The First America's Team. Bob Berghaus

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СКАЧАТЬ but some of Lombardi’s assistants weren’t convinced his heart was dedicated to football. During a five-game losing streak in 1959, Lombardi asked his assistants for honest appraisal of every player on the roster. The notes given to Lombardi were later used in a book compiled by Len Wagner from reports provided by Phil Bengston’s son, Jay, titled, Launching the Glory Years: The 1959 Packers, What They Didn’t Tell Us.”

      One assistant was highly critical of Hornung: “Not a team player. Has ability to do many things but is very lax. Not a good blocker. Does not make the big play when called upon to do so…I question his value as a top flight football player.”

      Another assistant added: “Paul is a fair receiver, poor blocker. Could be a great ball player but lacks drive. He has pride. He gets by putting out just enough to do the job. He is a problem as far as training and social life and I don’t think he is going to change. If we could get a top pro player and a kicker somewhere, I would be in favor of trading him. I think it would do the team more good.”

      Lombardi didn’t listen. He knew Hornung could be special, and the former Heisman Trophy winner showed signs during the final four games of that season by scoring 6 touchdowns after reaching the end zone just once in the first eight games.

      He also threw touchdown passes and was instrumental in helping turn a 3–5 team into one that finished 7–5 and showed signs of becoming special. Hornung was a playboy, and he never did change his lifestyle. He partied hard during the week but was ready on Sunday. He was well liked by his teammates and had a lot to do with the strong camaraderie on the team. As time wore on, he became Lombardi’s favorite player. Lombardi famously said Hornung was ordinary between the 20-yard lines but had a nose for the goal line once the Packers crossed the opponent’s 20.

      There were some games when he was truly spectacular, as he was in the first regular-season game of 1962. The Packers opened up a new season at City Stadium against the second-year Minnesota Vikings with Hornung leading the way. The former Heisman Trophy winner from Notre Dame scored 3 touchdowns on runs of 6, 7, and 37 yards. He also booted 4 extra points and a pair of field goals for a 28-point day.

      Hornung rushed 10 times for 67 yards and also completed a 41-yard pass to Boyd Dowler on a halfback option. Packers fullback Jim Taylor rushed for a team-high 75 yards on 17 tries but failed to get into the end zone. He gained 14 yards on the Packers’ first offensive play of the season, picking up most of the yardage after a key block by Dowler.

      Hornung scored his first 2 touchdowns in the opening period to stake Green Bay to a 14–0 lead. The Packers had a second-quarter drive stall on the 3, and Lombardi elected to let Hornung boot a 10-yard field goal for a 17–0 halftime lead. Remember, those were the days when goalposts in the NFL were on the goal line.

      Hornung displayed a strong leg with a 45-yard field goal in the third quarter. Bart Starr, who had an average passing day (7 completions in 14 attempts for 108 yards) hooked up with tight end Ron Kramer on an 18-yard scoring strike later in the quarter. Hornung’s 37-yard run early in the fourth quarter gave the Pack a 34–0 lead.

      Meanwhile the Green Bay defense did a great job in containing Fran Tarkenton, the Vikings’ scrambling quarterback, who had rushed for 308 yards and 5 scores during his rookie season a year earlier.

      The Packers line, led by end Willie Davis and tackle Henry Jordan, sacked Scramblin’ Fran six times for 52 yards in losses. The secondary also had a big day picking off 5 passes, 2 each by Willie Wood and Herb Adderley and 1 by Hank Gremminger. The Packers also forced the Vikings into 2 fumbles for a total of 7 turnovers.

      A day after watching film of the easy win, Lombardi said the Packers offense lacked consistency and that the tackling was “bad.”

      A few days after the game the Green Bay Press-Gazette ran a story about the rival American Football League, which, in its third season, was luring talented players away from the NFL with contracts significantly larger than most of the players in the more established league were playing for.

      Dowler, who began his career with the Packers in 1959, admitted that the lure of money would have been tempting had the AFL been in existence when he came out of college.

      “I would have very seriously considered the other league,” he said. “The idea of a new frontier and the chance to get in at the ground floor plus the chance for more money may have swung me over.”

      Defense steps up again

      Packers 17, Cardinals 0, Milwaukee County Stadium

      September 23, 1962

      Remarkably, the Packers left the field at halftime leading just 3–0 against a Cardinals team that would finish the season with a 4–9–1 record.

      Playing at Milwaukee County Stadium, the Packers’ part-time home, the team from Missouri caught the Packers by surprise with a strong defensive effort through the first two quarters, holding the Packers to a 13-yard field goal by Hornung. The Packers drove to the 30 or closer three other times, but Starr had 2 passes intercepted and also lost a fumble.

      “Their defense upset us in the beginning,” Lombardi told reporters after the game. “We had a helluva time trying to find them. They did a lot of stunting in there. We knew they would be tough defensively. It was new to us. We hadn’t seen it before this year.”

      The new defensive look came from the Cardinals’ new coach, someone familiar to those around the Milwaukee area. Wally Lemm was a standout running back at Carroll College, a small school located in Waukesha, twenty-five miles west of Milwaukee. After graduating from college he joined the service and began his coaching career as an assistant at Notre Dame in 1945.

      Following one season in South Bend, he returned to Carroll as an assistant for two years and then coached for one season at Waukesha High, which played in the Milwaukee Suburban Conference. He left for the college ranks again and eventually landed in the NFL as an assistant with the Chicago Cardinals in 1956. Lemm later coached the Houston Oilers to the AFL title in 1961 and then returned to the Cardinals, this time as a head coach.

      Lemm’s defense kept the Packers out of the end zone for a half, but it wasn’t strong enough to do it for an entire game.

      Lemm actually thought the Cardinals had a chance at upsetting the reigning champs. He didn’t think the Packers looked sharp when the teams played during the preseason, and he saw some things while watching film of the Packers-Vikings game that told him Green Bay was vulnerable.

      “We all thought the champions were ripe for the taking,” he said.

      As it turned out, Lemm was wrong, and he was impressed with the Packers.

      “They’re tough to beat because they have the best balanced team in football,” Lemm told reporters. “Great runners in Taylor and Hornung, excellent passing, at least five dangerous receivers, tremendous defense, outstanding kicking. All that plus experience. What else can you have in this game?”

      Taylor eventually found openings in the St. Louis line and finished the day with 122 yards in 23 attempts, although he didn’t reach the end zone for the second straight game.

      Hornung scored on a 3-yard run halfway into the third quarter, and Starr tossed a 17-yard touchdown pass to Max McGee midway through the final quarter for Green Bay’s final score.

      Henry Jordan (74) collars St. Louis quarterback Sam Etcheverry (14) with help from Bill Forester (71) during СКАЧАТЬ