Packers legend Bart Starr passes away at age 85
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
GREEN BAY — Green Bay Packers legend Bart Starr has passed away at age 85.
A statement from the Packers can be read below:
Bart Starr, the first quarterback in history to win five National Football League championships and hero of the most memorable game in the storied history of the Green Bay Packers, died today in Birmingham, Ala. He had been in failing health since suffering a serious stroke in 2014.
Starr, 85, played for the Packers from 1956 to 1971, and was beloved by fans of not only his generation, but also succeeding ones. Along with being a Pro Football Hall of Famer and among a small pantheon of Packers’ all-time greats, he was the franchise’s nonpareil role model in the eyes of many.
Maybe the most popular player in Packers history, Starr will be eulogized for being a consummate professional, a Good Samaritan and an exemplary role model.
As a player, he will be remembered for being the only quarterback ever to lead his team to five NFL titles in a decade and for that frozen-in-time moment where he was lying face down under a pile of bodies in the south end zone of Lambeau Field, the hero of the Ice Bowl.
To this day, a half-century later, Starr’s game-winning quarterback sneak in that Dec. 31, 1967, game remains the signature moment in Packers history and personified what the Packers franchise is all about: Perseverance against all odds and unmatched success among all NFL teams.
When Starr squeezed between the blocks of right guard Jerry Kramer and center Ken Bowman and landed in the end zone, he not only sealed the Packers’ 21-17 victory over the Dallas Cowboys, but also climaxed the Lombardi Era.
What made it such a timeless moment in pro football history besides the last-minute drama were the conditions – a frozen field, temperatures that hovered around -16 degrees and a brutal wind chill that dipped to a -46 – and the stakes.
To this day, the Lombardi Packers are the only team to win three consecutive NFL titles since post-season play was introduced 85 years ago.
The game also epitomized Starr’s contribution to pro football’s greatest dynasty.
“He called the right thing at the right time and he executed it,” said Boyd Dowler, Starr’s favorite receiver during the nine years they played together under Lombardi. “He never made a bad read. He never made a stupid throw.
“If somebody was open, he’d get you the ball. He knew what it took to win and he went about doing it. He was a tremendous competitor and he was so consistent.”
Starr played 16 years for the Packers, a club record for service that he shares with Brett Favre. He was MVP of Super Bowls I and II. He was MVP of the NFL in 1966.
He was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1977, his first year of eligibility. He had his No. 15 jersey retired by the Packers on Nov. 11, 1973, two years after he retired.
The backdrop of Starr’s professional success also was one of the more improbable in sports history.
He was drafted in the 17th round, the 200th player overall, in 1956 after four uneven seasons at the University of Alabama.
As a sophomore, he led the Crimson Tide to the Southeastern Conference championship and was called “the best passer” in the school’s history by his coach, Red Drew. The next year, his playing time was limited by a back injury and Drew was fired. As a senior, Starr played in an offense where the quarterback needed to be more runner than passer, struggled and wound up sharing the job with a converted halfback.
Two days into his first training camp with the Packers in 1956, Starr impressed coach Lisle Blackbourn enough to earn his praise, despite his less than lofty draft status. Blackbourn presciently told the press, “The boy has a lot of poise.”
With five games remaining in the season, Starr was given his chance to showcase his talents for an injured McHan and went 4-1. Four years into his NFL career, Starr finally had his first victory as a starting quarterback.
But he still didn’t have Lombardi’s full confidence. When Starr played poorly in the 1960 opener, a loss to the Chicago Bears, Lombardi gave the job back to McHan.
Then, five games into the season, Lombardi changed his mind again. He benched McHan late in the third quarter at Pittsburgh and Starr led the Packers to the winning touchdown with a nearly four-minute, fourth-quarter drive.
This time the job was Starr’s for good.
Once he had earned Lombardi’s confidence, Starr also soon gained it from his teammates. That watershed moment occurred on Oct. 1, 1961, in a game against the Chicago Bears at what is now Lambeau Field.
Up until that point, there were those who still questioned if Starr wasn’t too nice, too polite, too unassuming to be a winning quarterback.
But he took a brutal pounding that day, including one or two flagrant late hits, needed stitches to stem the bleeding from his mouth and yet unfazed threw two touchdown passes and led the Packers to a 24-0 victory.
“I think it was a moment where everybody on the team understood Bart Starr had a lot of steel in his back,” said guard Jerry Kramer.
Starr is survived by his wife, Cherry; and his oldest son, Bart Jr. He was preceded in death by his youngest son, Bret.
Bart and Cherry were generous benefactors to many organizations and causes, most notably Rawhide Boys Ranch, which was established in 1965 near New London, Wis., to serve at-risk youth and families.
Starr suffered two strokes and a heart attack in early September 2014.
His last visit to Lambeau Field was Nov. 26, 2015, the night Brett Favre’s name and retired No. 4 were unveiled on the stadium’s façade.
In another treasured moment in Packers history, Starr rode a golf cart from the stadium’s tunnel in a steady rain to center stage where he greeted and embraced Favre in a moment that no doubt brought cheer, chills and tears to many in the crowd of nearly 80,000.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
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He played Quarterback for what was arguably the greatest football team in history and under the game's greatest coach.
RIP Bart.
Sorry to see this.
As a lifelong Bears fan, over the years I have enthusiastically cheered for his demise, though only while he was kicking the Bears ass, which was far too often to my liking.
I'll have to call my buddy in Ft. Lauderdale. Though a Chicago area guy too, he is a die hard Packers fan. He'll be even sadder than I today.
#15