smuggler
12-05-2020, 05:26 PM
I recently started a playthrough of the "modern era" Packers franchise in the game Football Mogul. There are a lot of flaws with the game, but I've tolerated them as the game as incrementally improved over the past few years. And in the more recent editions, you are able to play starting in 1951, rather than the established post-merger standard of 1970. Naturally, I started my quest to bring glory to the Packers teams of yore, starting with those snake-bitten (or even flat terrible) '50s Packers teams.
The first few Packers seasons of that star-crossed decade had a few bright spots. A dual-threat QB in Tobin Rote, the final seasons of Hall of Famer Tony Canadeo, solid defensive stalwarts Bill Forester/Dave Hanner/Bob Summerhays/John Martinkovic, the flame-haired fox of Littlefield (see my current avatar), and otherwise a spattering of decent players with outstanding names. "Jug" Girard, "Rip" Collins, "Breezy" Reid, Ace Loomis, Rebel Steiner, and Jack Cloud.
And then there are two other players. Their names and lives are much more interested than their play was notable. They were Don Stansauk and Dick Afflis.
They played only a few short seasons with the Packers before moving on to bigger and better things. After all, football in the 1950s was not the megabucks career option that it has grown to be in the past 30 years. Players drafted by the NFL were being poached by the newly founded AAFC (All-American Football Conference) and other non-sporting ventures where they might make a better living. These two blokes found themselves with a different kind of sports entertainment career: They became professional wrestlers.
https://packerspastperfect.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/1951bdstansauk2.jpg
#63 Don Stansauk was actually drafted by the Detroit Lions in the 18th round of the 1950 draft, but played all of his 15 career games with the Green Bay Packers. He wasn't a good player, but became a celebrity after his playing days by adopting the persona of Hard Boiled Haggerty. As a spectator after his playing days, according to this secondhand account (https://www.packers.com/news/dick-wildung-one-of-nfl-s-last-two-way-players-16816213), he told former teammate Dick Wildung "Dick, don't ever tell anybody Hard Boiled Haggerty was a football player!" because he'd been ashamed of his shortcomings as Wildung's understudy. Even still, H.B. has that special stuff that intrigues some random Packers fan whose fandom didn't begin more than four decades after he'd hung up the gridiron cleats.
https://packerspastperfect.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/1951bdafflis.jpg
Teammate Jerry Helluin recalls 'the Bruiser' as a magnanimous entertainer in a short snippet from another piece by Christl (https://www.packers.com/news/jerry-helluin-teammate-dick-the-bruiser-was-a-barrel-of-laughs): "He had a swagger about him. He was a lot of fun to be around. He was a barrel of laughs." Afflis played in more than three times as many games as Stansauk, totaling 48 in four seasons (with 34 starts).
Together, they went on to be professional wrestlers and (much more so in Stansauk's case) celebrities.
http://profootballdaly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Screen-Shot-2014-10-17-at-3.16.48-PM.png
Afflis once (reportedly) beat the shit out of Alex Karras in a bar fight (Karras' own home turf, as he was the owner of the establishment) while Karras was serving a one-year gambling suspension. Afflis later defeated Karris in a professional wrestling match, so the prior beating may have been mere publicity. Or, maybe, fuck you Lions!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVfPHpVWAAAfGOV.jpg
Hard Boiled Haggerty found more success in media than the Bruiser did. Here we see an aging Haggerty with Andre the Giant and Dudley Moore. (Also pictured, Steven Spielberg's ex-wife, Amy Irving)
The two graced the Silver Screen together in the 1974 edition of the Wrestler. I have not seen that film, but I intend to now that I know I'll be seeing a small piece of Packer history and I'll post screenshots!
The first few Packers seasons of that star-crossed decade had a few bright spots. A dual-threat QB in Tobin Rote, the final seasons of Hall of Famer Tony Canadeo, solid defensive stalwarts Bill Forester/Dave Hanner/Bob Summerhays/John Martinkovic, the flame-haired fox of Littlefield (see my current avatar), and otherwise a spattering of decent players with outstanding names. "Jug" Girard, "Rip" Collins, "Breezy" Reid, Ace Loomis, Rebel Steiner, and Jack Cloud.
And then there are two other players. Their names and lives are much more interested than their play was notable. They were Don Stansauk and Dick Afflis.
They played only a few short seasons with the Packers before moving on to bigger and better things. After all, football in the 1950s was not the megabucks career option that it has grown to be in the past 30 years. Players drafted by the NFL were being poached by the newly founded AAFC (All-American Football Conference) and other non-sporting ventures where they might make a better living. These two blokes found themselves with a different kind of sports entertainment career: They became professional wrestlers.
https://packerspastperfect.files.wordpress.com/2019/01/1951bdstansauk2.jpg
#63 Don Stansauk was actually drafted by the Detroit Lions in the 18th round of the 1950 draft, but played all of his 15 career games with the Green Bay Packers. He wasn't a good player, but became a celebrity after his playing days by adopting the persona of Hard Boiled Haggerty. As a spectator after his playing days, according to this secondhand account (https://www.packers.com/news/dick-wildung-one-of-nfl-s-last-two-way-players-16816213), he told former teammate Dick Wildung "Dick, don't ever tell anybody Hard Boiled Haggerty was a football player!" because he'd been ashamed of his shortcomings as Wildung's understudy. Even still, H.B. has that special stuff that intrigues some random Packers fan whose fandom didn't begin more than four decades after he'd hung up the gridiron cleats.
https://packerspastperfect.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/1951bdafflis.jpg
Teammate Jerry Helluin recalls 'the Bruiser' as a magnanimous entertainer in a short snippet from another piece by Christl (https://www.packers.com/news/jerry-helluin-teammate-dick-the-bruiser-was-a-barrel-of-laughs): "He had a swagger about him. He was a lot of fun to be around. He was a barrel of laughs." Afflis played in more than three times as many games as Stansauk, totaling 48 in four seasons (with 34 starts).
Together, they went on to be professional wrestlers and (much more so in Stansauk's case) celebrities.
http://profootballdaly.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Screen-Shot-2014-10-17-at-3.16.48-PM.png
Afflis once (reportedly) beat the shit out of Alex Karras in a bar fight (Karras' own home turf, as he was the owner of the establishment) while Karras was serving a one-year gambling suspension. Afflis later defeated Karris in a professional wrestling match, so the prior beating may have been mere publicity. Or, maybe, fuck you Lions!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EVfPHpVWAAAfGOV.jpg
Hard Boiled Haggerty found more success in media than the Bruiser did. Here we see an aging Haggerty with Andre the Giant and Dudley Moore. (Also pictured, Steven Spielberg's ex-wife, Amy Irving)
The two graced the Silver Screen together in the 1974 edition of the Wrestler. I have not seen that film, but I intend to now that I know I'll be seeing a small piece of Packer history and I'll post screenshots!