99 Fun Facts About Green Bay Packers

The Packers are unique among major US pro sports teams for being what?

The Packers are a non-profit, community-owned corporation: more than five million shares are held by some 537,000 fans, the stock pays no dividends and cannot be resold for profit.

What kind of business paid for the Packers' first uniforms in 1919?

Curly Lambeau's employer, the Indian Packing Company, was a meat packer whose $500 for uniforms gave the team its name; Acme Packing later bought it and 'ACME PACKERS' went on the jerseys.

How many NFL championships, pre-Super Bowl titles included, had the Packers won by 2011?

The Packers' 13 titles combine nine pre-Super Bowl championships, starting with Lambeau's 1929 team, plus Super Bowl wins I, II, XXXI and XLV.

The Packers' first NFL title, in 1929, came with what regular-season record?

The 1929 Packers went 12–0–1, the only blemish a scoreless tie with the Frankford Yellow Jackets, while allowing just 22 points all season.

Green Bay picked up the nickname 'Titletown' in which year?

Green Bay became 'Titletown USA' after hosting and winning the 1961 NFL Championship Game 37–0, the first of Lombardi's five titles in seven seasons.

What was Lambeau Field informally called during its first eight seasons?

It opened in 1957 as City Stadium, informally 'New City Stadium' to distinguish it from the old one at East High School, and was renamed Lambeau Field in 1965 shortly after Curly Lambeau's death.

Lambeau Field holds what distinction among NFL venues?

Lambeau Field is the oldest continually operating NFL stadium, home to the Packers every season since it opened in 1957 at a cost of $960,000.

The Packers have sold out every home game since which year?

Every Packers home game has sold out since 1960, the year after Lombardi arrived; by the 2010s the season-ticket waiting list had passed 100,000 names, a wait measured in decades.

Roughly what was the kickoff temperature at the 1967 'Ice Bowl' NFL Championship Game against Dallas?

The temperature at kickoff on 31 December 1967 was about −13 °F, with wind chill near −48 °F; the field's underground heating system failed and the turf froze solid.

The Ice Bowl was won on what play with 13 seconds left?

The quarterback sneak, run behind Jerry Kramer's block on Jethro Pugh, gave the Packers a 21–17 win and their third straight NFL title.

Which Packers quarterback was MVP of both Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II?

Bart Starr was MVP of both of the first two Super Bowls, throwing for 250 yards in the 35–10 win over Kansas City in the first.

The Packers' Super Bowl I and II MVP quarterback was drafted in 1956 in which round?

The future two-time Super Bowl MVP went in the 17th round, 200th overall, of the 1956 draft after barely playing as a senior at Alabama.

Super Bowl II, Vince Lombardi's last game as Packers coach, was a 33–14 win over which AFL champion?

The Packers beat the Oakland Raiders 33–14 at Miami's Orange Bowl on 14 January 1968; Lombardi stepped down as coach weeks later, staying a year as general manager.

Before Green Bay, Vince Lombardi was an assistant with which NFL team?

He came to the Giants after five seasons at Army under Red Blaik.

As a Fordham guard in 1936, Lombardi was one of the offensive linemen nicknamed what?

Lombardi was a guard in Fordham's 'Seven Blocks of Granite', the 1936 line whose nickname was popularised by the university's publicist Tim Cohane.

After leaving Green Bay, Lombardi coached one final season for which team before his death in 1970?

Lombardi coached the Washington Redskins to a 7–5–2 record in 1969, their first winning season since 1955, and died of cancer the following September; he never had a losing season.

The Vince Lombardi Trophy design was first sketched by a Tiffany & Co. executive on what?

Tiffany's Oscar Riedner sketched the design on a cocktail napkin during a 1966 lunch with Pete Rozelle: a regulation-size football in kicking position atop a triangular stand.

Paul Hornung, the 'Golden Boy', missed the 1963 season for what reason?

He was the first Heisman winner to be named NFL MVP.

Fullback Jim Taylor won the NFL MVP in 1962 after doing what?

He had led the SEC in scoring at LSU in 1956 and 1957.

Don Hutson, the 1930s Packers end nicknamed 'the Alabama Antelope', is credited with inventing what?

Hutson is credited with inventing modern pass patterns, the timed routes that made him the first great receiver; he led the league in receptions in eight seasons and won NFL titles in 1936, 1939 and 1944.

Where did Packers linebacker Ray Nitschke play college football?

Nitschke played fullback and linebacker at Illinois before the Packers drafted him in 1958; the team's outdoor practice field across from Lambeau was named Ray Nitschke Field in his honour.

General manager Ron Wolf's first big moves in 1992 included trading for which backup quarterback?

Wolf sent a first-round pick to Atlanta for Brett Favre, then a little-used backup, weeks after firing Lindy Infante and hiring Mike Holmgren from the 49ers.

Which team did the Packers beat in the NFC Championship Game to reach Super Bowl XXXI?

The Packers beat the Carolina Panthers at a frozen Lambeau Field in the January 1997 NFC Championship Game, scoring 30 points, to earn their first Super Bowl trip in 29 years.

The quarterback Ron Wolf traded for in 1992 played college football for which programme?

The Kiln, Mississippi native played at Southern Miss, where he started as a freshman, before Atlanta drafted him in the second round in 1991.

How many consecutive AP MVP awards did Green Bay's 1990s quarterback win?

He won the AP MVP in 1995, 1996 and 1997 (the last shared with Barry Sanders), three straight, a feat no other player had matched through the 2024 season.

The Packers signed which prized free agent defensive end in 1993, nicknamed 'the Minister of Defense'?

Reggie White, an ordained minister who had starred for the Eagles, signed a $17 million deal in April 1993 and became the face of NFL free agency.

The Lambeau Leap was popularised in December 1993 by which safety after a fumble-return touchdown?

LeRoy Butler took a lateral from a teammate's fumble recovery against the Los Angeles Raiders and jumped into the stands; the NFL later exempted the leap from its celebration crackdown.

Who returned a kickoff a then-record 99 yards for a touchdown to seal Super Bowl XXXI?

Desmond Howard's 99-yard return came right after the opposition had cut the lead to six, and made him the first special-teams player named Super Bowl MVP; he totalled 244 return yards.

Super Bowl XXXI was a 35–21 win over which team?

The Packers beat the New England Patriots 35–21 in New Orleans on 26 January 1997, ending a 29-year title drought stretching back to Super Bowl II.

Mike Holmgren later spent a decade as head coach of which team after leaving the Packers?

Holmgren coached the Seattle Seahawks from 1999 to 2008, taking them to Super Bowl XL, after leaving Green Bay following the 1998 season.

The Eagles converted what unlikely down and distance to beat the Packers in the 2003 playoffs?

On 4th and 26 from their own 26, Donovan McNabb hit Freddie Mitchell for 28 yards to set up a tying field goal; an overtime interception of Green Bay's quarterback then ended the season.

Packers all-time receptions leader Donald Driver was drafted in 1999 out of which school?

Driver, a seventh-round pick out of Alcorn State in 1999, caught 743 passes for Green Bay and later won season 14 of Dancing with the Stars.

Which Packers receiver of the early 1990s is the older brother of Hall of Fame tight end Shannon?

Both brothers ended up in Canton, Sterling being inducted in 2025.

Aaron Rodgers slid to which pick in the 2005 draft after the 49ers passed on him?

Rodgers, a 49ers fan from Chico, waited in the green room for hours before Green Bay took him 24th overall; San Francisco had chosen Alex Smith first.

At which Oroville junior college did Aaron Rodgers play before transferring to Cal?

Rodgers spent 2002 at Butte College in Oroville, where Cal coach Jeff Tedford spotted him while scouting a tight end teammate and offered him a scholarship.

How many AP NFL MVP awards did Aaron Rodgers win with the Packers?

Rodgers won four AP MVP awards with the Packers, in 2011, 2014, 2020 and 2021, second only to Peyton Manning's five overall.

What five-letter message did Rodgers spell out to worried fans during the slow start to the 2014 season?

After a 1–2 start Rodgers told fans on his radio show to 'R-E-L-A-X'; the Packers went 12–4, won the NFC North and reached the NFC Championship Game.

In 2015 Rodgers won $50,000 for charity on which TV show, beating Kevin O'Leary and Mark Kelly?

Rodgers won Celebrity Jeopardy! in May 2015, taking $50,000 for charity against Kevin O'Leary and astronaut Mark Kelly, and returned to guest-host the regular show in 2021.

The Packers reached Super Bowl XLV as which playoff seed, a first for the NFC?

Green Bay was the NFC's sixth seed, the first from that conference to reach a Super Bowl, winning road games at Philadelphia, Atlanta and Chicago before beating Pittsburgh 31–25.

Which Packers safety returned a Ben Roethlisberger interception for a touchdown in Super Bowl XLV?

Nick Collins returned the interception 37 yards for a score that put Green Bay up 14–0 in the first quarter at Cowboys Stadium.

Which Packers receiver caught two touchdown passes in Super Bowl XLV?

Greg Jennings caught touchdown passes of 21 and 8 yards in Super Bowl XLV; Jordy Nelson had nine catches for 140 yards and the other Packers touchdown pass.

Jordan Love, drafted 26th overall in 2020, played college football where?

Love starred at Utah State, throwing 32 touchdowns in 2018, before the Packers traded up to take him 26th in 2020; he backed up Rodgers from 2020 to 2022 and became the starter in 2023.

The Packers–Bears rivalry, the NFL's most-played matchup, dates to which season?

The first meeting came in 1921, the year Green Bay joined the APFA, forerunner of the NFL; the Chicago Staleys, soon renamed the Bears, won 20–0.

The foam cheesehead hat was created by which company, later bought by the Packers themselves in 2023?

Ralph Bruno founded Foamation in 1987 after cutting the first cheesehead from his mother's couch cushion; the Packers bought the Milwaukee-area company in 2023.

During training camp, Packers players ride young fans' what from the locker room to practice?

Players have ridden young fans' bicycles from the locker room to Ray Nitschke Field since the Lombardi era, with the child jogging alongside, a training-camp ritual unique to Green Bay.

What is Lambeau Field's well-known nickname?

Lambeau Field is 'The Frozen Tundra', a phrase popularised by NFL Films' coverage of the 1967 Ice Bowl, when the field's heating system failed and the turf froze.

The Packers' 1990s Hall of Fame quarterback ended his career with which team?

He retired after two seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, 2009 and 2010, beating Green Bay twice in 2009, including 38–26 at Lambeau Field in his first return there.

The 'Minister of Defense' came to the NFL after two seasons in which rival league?

He spent 1984 and 1985 with the USFL's Memphis Showboats before joining the Eagles, who had taken him in the 1984 supplemental draft of USFL and CFL players.

Aaron Rodgers was traded in 2023 to which team?

The Packers traded Rodgers to the New York Jets in April 2023 for a package of draft picks; he tore his Achilles minutes into his Jets debut that September.

Green Bay's star 1990s quarterback completed his very first Packers pass to which unlikely receiver?

Himself: a Tampa Bay lineman batted the ball back and the quarterback caught his own pass. He went on to start a record 297 regular-season games in a row.

With one of pro sports' longest waiting lists, how do Packers season tickets commonly change hands?

Through wills: season tickets are routinely left to next of kin, and hopeful parents put newborns on the waiting list.

Aaron Rodgers's Packers touchdown celebration, later borrowed for State Farm commercials, mimed putting on what?

A title belt: Rodgers and his teammates called the move the Championship Belt, and the insurer renamed it the Discount Double Check for its adverts.

Which future US president dedicated the stadium now called Lambeau Field at its opening game in 1957?

Richard Nixon, then vice president, did the honours at halftime as the Packers upset the Bears 21–17. The ground took its present name in 1965, two months after founder Curly Lambeau died.

From 1933 to 1994 the Packers played part of each home schedule in which other Wisconsin city?

Milwaukee hosted two or three Packers home games a year at County Stadium. Its former ticket holders still get their own 'Gold package' of dates at Lambeau Field.

The 2012 'Fail Mary' touchdown that beat the Packers helped end a lockout of which group?

Referees were back within days: the replacement crew's ruling on the final play of a Monday night game pushed the league into a deal two days later.

David Bakhtiari and four Packers teammates appeared as themselves in which 2015 comedy film?

Pitch Perfect 2 put the players in an underground riff-off, a cameo that came about after Bakhtiari contacted director Elizabeth Banks on Twitter.

Which marquee NFL event did Green Bay, the league's smallest market, host for the first time in April 2025?

The NFL Draft took over Lambeau Field and the neighbouring Titletown District for three days, and the city's schools closed for two of them.

Packers receiver Donald Driver won which television competition in 2012, shortly before his final NFL season?

Dancing with the Stars crowned Driver its season 14 champion alongside professional partner Peta Murgatroyd, a few months before his last year in Green Bay.

Which rapper reworked Wiz Khalifa's Pittsburgh anthem as the Packers tribute 'Green and Yellow' before Super Bowl XLV?

Lil Wayne's remix meant both Super Bowl teams used versions of one song for the first time, since 'Black and Yellow' was already the Steelers' rallying tune.

Which AFL champion did the Packers beat 35–10 in the first Super Bowl, played in Los Angeles in 1967?

The Kansas City Chiefs trailed only 14–10 at halftime before Green Bay pulled away. It remains the only Super Bowl shown live by two rival US networks at once.

Curly Lambeau took the Packers' original navy blue and gold colours from which college, where he played in 1918?

Notre Dame was where Lambeau played one season under Knute Rockne before tonsillitis ended his studies. Green did not replace navy blue until around 1950.

Which Packers receiver, not expecting to play, came off the bench to score the first touchdown in Super Bowl history?

Max McGee had caught only four passes all season and had to borrow a teammate's helmet when the starter got hurt. He finished with 138 yards and two touchdowns.

In which Brazilian city did the Packers open their 2024 season, in the NFL's first game in South America?

São Paulo staged the opener at Arena Corinthians, a soccer stadium, where Philadelphia beat Green Bay 34–29.

Which Packers linebacker, once a walk-on at USC, forced a pivotal fumble to open the fourth quarter of Super Bowl XLV?

Clay Matthews and Ryan Pickett hit Pittsburgh runner Rashard Mendenhall on the quarter's first play, knocking the ball loose with Green Bay's lead down to four points.

Which head coach led the Packers to victory in Super Bowl XLV and later took charge of the Dallas Cowboys?

Mike McCarthy, a Pittsburgh native, beat his hometown Steelers for the title and went on to win 125 regular-season games with Green Bay.

Which Packers cornerback, the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year in 2009, had won the 1997 Heisman Trophy at Michigan?

Charles Woodson was the first primarily defensive player to win the Heisman, and his Packers years added a Super Bowl ring to the collection.

Which song has blared through Lambeau Field after every Packers touchdown since the mid-1990s?

Bang the Drum All Day, by Todd Rundgren, became the touchdown tradition in 1995, even though the single had stalled at number 63 on the US chart back in 1983.

Across ten seasons as an NFL head coach, nine of them with the Packers, Vince Lombardi never had what?

A losing season never came: Lombardi's teams went 96–34–6 in the regular season and lost only one of their ten postseason games.

Which running play, built on two pulling guards, was the foundation of Vince Lombardi's Packers offence in the 1960s?

The sweep sent both guards racing wide ahead of the ball carrier, and Lombardi drilled it constantly as the lead play on which the rest of his offence was built.

Which kicker, a sixth-round pick in 2007, became the Packers' all-time leading scorer over 16 seasons with the team?

Mason Crosby broke Ryan Longwell's team record of 1,054 points with his fourth field goal of a 2015 game and kept adding to the total for seven more seasons.

Which coach left Mike Holmgren's Packers staff in 1999 to begin a 14-year run in charge of the Philadelphia Eagles?

Andy Reid spent seven seasons as a Green Bay assistant, then arrived at his Eagles interview carrying a five-inch-thick book on how he would run the team.

Ron Wolf sent a first-round pick to which team in 1992 for the backup quarterback who became a Green Bay legend?

The Atlanta Falcons had drafted the passer in the second round a year earlier, over the objections of head coach Jerry Glanville, and kept him on the bench.

Which Packers head coach, hired in 2019, had spent the previous season as offensive coordinator of the Tennessee Titans?

Matt LaFleur won 39 games in his first three seasons, breaking a record for a new head coach that George Seifert had held for 30 years.

Which company's name was emblazoned on Packers jerseys during the team's first season in what became the NFL?

Acme, the name cartoon fans know from Wile E. Coyote's mail orders, belonged to the firm that had just bought out the team's original backer.

Which running back, acquired by the Packers in a 2000 trade, became the franchise's career rushing leader?

Ahman Green, a former Nebraska star, also owns the team's single-season record after running for 1,883 yards in 2003.

Which 337-pound Packers lineman returned an interception for a touchdown in the NFC title game at Chicago in 2011?

B. J. Raji picked off Bears backup Caleb Hanie, rumbled 18 yards to score, then broke into a hula dance that a State Farm advert later parodied.

Which offensive tackle did the Packers draft second overall in 1989, ahead of Barry Sanders and Deion Sanders?

Tony Mandarich was released after four seasons and is often ranked among the biggest draft busts ever; Derrick Thomas also went later in that first round.

Which tackle from Lombardi's Packers returned as head coach in 1984 after leading Cincinnati to a Super Bowl?

Forrest Gregg, an iron man who once played 188 straight games, went 25–37–1 in four seasons as Packers coach before leaving to coach SMU, his old college.

Which Packers receiver caught a league-high 18 touchdown passes in 2020 before being traded to Las Vegas in 2022?

Davante Adams matched a Packers single-season record that had stood since 1994, and his 18 scores were the most by any NFL receiver since Randy Moss in 2007.

Which 300-pound Bears rookie scored against the Packers on a Monday night in 1985 while lined up in the backfield?

William Perry, the defensive lineman known as The Refrigerator, also led the way as a blocker on two Walter Payton touchdown runs in the same 23–7 Chicago win.

Lambeau Field crowds greeted which fullback's carries with a drawn-out chant of his surname, often mistaken for booing?

John Kuhn first heard the long call of his name at Shippensburg, his small Pennsylvania college, and it followed him to Green Bay.

Packers defensive end Ezra Johnson was fined $1,000 in 1980 for eating what on the bench during a preseason game?

A hot dog, eaten in the fourth quarter of a 38–0 home defeat, also cost Johnson a public apology on his head coach's orders.

Which Packers general manager used his very first draft pick, in 2005, on quarterback Aaron Rodgers?

Ted Thompson stayed in the job through 2017 and stood firm in 2008, when the team chose Rodgers as its starter over a returning legend.

The Packers, founded in 1919, rank as the NFL's third-oldest franchise; which club, begun in 1898, is the oldest?

The Arizona Cardinals started out as a Chicago neighbourhood athletic club and are the oldest continuously run professional football team in the United States.

Which Packers quarterback tore an ankle ligament in September 1992 and lost his starting job to a future Hall of Famer?

Don Majkowski, the 'Majik Man' who had led the NFL in passing yards in 1989, went down in the first quarter against Cincinnati and never won the job back.

Which Packers guard co-wrote 'Instant Replay', a best-selling diary of the 1967 season, with journalist Dick Schaap?

Jerry Kramer chronicled an offensive lineman's life through his second-to-last season as a player, then waited until 2018 for his place in the Hall of Fame.

The 1962 Packers, NFL champions, suffered their only defeat of the season against which opponent?

The Detroit Lions sacked Green Bay's quarterback 11 times in a 26–14 win on Thanksgiving Day, a game that became known as the Thanksgiving Day Massacre.

From 1958 to 2019 Packers players lived during training camp in the dormitories of which school in De Pere, Wisconsin?

St. Norbert College and the Packers had the longest partnership between a school and an NFL team until the pandemic stopped players living together in 2020.

Which Packers receiver, an NCAA long jump champion at Stanford, became the first NFL player with 14,000 receiving yards?

James Lofton, picked sixth overall by Green Bay in 1978, was also the second player to score NFL touchdowns in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

Packers end Don Hutson once scored a record 29 points in one quarter by catching touchdown passes and doing what else?

Kicking conversions was routine for Hutson, the Packers' kicker for much of his career, and his five that quarter topped up four touchdown catches.

George Calhoun, who co-founded the Packers with Curly Lambeau in 1919, worked for 40 years in which profession?

Newspaper editor Calhoun used his desk at the Green Bay Press-Gazette to build local support, doubling as the team's first publicity director.

Why did the league revoke the Packers' franchise after only one season, forcing Curly Lambeau to win it back?

Fielding college players broke league rules, and the franchise was revoked when the season ended. Lambeau paid to have it reinstated under his own control the next year.

Which Packers cornerback, a converted halfback, sealed Super Bowl II with a 60-yard interception return for a touchdown?

Herb Adderley stepped in front of a curl route in the fourth quarter and scored behind a crushing downfield block, stretching Green Bay's lead to 33–7.

Packers halfback John McNally took which playing alias from a Rudolph Valentino film he saw on a cinema marquee?

Johnny Blood came from the 1922 film Blood and Sand: McNally took the first half of the title and his friend Ralph Hanson became Sand when they tried out for a semi-pro team.

Which Packers back, nicknamed the 'Gray Ghost of Gonzaga', became the team's first 1,000-yard rusher in 1949?

Tony Canadeo owed the nickname to prematurely greying hair, and his 1,052 yards made him only the third player in NFL history to reach four figures in a season.

Which Packers kicker caught his own blocked field goal and ran 25 yards for a touchdown to beat Chicago in 1980?

Chester Marcol saw his kick bounce off a defender's helmet straight back into his hands, and his dash around left end won the season opener 12–6.

Which Packers tackle of the 1929–31 champions is the only person in both the Pro Football and Baseball Halls of Fame?

Cal Hubbard reached Cooperstown as an umpire, having worked American League games from 1936 to 1951 as his football career wound down.

Which Packers safety of the 1950s set the franchise record for career interceptions despite playing with a glass eye?

Bobby Dillon lost his left eye at the age of ten, yet intercepted 52 passes for Packers teams that managed only one winning season in his eight years.

In which city did the Packers win Super Bowl XXXI in January 1997, their first NFL title since the Lombardi years?

New Orleans staged the game at the Louisiana Superdome, the eighth Super Bowl held in the city and the fifth under that roof.