Highlights Archives
The Other Packers-Giants Game at Lambeau Field
As Green Bay Packers fans prepare to cheer on their beloved Pack in Sunday's NFC Championship game against the New York Giants, it is fitting to reminisce about the only other championship game between the two teams on the near-sacred turf of Lambeau Field. On December 31, 1961, the Packers played the Giants for the National Football League title in 21-degree weather, going on to win the game 37-0. The NFL and its competitor, the American Football League, did not yet have a grand championship match up, and the game that would come to be known as Super Bowl I was still five years down the road.
Early on the morning of that first Packers-Giants championship clash, Lambeau Field (then known as the new Green Bay "City Stadium") looked anything but ready for such an important game. Fourteen inches of snow covered 20 tons of hay that sat atop the field tarpaulin, creating a one-foot padding that had protected the field for weeks leading up to the NFL championship game. Shown above is a Farmall 460 tractor pulling a hay baler, baling the hay so it could be removed from the field. The photo comes from the Wisconsin Historical Society's McCormick-International Harvester Collection.
 Lambeau Field as it looked on the morning of the 1961 NFL title game (WHI image ID number 6661) By game time the field was green and dry. After a scoreless first quarter, a pair of touchdown passes from quarterback Bart Starr to Boyd Dowler and Ron Kramer, plus the running and kicking game of halfback Paul Hornung, combined to pile up 24 points for the Packers at halftime. Despite threatening to score several times, the Giants went scoreless the entire game while Starr, Hornung and Kramer scored a touchdown and two field goals in the second half to take the NFL title with the lopsided win. It's safe to say that many of the Packers faithful hope for a similar outcome on Sunday, January 20, when the New York Giants return to Lambeau Field.
View pages from the Green Bay Packers' 1962 Yearbook, looking back on the 1961 championship game:
 A photo from the 1962 Packers Yearbook, looking back on the 1961 championship game, shows halfback Paul Hornung charging off right tackle on his way toward the game's first touchdown.
:: Posted January 15, 2008
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