The First America's Team. Bob Berghaus
The First America’s Team: The 1962 Green Bay Packers
Copyright © 2011 by Bob Berghaus
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any fashion—print, facsimile, or electronic—or by any method yet to be developed without express permission of the copyright holder.
For further information, contact the publisher:
Clerisy Press
P.O. Box 8874
Cincinnati, OH 45208-0874
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Berghaus, Bob, 1954–
The first America’s team: the 1962 Green Bay Packers/by Bob Berghaus.—1st ed.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-1-57860-442-5 (pbk.)
ISBN-10: 1-57860-442-7 ()
1. Green Bay Packers (Football team)—History. I. Title.
GV956.G7B46 2011
641.5973—dc23
2011022283
Distributed by Publishers Group West
Edited by Jack Heffron
Cover designed by Scott McGrew
Interior designed by Annie Long
All photos courtesy of the Green Bay Press-Gazette
First edition, first printing
Thank you, Lisa.
As with most accomplishments in my life, I wouldn’t have been able to complete this book without the support of my wife, Lisa. She’s a loving mother and wife whose honesty and humor spurs me on more than she realizes. I don’t know where I would be without her.
table of contents
Foreword by Bart Starr
CHAPTER 1 Football as It Should Be Played
CHAPTER 2 Going for a Repeat
CHAPTER 3 Bless His Heart
CHAPTER 4 How the Team Was Built
CHAPTER 5 “They’ll Get Beat”
CHAPTER 6 Payback
CHAPTER 7 The Power Sweep
CHAPTER 8 The End of Perfection
CHAPTER 9 Another Division Title
CHAPTER 10 The Players
CHAPTER 11 The Essence of Lombardi
CHAPTER 12 The ’62 Packers or ’72 Dolphins?
CHAPTER 13 The Statistics
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Foreword
by Bart Starr
Entering 1962, we expected to have a very good season because we were coming off a truly special one in 1961. We finished it off in as great a way as you could close out a season when we beat a strong Giants team 37–0 to win our first National Football League championship under coach Vince Lombardi.
We had exceptional talent in 1962. Nine of my teammates were eventually elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame and there are several others who should be in as well. Obviously, we had the leadership of Coach Lombardi, who gave us a sense of direction as soon as he arrived in 1959.
We started the 1962 season very strong, winning our first three games by fairly sizeable margins. We had that close call with the Lions in the fourth game, when Herb Adderley intercepted a pass in the final minute that set up a short field goal for Paul Hornung, enabling us to win the game.
We kept winning, and at some point reporters began asking us about the possibility of an unbeaten season. I can tell you that wasn’t our focus, that I don’t think any one of us thought in those terms because of the leadership and direction by Coach Lombardi. What we were thinking about was just going at it game by game, week by week, and just seeing where that would take us.
Under the direction of Coach Lombardi we won our first ten games before we finally lost to the Lions in Detroit in the annual Thanksgiving Day game. Obviously when you have that kind of pressure building and you suffer a loss, it can be very damaging to you and very disappointing. But I think because of Coach Lombardi’s leadership we were able to keep a very narrowly focused direction in front of us. Somehow, you just work your way through those things, something we were able to do.
We won our last three games to set up another championship game with the Giants. This one was played in Yankee Stadium, and the Giants were ready for us because of what had happened the previous year. I don’t think we looked at it as pressure. We were more concerned about the quality of team we were facing. We had a lot of respect for the Giants, but I think the focus was that this is going to be a game on the road in front of a hostile crowd.
The Giants were a formidable foe, no question about that. They had a 12–2 record, at one point winning nine straight games. They had excellent leadership, a very good defense, and of course they had quarterback Y.A. Tittle, who had an outstanding year.
The strength of our team was on display in that ball game because it was one of the coldest games at that time, and it was very, very windy. I’ll always remember how cold and windy it was because I had never seen the sideline benches be blown over. They actually blew over and onto the field during the game. It was quite a sight.
Because we had a strong running game we were able to win that ball game. I didn’t have the arm strength and accuracy to deal with those conditions, so I was grateful we had the strength of the running game because I could lean on that throughout the game. Because the Giants focused on stopping our running attack, it helped when we did have to throw.
That was the second of our five championships under Coach Lombardi. We went on to win three more with him, something I’m proud of to this day. Coach Lombardi meant the world to me. I appreciate the confidence he showed in me on the football field, and I’m grateful for how he helped me away from the field.
One thing that was characteristic of him was the pursuit of excellence. He said the pursuit of excellence would make you a better person than you otherwise might be content to be. I know I’m a better person than I otherwise would have been because of the time I was able to spend with the man.
CHAPTER 1
Football as It Should Be Played
“Football is two things. It’s blocking and tackling. You block and tackle better than the team you’re playing, you win.”
That was the mindset of Vince Lombardi, who in 1962 was the most famous football coach of what was probably the most revered professional football team in America. During that season, his Green Bay Packers blocked and tackled better than the other thirteen teams in the National Football League. They led the league in scoring with 415 points, and the 148 points given up by Green Bay’s hard-hitting defense was the fewest in the league.
Those totals, by the way, were also better than all eight teams in the rival American Football League, which was in its third year of existence. The Packers’ winning margin of 19.1 per game was more than 10 points better than all other team in the NFL.
Four years earlier, the Packers were at rock bottom following a 1–10–1 record. Ray “Scooter” McLean, a nice man who didn’t understand the meaning of discipline, quit before he would have been dismissed as coach. In the winter of