Even though the Packers will not be playing in the Super Bowl this year the game will attract a lot of attention to the sport and perhaps some local folks will find a story I wrote in 1997 interesting. A Muscoda resident, John Dale, sat down with me and described his experiences when attending a 1938 professional football game. A lot of things have changed since then.
John said the coach of the Green Bay Packers also sold insurance to make a living and players also had other jobs to help them meet their expenses. But the enthusiasm of the fans was there even then. John had a program from a game between the Packers and the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was played at State Fair Park, Milwaukee. The program cost John 15 cents.
A newspaper clipping of that game revealed the Packers were 35 -7 winners and victory let them regain second place in the league.
John remembered that a hero of the game was an end, Don Hudson, who snagged a pass in heavy traffic and raced for the end zone for a touchdown. The crowd of 1,200 people roared its approval.
Coach of the Packers at that time was Earl (Curley) Lambeau, who, according to the program, had led the team to championships in 1929, 1930, 1931, and 1936. Lambeau played his college ball at Notre Dame. A picture in the program showed why the young coach carried his nickname.
The program listed Richard Smith as the Packer assistant coach. He had played with the New York Yankees baseball team in 1938 and during the summers he was the manager of the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team.
For a personal note, I had an uncle who played on a University of Nebraska football team and he claimed the peak of his career was when the Cornhuskers defeated Notre Dame. I remember my uncle as a big guy, who, if caught doing or saying something a bit unusual, would explain his action as “That’s because I played college football during the days when players wore leather helmets!”
