Since the National Football League (NFL) first started in 1920, then under the name the American Professional Football Association (APFA), there has been only one team in league history who have won the championship of the league three consecutive times.
That team is the Green Bay Packers. And they have done it twice. Once before the NFL playoff era started in 1933 and once afterward. Under head coach Curly Lambeau, the Packers won three straight NFL titles in 1929, 1930 and 1931, when the league champions were crowned due to their league record. Those great teams of the Packers were led by players like Lavvie Dilweg, Red Dunn, Verne Lewellen, Jug Earp and Johnny “Blood” McNally.
But starting in 1933, the NFL champion was determined by the ultimate winner in the postseason. That means the playoff system has been in place for 87 years now. And only one team has won three straight NFL titles during that time. And that was the Green Bay Packers who played under head coach Vince Lombardi. The Pack won NFL championships in 1965, 1966 and 1967. Many of the players who played on those teams had a chance to win three in a row once before, as the Packers won the NFL title in both 1961 and 1962, before falling just short in 1963.
The period in which the Packers won three titles in a row happened right smack dab in the middle of the merger between the NFL and the AFL. Which means, besides winning three straight NFL championships in a row, the Packers also had to play the AFL champion after the 1966 and 1967 seasons. That game became known as the Super Bowl. The Packers won both Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II, as quarterback Bart Starr was the MVP of both of those games.
I wanted to talk with some players who were on those Green Bay teams which won three titles in a row and I was fortunate to be able to talk with three of those players. Those three very talented players are right guard Jerry Kramer, who was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2018, split end Boyd Dowler, who like Kramer was on the NFL 50th Anniversary Team and flanker Carroll Dale, who became the deep threat for Starr and the Packers when he joined the team in 1965.
The Packers came close to winning three NFL titles in a row earlier in the Lombardi era. Had the Packers won the 1960 NFL title game against the Philadelphia Eagles at Franklin Field, it would have been the first of three straight championships, because the Packers won the 1961 NFL title game 37-0 against the New York Giants at new City Stadium (now Lambeau Field) and also the 1962 NFL title game against the G-Men again by a score of 16-7 at Yankee Stadium.
The Packers came close to beating the Eagles in the 1960 championship game, as they lost 17-13 when fullback Jim Taylor was tackled on the final play of the game at the Philadelphia 8 by middle linebacker Chuck Bednarek. Green Bay had outgained Philadelphia in the game and had squandered away some early points in the game by going for it on 4th down twice and didn’t succeed either time.
But it was the words of Coach Lombardi after the game that made Kramer a believer of what his coach was trying to accomplish in Green Bay.
“After the game, Coach Lombardi didn’t get into the locker room until 15 minutes later than the rest of us,” Kramer said. “He was talking to the media or whatever. I remember him getting on a trunk in the middle of the locker room and tells everyone to bring it up to listen to him. We were all still angry and frustrated and Coach knew that and understood that. When everyone was around him, Coach Lombardi says, ‘All right. This year we played in the championship game. Next year we will win the championship game.’ I made up my mind at that moment to buy in with what he was preaching. Up until then, I wasn’t sure. But I was all in after that talk.”
Plus, had the Packers won the NFL title in 1963, that also would have meant three straight NFL titles, after winning in ’61 and ’62. But even though the Packers finished 11-2-1 that year, the Chicago Bears were 11-1-2 and ending up winning the NFL championship that year.
The Packers finished second in the Western Conference again in 1964 and Kramer missed most of the season due to intestinal issues. Kramer just hoped he could resume his NFL career in 1965 and winning another championship was secondary in his thinking.
“I came out of the Mayo Clinic late in ’64 and I had dropped a lot of weight and now had a colostomy. I got as low as 179 pounds. A while after that, Doc Brault talked me into another operation because I wasn’t getting better. I didn’t show up the first and second time the operation was scheduled. Finally, the third time I did. Doc found the splinters which had been lodged in me for 11 years. He also reversed my colostomy. I believe my last procedure with Doc Brault was in March or April of 1965. A month or so later, I went to see Coach Lombardi.
“So when I went to talk with Coach Lombardi about playing, he said, ‘Jerry, we can’t count on you this year. I just want you to go home and we’ll take care of your salary and your hospital bills.’ I told Lombardi that I really wanted to play. I knew that I had already missed most of the ’64 season and if I missed the ’65 season, I would probably never get a chance to play again. I told him emphatically that I would not go home and that I wanted to play. We went back and forth about this for about 35 or 40 minutes. Finally Lombardi says, ‘Okay, I’m going to put you with the defense.’ I said, great. I always wanted to play defense anyway. But the main thing is that allowed me to get on the field at least.”
Kramer found out however that his task of getting in football shape would be very, very difficult.
“We always used to take three laps around the field to start practice. I ran a half of a lap and my lungs seized up. I just couldn’t breathe or get any air. Don Chandler came up to me and asked, ‘What’s wrong, pal?’
“I told Don that I can’t breathe. Don told me that, ‘Between the two of us, we would do what one of the players does in terms of an exercise. If you can only do a half of a lap, I’ll do the other two and half laps.’
“So Don worked out besides me for the next month and we did just that. If the team did 50 sit ups and I could only do 10, Don would do the other 40. If the team did 50 side-saddle hops and I could only do 15, Don would do the other 35. So Don kept me in the game and kept me from being embarrassed. That kept me from feeling like a jerk in front of a bunch of world-class athletes. So by doing that procedure with Don, I gradually was able to do more and after a month I was able to do all of the exercises.
“I gained about 15 pounds. I knew that the colostomy was reattached, the hernia was fixed and the intestines were okay. It was just going through the reconditioning which was so difficult. Without Don, I really doubt that I could have made it through that camp. So all the books, the three straight NFL championships, the two Super Bowls and all the great things that happened to me after that was because of my teammate.”
Going into the ’65 season, Dowler felt the team was ready for another championship run.
“Going into the 1965 season, I don’t recall anyone being negative,” Dowler said. “I think we all believed that we didn’t live up to expectations in ’63 and ’64. We need to get back on the track. And we did. I think not getting into the championship game for two years in a row was just not good enough. We were better than that. We had more focus as a team in 1965 and that carried on over through the season.”
Meanwhile, Dale was just happy to be with a team which had championship aspirations after playing with the Rams in the first part of his NFL career and the team never had a winning season.
“I spent five losing seasons with the Rams,” Dale said. “We were in the same conference as the Packers and we played them twice each year. We didn’t have a lot of success against the Packers either. To be traded to a contender, a team that had won it all in ’61 and ’62, was just fantastic. Plus, there were a couple of guys I was familiar with, as Tom Fears, who was the receivers coach with me with the Rams, was now in Green Bay, as was Zeke Bratkowski, who I had played with in Los Angeles.
“But getting traded to the Packers was a dream come true. Green Bay was perfect for me because I was a small-town boy growing up, plus playing in Blacksburg where I went to college was also small. And the fact that the team was a championship contender made it more attractive.”
Kramer, Dowler and Dale played key roles in the Packers winning the 1965 NFL title, as the Packers finished with a 10-3-1 record. The Baltimore Colts also finished 10-3-1, which set up a playoff game to see who would play the Cleveland Browns in the NFL title game.
I wrote about that controversial game back in 2016, as Bratkowski added the commentary. Zeke led the Packers to a 13-10 win in overtime.
Kramer got better as the year went on as he regained his All-Pro form, which in turn improved the team’s rushing attack, which was ranked just 10th in the NFL in ’65. But come the postseason, when Kramer was almost in peak form, the running attack blossomed. In the NFL title game against the defending NFL champion Cleveland Browns, the Packers rushed for 204 yards, as Paul Hornung rushed for 106 yards and a score and Taylor added 96 more yard toting the rock, as the Packers won 23-12 at snowy and muddy Lambeau Field.
“I remember that game against the Browns,” Kramer said. “Jimmy Brown was held to 50 yards rushing by our defense. That was a great job by Willie Davis, Ray Nitschke, Dave Robinson and company. You know, it took me a while to get my shit together in ’65 and get comfortable. And when I did, it seemed like I got going and we got going. I had my confidence back and I had my strength back. And in that game, it all came together. Fuzzy [Thurston] and I had a blast that game!”
Dowler led the Packers in receiving in 1965 with 44 receptions and four touchdowns. In the postseason during the games against the Baltimore Colts and the Browns, Dowler had 10 catches for 109 yards.
“In ’65, we started throwing the ball a little more, compared to the earlier years under Coach Lombardi,” Dowler said. “I personally had a pretty good year. I know I played in the Pro Bowl. I didn’t play in the Pro Bowl because I was voted in, I played in the Pro Bowl because Jimmy Orr pulled a muscle in the first practice for that game in Los Angeles. I was next in line in the voting, so they called me on the phone to get out there.”
Dale also had a big postseason in ’65, after having an quiet regular season, when No. 84 caught 20 passes for 382 yards and two scores. But in the games between the Colts and the Browns, Dale had five catches for a whopping 123 yards (24.6 average) and a touchdown. That TD occurred in the NFL title game against the Browns, as it was the opening score of the game when Starr hit Dale with a 47-yard pass for a touchdown.
“In the game against the Browns, I told Bart that they were playing me a little tight,” Dale said. “Of course, it had snowed that day and it was muddy. So I was trying to run a fly pattern and Bart underthrew it and I was able to come back and catch it, plus a couple of their guys slipped down and I was able to go all the way and score.”
So, after the NFL title in 1965, the Packers now had won three NFL championships in five years. That being said, 1966 would be much different, as before the season, the NFL and AFL had merged to create a championship game between the leagues that would become the Super Bowl.
As it was, the 1966 Green Bay team was probably the second best team which played under Lombardi. The 13-1 team in 1962 was the certainly the best, but the 12-2 team in 1966 came close. The two losses in the regular season were by a combined total of four points.
Starr was the NFL MVP in 1966, as he led a Green Bay offense which was ranked No. 4 in the NFL. It helped that Kramer was back to his usual form, as he was named First-Team All-Pro. Right tackle Forrest Gregg was also named First-Team All-Pro, as was Starr obviously.
The Green Bay defense was just outstanding in 1966, as it was ranked No. 1 in total defense. Several players from the great defense were also named First-Team All-Pro, which included Davis, Nitschke, Herb Adderley, Willie Wood and Lee Roy Caffey.
The Packers played the Dallas Cowboys in the 1966 NFL championship game at the Cotton Bowl. Starr was just magnificent, as No. 15 threw four touchdown passes without throwing an interception for 304 yards. One of Starr’s touchdown passes went to Dowler and another went to Dale.
“I don’t remember a hell of a lot about that game,” Kramer said. “I know that we moved up and down the field pretty well. I know Elijah [Pitts] ran the ball pretty well and Bart was phenomenal.”
The 16-yard touchdown pass that Starr threw to Dowler was controversial, because No. 86 was already two steps into the end zone when cornerback Mike Gaechter upended Dowler and flipped him high in the air and the former Colorado Buffalo landed on his shoulder.
Taylor wanted to go after Gaechter after that cheap shot, but Starr made sure that he kept No. 31 from getting a personal foul, as he and Taylor jogged to the sideline.
On the 51-yard touchdown pass to Dale, the former Virginia Tech star described what happened.
“On that play, Cornell Green flashed in front of me,” Dale said. “Bart just threw it as hard and high as he could and the trajectory of the ball just missed Cornell’s arms as he was defending and went right into my arms and it stuck.”
Starr also threw TD passes to Pitts and Max McGee, as the Packers held off the Cowboys and won 34-27, which meant the Packers would be playing the Kansas City Chiefs in the first Super Bowl.
Once again, Starr had a tremendous performance, as No. 15 completed 16-of-23 passes for 250 yards and also threw two touchdown passes, as the Packers won 35-10. Starr was especially deadly on third down, as the Packers were able to convert 11-of-15 chances on that crucial down. The two TD passes that Starr threw went to McGee, who came into the game after the third play of the contest when Dowler injured his shoulder.
Even with a slight hangover and very little sleep, No. 85 had a huge game, as he had seven catches for 138 yards and two scores.
The running game of the Packers was also effective, as the running attack gained 130 yards. Pitts had two rushing touchdowns, while Taylor had one.
Going into the game, even with Lombardi telling the team not to underestimate their opponents, Kramer recalled a big laugh when the offense was watching films of the KC defense.
“I remember watching the Chiefs defense while we were watching film, and their two safeties ran into one and another. All of a sudden Max starts doing the merrie melodies and looney tunes theme song and we all cracked up.
“So we were not really prepared for that first quarter and the quality of talent that showed up for the Chiefs. You were playing against guys like Jerry Mays, Buck Buchanan, E.J. Holub, Johnny Robinson and Bobby Bell. They had a lot a lot of talent on that defense!”
Dale recalled Lombardi telling the team how important this first Super Bowl game was.
“Apparently Commissioner Rozelle had called Coach Lombardi and reminded him that he was not only representing the Green Bay Packers, but the entire NFL,” Dale said. “Coach shared that with us and told us that we had the extra pressure going into the game. He felt we would win, but we definitely had to respect Kansas City.”
But it wasn’t easy.
The Packers only led 14-10 at halftime. But things were completely different in the second half. Wood picked off a Len Dawson pass early in the third quarter and returned it 50 yards to set up a five-yard touchdown run by Pitts. The game was basically over at that point.
The victory in Super Bowl I set up the magical 1967 season for the Packers. That wonderful season was documented by Kramer in his classic book, Instant Replay, which edited by the late great Dick Schaap.
Kramer recalls that the focus of winning a third straight NFL title was talked about immediately by Lombardi at training camp in 1967.
“Without question, Coach Lombardi’s favorite topic was about winning that third NFL title in a row that year,” Kramer said. “How the team could be set apart from any other team in pro football and how people would remember that forever. He mentioned that several different times that year, including our first team meeting at training camp.
“But it was a bitch of a season for us in ’67. We had won two in a row and we weren’t sneaking up on anybody. Everybody knew our game, plus we didn’t change anything. But we wanted that third title badly.”
It was indeed a tough season for the Packers. Hornung and Taylor were gone. Starr was hampered by injuries early in the year. In Week 8 against the Colts, the Packers lost their starting running backs, Pitts and Jim Grabowski, for the season. Plus there were two excruciating last second losses to the Colts and the Rams on the road.
Yet the team overcame all of that adversity.
Just two weeks after that disheartening 27-24 loss to the Rams in Week 13 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Packers hosted the Rams at County Stadium in Milwaukee for the Western Conference title.
The theme of that game was set by Lombardi in a pregame speech.
“With Coach Lombardi, he always preached that we should have three priorities,” Dale said. “God first, our families second and the Green Bay Packers third. In a meeting before the game against the Rams, Coach was talking about St. Paul and running a race. I was the guy who ran chapel for the team and Coach asked me if I had heard that parable. Well, you only had one answer when Coach Lombardi spoke to you. You said, ‘Yes, Sir!’ So I went straight home and looked it up and found it in 1 Corinthians 9:24. St. Paul said in a race there are many runners, but only one will win the prize. So run to win. That was the theme for the game against the Rams in his pregame speech.”
The Packers started off slowly and fell behind 7-0 in that game. But from the 2nd quarter on, the Packers just dominated the game. Starr once again had a big game, as he completed 17-of-23 passes for 222 yards and a touchdown pass to Dale.
But the star of the game was halfback Travis Williams, who definitely ran to win, as he rushed for 88 yards and two rushing touchdowns, including a 46-yard scamper to tie the game in the 2nd quarter.
Kramer definitely recalls that play.
“I remember blocking on Merlin [Olsen] and he was starting to slip away to the outside in pursuit and I look outside and Travis was about even with us, but near the sideline running towards the end zone. And I knew that this play was over. He’s gone.”
On defense, the Packers just dominated the Rams and held Los Angeles to 217 total yards. The Packers sacked quarterback Roman Gabriel five times, including 3.5 sacks by defensive tackle Henry Jordan.
When the game was over, the Packers were the winners by a 28-7 score.
That victory set up the 1967 NFL title game between the Packers and Cowboys at Lambeau Field. The game is better known as the “Ice Bowl” game.
One never knows what will happen weather-wise in the region where the Fox River connects to the bay off Lake Michigan in the winter. And on December 31, 1967, the region was shocked with the coldest day in Green Bay history.
The game-time temperature was -13°. If you add in the wind throughout the game, the temperature plummeted to -50°. Nice weather if you are a polar bear. But not if you are a professional football player.
The Packers jumped out to an early 14-0 lead, thanks to two Starr touchdown passes to Dowler. Back in January, I talked to Dowler about this game and he told me about each of the touchdowns he scored.
The first touchdown came on the first drive of the game of the Packers and it was when Green Bay was on the 8-yard line of the Cowboys.
“Bart noticed that the cornerback was lined-up a couple of yards outside of me and I was in tight,” Dowler said. “So was the linebacker. Plus, Mel Renfro, who was a safety, was near the line of scrimmage near the center. So Bart calls an audible called 86, which had nothing to do with my number. 86 was a quick post or slant and it was a blitz audible when the safety was up. But Bart never once called that audible when I was in tight. He always had called it when I was split out wide.
“But he called it anyway. But the call did not throw me off, as I knew how Bart thought and was in my ninth year playing with him. So I thought to myself to just not screw up and run what Bart had called, even though I was in tight. The linebacker gave me a clean release off the line of scrimmage and I just broke inside to where Renfro should have been and Bart just threw it to me and it was an easy pitch and catch. But it was the play call that got me open. Bart sort of surprised me with the call, but when I broke wide open in the end zone, I realized it was a damn good call by Bart.”
Dowler also recalled the second touchdown, which occurred in the second quarter.
“It was third and short and Bart called the 36 pass,” Dowler said. “If Renfro was playing deep where he was supposed to be, Bart would have changed the call to a 36 run, when the fullback would run off tackle.”
On the 36 pass, Starr had two options. One, he could throw to the halfback out in the left flat or throw to the end who would run a post pattern. This play occurred when the Packers were at the 43-yard line of the Cowboys.
“On that 36 pass play, Bart first faked the handoff to Ben Wilson and then looked to pass,” Dowler said. “The wind was blowing in Bart’s face on that play. Renfro was playing up a bit and when I got by him, my heart skipped a beat because I thought Bart would overthrow me, but he laid it in there perfectly. Renfro wasn’t far behind me when I caught it and he did tackle me in the end zone.
“The bottom line is that on both of my touchdowns, the coverage problem for the Cowboys was because of where Renfro was lined up. Bart saw that and took advantage of it.”
But the Packers let the Cowboys back in the game thanks to a fumble by Starr which was returned for a TD and a fumble by Wood on a punt return which led to a field goal. The Packers were up just 14-10 at halftime. Then on the first play of the 4th quarter, halfback Dan Reeves hit flanker Lance Rentzel with a 50-yard touchdown pass on the halfback option play.
The Cowboys took the lead 17-14 and that was the score when the Packers got the ball back at their own 32 with 4:50 left in the game. Up until that point, the Packers had run 31 plays after their first two scores and had mustered a minus-nine yards.
Kramer has talked to me about that drive many times.
“I don’t think we ever considered the possibility of losing,” Kramer said. “We didn’t really acknowledge the fact that we didn’t gain any yardage in 31 plays prior to that. We knew where we were when we got in the final huddle. We knew what we had to do.
“I asked Bart about that years later, about what made him think we could go 68 yards and score a touchdown after we had made minus-nine yards on 31 plays prior to that. Bart said, ‘Jerry, I came into the huddle and started to say something. Then I looked in your eyes, I looked at Forrest’s eyes and everyone else in the huddle, and I knew I didn’t have to say anything. So all I said was, ‘Let’s go.’
Kramer said there was calm in that huddle.
“Even at that point of the game there wasn’t any panic with us,” No. 64 said. “There was a sense of urgency however. We still believed that we could do it.
“The beautiful part of that was the contribution by so many different players in that drive. Players like Chuck Mercein, Boyd Dowler and Donny Anderson.”
Indeed, except for a 13-yard pass to Dowler, it was Anderson and Mercein who accounted for most of the yardage on that drive. Mercein picked up 34 yards by himself. No. 30 hadn’t joined the Packers until midway through the ’67 season when Grabowski was hurt, but Mercein proved how valuable he was to the Packers in the postseason games against the Rams and Cowboys.
The game basically came down to one play. It was 3rd down and the Packers had the ball at the 1-yard line of the Cowboys. Green Bay was out of timeouts and there were 16 seconds left in the game. After Starr called his final timeout, he went up to Kramer and asked if he could make the wedge block on Jethro Pugh. The reason Starr asked Kramer that was because earlier in the week while watching film of the Dallas short-yardage defense, Kramer noticed the Pugh played high, as opposed to submarining like most defensive tackles do.
I believe it was also at that point when Starr told Kramer and no one else that he would carry the football himself.
Starr went to the sideline and told Coach Lombardi what he was going to do. Lombardi just replied, “Then run it and let’s get the hell out of here.”
In the huddle, Starr called the 31-wedge play in which Mercein is supposed to get the ball and run through the one hole between center Ken Bowman and Kramer. But Starr indeed kept the ball himself and scored the most famous touchdown in the glorious history of the Packers.
Starr knew exactly what he needed to do on his legendary sneak. No. 15 did not go through the 1-hole like the play was designed. Instead, he went through the 3-hole which was to Kramer’s right. Plus, as he snuck into the end zone, Starr transferred that ball from his right arm to his left. That was very important because just as Starr was crossing the goal line, linebacker Chuck Howley of the Cowboys was ripping at Starr’s empty right arm trying to force a fumble.
After the game, Kramer wanted to make sure he corrected the record about his head coach.
“After that game, I was interviewed by Tom Brookshier,” Kramer said. “There had been a negative article about Coach Lombardi that had come out recently from Esquire magazine. The article compared him to Mussolini and a pigeon walking around with his chest thrown out. It was just a hatchet job.
“Tommy asked me about Coach Lombardi. I had made up my mind previously to talk about him, as I heard that Coach’s mother was really upset with the article. She even cried over it.
“So when Tommy asked me about the coach and mentioned the criticism, I said, ‘People don’t understand Coach Lombardi. They don’t know him. But we know him. We understand him. And we love him. And this is one beautiful man.’
“And that still fits today. I still feel that same way.”
After that monumental game, Lombardi received a phone call in the locker room from his mentor Red Blaik, who taught Lombardi so much at Army. The words from Blaik to Lombardi can be read in the fantastic book, When Pride Still Mattered by David Maraniss, which to me is the greatest book ever written about Lombardi.
“Vince,” Blaik said. “A great victory, but greater were the words of Kramer, who has stilled those who are skeptical about you as a person.”
The Packers had won their third straight NFL title, but they still had to play in Super Bowl II against the Oakland Raiders.
Starr once again was MVP of that game, as threw for 202 yards and one touchdown pass. That TD pass went to Dowler on a 62-yard play-action pass. The Packers ended up winning their second straight Super Bowl by beating the Raiders 33-14.
Dowler had his best season ever in 1967 and was the go-to-guy for the Packers in the postseason, as he had three touchdown receptions.
“It was a great feeling for all of us to win three straight NFL titles and the first two Super Bowls,” Dowler said. “For me personally, the 1967 season was the best year I had in my career. And to finish that off with the two TD catches in The “Ice Bowl” and the TD catch in the Super Bowl, was definitely the highlight of my career.”
Dale had a great postseason as well in 1967, as he had 13 receptions for 196 yards and a score.
“When Coach Lombardi talked to us about Run to Win from St. Paul, it made us focus more on the task at hand. If you are going to be involved in something, just don’t be involved, be the best of what you are involved in. With us, it was winning a third straight title. Nobody had done it and we were weren’t just satisfied winning two championships in a row, we wanted a third. And we were able to achieve that goal.”
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