The Story of the Green Bay Packers

The Green Bay Packers were founded in 1919, when local athlete Curly Lambeau and newspaper editor George Calhoun organized a team funded by Lambeau’s employer, the Indian Packing Company, which is where the name comes from. More than a century later, the Packers are the only major U.S. pro sports franchise that has never relocated and never will: the team is owned by more than 500,000 shareholders rather than a single owner, a structure written into the franchise’s bylaws specifically to keep it anchored in Green Bay forever.

No franchise has won more championships. The Packers have claimed thirteen NFL titles overall, four of them Super Bowls: Super Bowl I and II under legendary coach Vince Lombardi in the late 1960s, followed by Super Bowl XXXI after the 1996 season and Super Bowl XLV after the 2010 season. The Lombardi Trophy, awarded to the NFL champion every year, is named for the coach whose Packers teams of the 1960s remain the standard every era since has been measured against.

The roll call of Packers legends spans generations: Don Hutson, who redefined the receiver position in the 1930s and ’40s; Bart Starr, Lombardi’s quarterback and the MVP of the first two Super Bowls; Reggie White, one of the greatest defensive players in league history; and the run of star quarterbacks from Brett Favre through Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love that has kept Green Bay competitive for three straight decades.

All of it happens at Lambeau Field, built in 1957 and still standing on the same spot, the oldest continuously used stadium in the NFL. Fans call it the “Frozen Tundra” for the brutal late-season conditions that have decided more than one famous game, most notably the 1967 NFL Championship, remembered as the Ice Bowl. This site is a small tribute to that history: a place where new fans can learn where the team came from, and longtime fans can revisit it.