn up. A total of 1,000 shares of stock were issued. Established was a fifteen-man board of directors and an executive committee. Earnings, if any, were to go to the Sullivan post of the American Legion in Green Bay. The corporation was to be operated without cost to the stockholders. Further, officers and directors were to be paid no salary or recompense and each was to buy six season tickets to home games.
Andrew B. Turnbull was elected to be the first president of the Packers. He never paid or recompensated a penny for his service or donations to the team.
Through his contributions and efforts, Andy Turnbull laid the foundation for the teams modern corporate structure and nurtured it through the biggest set of challenges the team would ever have to face.
As a result the Packers came to be the only community-owned franchise in major professional sports and they remain so today as they are run by a seven-member executive committee.
Turnbull would remain on the Packers Board of Directors and help guide the team through more than twenty-five of their most tumultuous years.
Town Team to Football Power
Andrew B. Turnbull’s leadership helped the fledgling Packers grow from a town team to a pro football power.
One of the more remarkable business stories in American history, the team is kept viable by its shareholders — its unselfish fans.
Turnbull would be involved in two additional stock drives to help the team through some financial challenges. The fans have responded on every occasion.
Green Bay Packers, Inc., has been a publicly owned, non-profit corporation since Aug. 18, 1923, when original articles of incorporation were filed with Wisconsin’s secretary of state. The corporation remains governed by a board of directors and a seven-member executive committee.
A total of 4,750,937 shares are owned by 112,120 stockholders — none of whom receives any dividend on the initial investment and the stock cannot be sold.
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