Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Rupert Patrick wrote:

lastcat3 wrote:So how many of the stars of those '60's Packers teams are still alive. Crazy to think that it has been over 50 years now since that group won the last Super Bowl. The very youngest of them all would be in their early to mid 70's by now.

Hornung, Jerry Kramer, Willie Davis, Dave Robinson, Dowler, Adderly, Dale, Mercein, Willie Wood, Doug Hart, Bob Long, Tom Moore, Fleming, Bratkowski were the ones off the top of my head who I think won at least two titles and are still alive, but there are surely more.

Mercein actually only won a single title with Green Bay, though he was certainly a key figure in the Ice Bowl.
Tom Brown, Ken Bowman, Donny Anderson, and Grabowski are all still alive.
I just realized Bob Skoronski, Gregg, Jim Taylor all have died in the last 8 or 9 months.

conace21 wrote:

Rupert Patrick wrote:

lastcat3 wrote:So how many of the stars of those '60's Packers teams are still alive. Crazy to think that it has been over 50 years now since that group won the last Super Bowl. The very youngest of them all would be in their early to mid 70's by now.

Hornung, Jerry Kramer, Willie Davis, Dave Robinson, Dowler, Adderly, Dale, Mercein, Willie Wood, Doug Hart, Bob Long, Tom Moore, Fleming, Bratkowski were the ones off the top of my head who I think won at least two titles and are still alive, but there are surely more.

Mercein actually only won a single title with Green Bay, though he was certainly a key figure in the Ice Bowl.
Tom Brown, Ken Bowman, Donny Anderson, and Grabowski are all still alive.
I just realized Bob Skoronski, Gregg, Jim Taylor all have died in the last 8 or 9 months.

Gary Knafelc was on the '61 ad '62 squads. Bob Long was on the '65-'66'-67 squads.

Regarding the post-career plans of Packers, an article decades ago pointed out that (for the most part) plenty of former Lombardi Packers had thrived away from the field. Max McGee and his Chi-Chi's investment, along with Willie Davis, are probably the most prominent examples.

BD Sullivan wrote:Regarding the post-career plans of Packers, an article decades ago pointed out that (for the most part) plenty of former Lombardi Packers had thrived away from the field. Max McGee and his Chi-Chi's investment, along with Willie Davis, are probably the most prominent examples.

I remember an NFL Films program where one of the Lombardi Packers (Kramer I think) was interviewed and mentioned that many of them became self-made millionaires after they retired from football, and he said that their success in business came from the competitive drive to succeed that Lombardi instilled in them. A number of business schools have applied Lombardi's principles on success and winning to basic business theory.

I think it is interesting to note that two of the Colts players from the 50's were also very successful in the business sector, both in the hamburger business, Jerry Richardson (Hardee's) and Gino Marchetti's (Gino's). Richardson also owned a steak house chain in the 70's and 80's called Quincy's that was big in the southeast; when I was in college I worked in a Quincy's washing dishes, but the chain went out of business in the early 90's I think.