Monday, February 18, 2013

1966

The 1966 season saw the Packers led by an MVP season from quarterback Bart Starr. The Packers went 12–2, and in the NFL Championship, with the Packers leading 34–27, the Dallas Cowboys had the ball on the Packers' two-yard line, threatening to tie the ballgame. But on fourth down, the Packers' Tom Brown intercepted Don Meredith's pass in the end zone to preserve their victory against Dallas. The Packers went on to win Super Bowl I 35–10 over the AFL Kansas City Chiefs.

1965


The Packers returned to the championship game in 1965 following a two-year absence, when they defeated the Colts in a playoff for the Western Conference title. That game would be remembered for Don Chandler's controversial tying field goal in which the ball allegedly went wide right, but the officials signaled "good." The 13–10 overtime win earned the Packers a trip to the NFL Championship game, where Hornung and Taylor ran through the defending champion Cleveland Browns, helping the Packers win, 23–12, to earn their third NFL Championship under Lombardi and ninth overall. Goalpost uprights would be made taller the next year.


1962

The Packers stormed back in the 1962 season, jumping out to a 10–0 start, on their way to a 13–1 season. This consistent level of success would lead to Lombardi's Packers becoming one of the most prominent teams of their era, and even to their being featured as the face of the NFL on the cover of Time on December 21, 1962, as part of the magazine's cover story on "The Sport of the '60s". Shortly after Time's article, the Packers faced the Giants in a much more brutal championship game than the previous year, but the Packers prevailed on the surprising foot of Jerry Kramer and the determined running of Jim Taylor. The Packers defeated the Giants in New York, 16–7.