THE ICE BOWL 50 years later
An oral history of the 1967 NFL Championship Game between Packers, Cowboys
It would have been a great game if it had been played on a sweltering September afternoon or on a crisp autumn day in November or even indoors, if there were domed football stadiums in 1967.
That year, the NFL Championship Game pitted Vince Lombardi’s proud but aging Green Bay Packers, seeking an unprecedented third consecutive title, against Tom Landry’s Dallas Cowboys, an ascending team out for revenge after losing narrowly to the Packers in the ’66 championship game.
Eight Packers and four Cowboys who took the field that day would be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Both coaches would be enshrined, too. The Packers had guile and experience and a field general named Bart Starr. The Cowboys had youth and superior team speed and their “Doomsday Defense.”
Yes, it would have been a great game on any day, in any kind of weather.
It would be played, though, on New Year’s Eve day in Green Bay, in the kind of weather that tested the limits of what a man could endure.
The official low temperature at Austin Straubel Airport that day was 17 below zero. With Arctic winds whipping out of the
northwest, the wind chill dipped to 50 below at Lambeau Field, its turf frozen solid and topped by a layer of ice, so that players slipped and slid and fell on what felt like jagged concrete.
The game would be decided in the closing seconds, at the conclusion of a drive that bordered on the mystical, with Starr plunging into the end zone to put a symbolic exclamation mark on the Lombardi era.
Fifty years ago Sunday, on Dec. 31, 1967, the Packers edged the Cowboys, 21-17, in a game for the ages.
The Ice Bowl.
It was and remains the coldest game in NFL history. It is among the most memorable games in league annals because of the wretched conditions, what was at stake and the dramatic way it ended.
“I think it’s the most talked-about game, including Super Bowls, in history,” said Gil Brandt, then the vice president of player personnel for the Cowboys. “The ’58 Giants-Colts (championship) game doesn’t even compare. No comparison.”
For the Packers, the Ice Bowl was validation of everything they had learned from Lombardi, everything the great coach espoused and represented, a victory as hard-fought and as sweet as any they’d ever known, or ever would know.
“You play for 12 years and somebody says, ‘What’s your biggest moment?’ ” split end Boyd Dowler said. “There’s absolutely no doubt about it. That was it.”
For the Cowboys, the disappointment of coming so close, of falling short in a game they felt they should have won, still haunts and taunts and stings far worse than the decades-old, still-lingering effects of frostbite.
“I think about it all the time,” said halfback Dan Reeves. “I can still remember every play. People talk about that game more than any other. Unfortunately, they show us losing every year.”
On the 50th anniversary of the Ice Bowl, what follows is an oral history of the game, as told by those who played in it and witnessed it.
SETTING THE STAGE
The Packers had beaten the Cowboys, 34-27, in the 1966 NFL Championship Game at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and went on to win Super Bowl I.
But Green Bay went 9-4-1 in ’67 and limped into the playoffs on the heels of season-ending losses to the Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers. Hall of Fame running backs Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung were gone. So, too, was the team’s aura of invincibility. This was an aging team that had lost key players to injury.
The Cowboys finished 9-5 in the regular season and then destroyed the Cleveland Browns, 52-17, in the Eastern Conference final. They were itching for a fight with the Packers.
Milwaukee Sentinel sportswriter Bud Lea: “This was not a very good Packer team. They had lost so many guys because of injuries. (Jim) Grabowski, Elijah Pitts … no Hornung anymore, no Taylor. And they were getting old. They still had Ray Nitschke and Herb Adderley and Willie Davis and Dave Robinson, but they were getting old.”
Dowler: “One thing we had in our favor was that was our final championship season, and we’d been there. We’d won four world titles before we hit the field in ’67 and we’d won two in a row. Lombardi’s goal forever was to win three in a row. His goal pretty much became our goal.”
Reeves: “We had played them the year before in the championship game in Dallas. We had first and goal at the 2 (in the closing seconds) and couldn’t get in the end zone. I really felt they were the best team the year before, but I thought we had an excellent chance to beat them in ’67.”
Cowboys defensive end George Andrie: “I was very confident. It was going to be our day, there was no doubt about it in my mind. We knew we were better than they were. I knew we could handle them. We had the speed and the defense and we had the coach and we knew how to defend them. We knew we could shut down their running game and we knew we could get to Bart Starr.”
Brandt: “I thought it was two very, very good football teams. Green Bay had some great players. I think it was more of a veteran team against a young, ascending team. We had Ralph Neely, who went on to become an all-decade tackle. Mel Renfro is in the Hall of Fame. Bob Hayes is in the Hall of Fame. We had some very good players and a very good quarterback in Don (Meredith).”
Packers halfback Donny Anderson: “The Cowboys had a fabulous football team. Vince told us all week they were better than we were. He just did that to motivate us. But they really did have some great players.” Packers coach Vince Lombardi watches from the sideline during the Ice Bowl. The 1967 season, which culminated with this NFL Championship victory over the Cowboys, was followed by a 33-14 victory over the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II. It was Lombardi’s final championship season in Green Bay.
Brandt: “I would be lying if I said I didn’t think we were going to win.”
CALM BEFORE THE STORM
On Saturday, Dec. 30, both teams worked out in Green Bay, though Lombardi had to be ordered by NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle to let the Cowboys practice at Lambeau Field. It was a sunny, near-windless day and the temperature was a comfortable 25 degrees.
No one had an inkling of what was coming.
Lea: “The Cowboys stayed in Appleton but they wanted to test the field. Lombardi told them, ‘Nobody touches my field. It’s lined for the game.’ Pete Rozelle was in Oakland for the AFL Championship Game. Jim Kensil was second in charge of the NFL and the Cowboys told him, ‘Get this idiot Lombardi to let us use the field.’ Kensil got a hold of Rozelle and Rozelle called Lombardi and said, ‘Darned right they’re going to use the field. It’s the championship game.’ They pulled back the tarp. I was out there that morning. It was about 21 degrees. No wind. Not bad.”
Brandt: “We worked out on Saturday afternoon and it was about 30 degrees, nice and sunshiny. We went to Oneida Country Club for an NFL function that night and it was still relatively nice. Clear skies, the stars were out.”
Packers fullback Chuck Mercein: “It was almost a balmy day, 30s or high 20s. Sunshiny, no wind that I can remember. We were running around like a bunch of colts in the field. I don’t think I even looked at the weather report for Sunday.”
Reeves: “We actually worked up a sweat. It was a nice day, and the forecast for the next day was the same.”
‘A DRASTIC CHANGE’
Weather forecasting was not as accurate in 1967 as it is today, and local meteorologists didn’t foresee Arctic air sweeping down from Canada in the overnight hours.
The Packers and Cowboys awoke on the morning of Dec. 31 blissfully unaware that the temperature had plunged into the double digits below zero.
Lea: “It was a drastic change. I guess it was Meredith who got the wakeup call at the hotel in Appleton, something like, ‘Howdy doody, Packer backers, it’s 7 o’clock in the morning and it’s 16 below.’ He said, ‘Sixteen below what?’ She said, ‘Go outside and you’ll find out.’ He went outside and said it was like getting hit in the head with a two-by-four.”
Mercein: “My clock radio went off that morning and I heard, ‘It’s 16 below zero’ and I just couldn’t believe what I heard. I even called the radio station and said, ‘I don’t think I heard that right.’ That was my awakening. I was incredulous.”
Packers linebacker Dave Robinson: “Win or lose, right after the game we were going back home to (New) Jersey. The night before the game I loaded all our belongings in the car. I was so tired I left the car parked outside. The next morning I went to cook breakfast and my wife said, ‘It’s 20 below zero.’ I said, ‘No, it’s not that cold. You mean 20 above zero.’ She said, ‘No, 20 below.’ I went outside and the car wouldn’t start. I called the towing service to get a jump and the guy said, ‘You’re No. 110 on the list.’ I saw a car running next door. There was a young guy in the car. I said, ‘I’m in trouble. Can you take me and my wife to the game?’ He said, ‘I don’t know. I’m visiting my girlfriend.’ I said, ‘I’ll give you two tickets if you take me to the game.’ He went inside and told his girlfriend and she jumped at it. That’s how I got to the game.”
Reeves: “I remember it very distinctly. Walt Garrison and I roomed together. We stayed in Appleton, Wisconsin. We always ate our pre-game meal four hours before the game. Walt and I put our coat and tie on and we went outside and we said, ‘Dang, it’s cold out here.’ Being from the south, which both of us were, we thought if it’s 32 degrees, how much colder can it get?”
Brandt: “I went downstairs at the Holiday Inn and I asked the woman at the desk how cold it was and she said the wind chill was 41 degrees (below zero). There were five bus drivers gathered around the fireplace. They were all wearing boots and when I asked about them they said, ‘These aren’t boots. They’re galoshes.’ I asked where they got them and they said, ‘Prange’s, but it’s closed Sundays.’ They said they cost $9 so I said, ‘For $25, would anybody have a size 12 and be interested in renting them for the afternoon?’ One guy said, ‘I got a size 12, and you got the boots.’ So I rented the galoshes.”
Andrie: “We woke up that morning and it was a shock. There’s no doubt about it, our attitude changed somewhat. Most of the guys on our team were from the south. It was a letdown the morning of the game.”
Robinson: “It was 13 below at kickoff, 20 below at halftime and 22 below when the game ended. That’s crazy. We shouldn’t have played. The only one who could have canceled it was the commissioner. Pete Rozelle was in Oakland for the AFL Championship Game. Why the heck would the NFL commissioner say he had to see the AFL game? He was there for one reason and one reason only: he wanted to be in California. He did a lot of things anti-Packer. I don’t think he and Vince got along very well. He made us play the game and it was terrible.”
AN OXYMORON: PRE-GAME WARM-UPS
The players arrived at Lambeau Field, many of them doubting the game would be played. They were poorly prepared for the brutal elements. Receivers and running backs did not wear gloves back then and cold-weather undergarments made from synthetic fabrics had not been invented.
The Packers hastily erected crude plywood dugouts, which offered little protection from the biting wind. Butane heaters were fired up on the sidelines and players stuck their feet in them until their rubber cleats melted.
No matter what they did, there was no escaping the cold.
Alternate referee Jim Tunney: “I’m a California kid. My blood was thin. (The officials) went to Mass at St. Willebrord and then we went down to the ArmyNavy store. It was closed because it was New Year’s Eve day but there was a guy inside doing inventory. We banged on the door until he opened it. We bought everything we could to stay warm — mittens and pantyhose and garbage bags. We cut holes in the plastic bags and put them over our heads and taped them around our waists. I wish Mr. Gore had been around to have invented GoreTex.”
Reeves: “We went out for the pregame warm-up and the football felt like a brick. I held for field goals and extra points. Usually, you’d be out there for 20 minutes. We were back inside in six or seven minutes.”
Andrie: “During warm-ups, we had our hands on the ground and they were getting cold. The whole defensive line, we went to the equipment guy and said, ‘We need some gloves.’ Ernie Stautner, our defensive line coach, said, ‘You don’t need to be wearing gloves. We need to show them we’re tougher than they are.’ ”
Brandt: “When we came out to take pre-game warm-up, there wasn’t a person in the stands. It was completely empty. We went back into the locker room and came out 15 minutes before kickoff and there was not an empty seat.”
Packers PR director Chuck Lane: