UWGBPhoenix.com

Green Bay Sports history the Packers to the Phoenix

The fact that the Green Bay Packers exist in the modern NFL is nothing short of a miracle.  Why did the Packers survive and not the Duluth Eskimos or the team that played in the 1933 NFL Title game – the pride of the industrial Ohio River Valley, the Portsmouth Spartans?  

Forget Curly Lambeau.  There’s strong evidence he would have moved the team if he had had the chance.  If it wasn’t for the leadership of the Green Bay Press Gazette the NFL would not reside in Brown County .  Time and again Press Gazette General Manager Andrew Turnbull and Sports Editor George Calhoun made the difference.   

The Packers were founded in the Editorial Room of the PG back in August of 1919.  They would have folded three years later if the newspaper hadn’t helped rally community leaders to raise $2,500.  Less than a year later Turnbull promoted the idea of turning the Packers into a non-profit community owned organization.  

Even with that innovative approach the Packers went into receivership in 1934.  This time Green Bay business leaders came up with $15,000 to get the team out of hock.  At about the same time the other remaining NFL small town team, the Portsmouth Spartans, were purchased for $16,500 by a group of Detroit community leaders.  The team moved to Michigan and was renamed the Lions.  They haven’t been heard from since.  

In 1949 an end of the season intra-squad game that raised $50,000 and a 1950 stock drive that pulled in $118,000 saved the Green Bay NFL team until a decade later when Vince Lombardi ‘s legendary teams cemented the Packers’ future.  The 1990’s and skyrocketing salaries produced new challenges.  The sharing of TV revenue and the NFL financial support of a remodeled Lambeau Field have helped the non-profit team keep in the game with franchises bankrolled by billionaire owners.  

Because of history and everyday reality the people who operate the Green Bay Packers understand what it takes to survive and build.  That may explain the unique relationship that has developed over the years between the Packers and the UWGB Basketball program.  

Playing in the shadows of Lambeau Field – the UWGB Phoenix struggled to build an identity and a place in a community where the Packers were a year round all consuming pastime.  

What has evolved is a special kind of junior partnership.  The UWGB Phoenix program has become the little brother going through the same growing pains the early Packers experienced.  Vince Lombardi understood it.  He’s the man who interviewed the finalists for the first Phoenix head coach and made the decision on who to hire.   Today -- from the management staff, coaches and players -- advice and support is being offered.  The Packers have to take care of business first but there is a special place for UWGB’s program.  

The re-born Lambeau Field with its atrium, restaurants, Hall of Fame and Pro Shop – is a tourist attraction – a place where couples are taking the Lambeau Leap into marriage -- where community groups gather for meetings -- it is a year round destination.  Just across the street is the Resch Center where UWGB plays basketball and there are convention facilities.  This all forms the core of a unique district.  A sports Mecca steeped in a history of beating the odds.

Home Page