Hinkle was blend of Taylor, Nitschke
In 1997, Ron Wolf was given the charge of naming the Green Bay Packers' two practice fields.
Wolf, the team's general manager at the time, named one after one of the franchise's most famous players, Ray Nitschke, the Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker from Vince Lombardi glory years.
For the other, Wolf went further back in history and plucked a relatively obscure name from the 1930s, Clarke Hinkle.
Wolf had never seen Hinkle play – the GM was 3 years old when Hinkle's NFL career ended in 1941 – and before becoming the Packers' GM in late 1991 knew little more than Hinkle's name – Hinkle was, after all, a Hall of Famer, too. But after several years with the Packers, Wolf had read enough about Hinkle to know he wanted to name the field after him, and an inspired choice it was.
As a two-way star at fullback and linebacker from 1932 through 1941, Hinkle remains one of the true greats in franchise history, even if almost anyone who has heard his name knows it only for being on a Packers' practice field.
As the Packers celebrate their 100th birthday Sunday, Hinkle is worth mention in the same class as Don Hutson, whose career overlapped with Hinkle's and who is one of the most famous players in team and NFL history.
Hinkle was the ideal choice by Wolf because he embodies what every Packers coach could ever want in the players who will practice on that field: a rare talent who played the game ferociously for the full 60 minutes.
“The toughness,” Wolf said when asked why he chose Hinkle. “What he was able to accomplish. The fact that he gave up his career to defend his country (in World War II). The fact that any quote about him, from his teammates to his opponents, it was always about how important the game was to him. To me, he's a notch above.”
Or, as team historian Cliff Christl said: “I don't think that field could be more aptly named. And he played both ways, it applies to both offensive and defensive players.”
Just how good was Hinkle? Besides being a member of the Hall of Fame's second class (inducted in 1964), he was named to the NFL's 75th Anniversary All-Two-Way team in 1994 as a fullback,
linebacker and kicker. When he retired he was the league's all-time leading rusher (3,860 yards), a record that stood for eight years.
But the most telling testimony isn't awards or stats, but the opinion of three people well qualified to compare players of the Packers' first 50 years: Verne Lewellen, a star on the team from 1924-32 who after his playing career lived in Green Bay until his death in 1982 and was officially involved with the franchise in some capacity from 1950-67; Mike Michalske, a Hall of Famer who played in the late ‘20s and ‘30s, coached at St. Norbert College in nearby De Pere in the early ‘40s, and lived in retirement in De Pere during the Lombardi years; and Buckets Goldenberg, who played for the Packers from 1933-45 and was a member of the team's board of directors from 1953-85.
Christl has interviewed or read interviews with all three, and says to a man they chose Hinkle as the best all-around Packers player they had seen through the Lombardi era.
There's also Curly Lambeau, the Packers' coach from 1919-49. In a Packers press book in 1950 he described Hinkle as both the best “line plunger” (fullback)
and “defensive fullback” (linebacker) he'd ever coached.
“Guys who had played with Hinkle and had since witnessed the Lombardi years used to say Hinkle was Jim Taylor on offense and Ray Nitschke on defense,” Christl said. “There's pretty much no higher praise than that.”
Hinkle doesn't have anywhere near the fame of another two-way, fullbacklinebacker star from his era, Chicago Bears legend Bronko Nagurski, who played from 1930-43. I'd bet even longtime Packers fans know more about Nagurski than Hinkle.
Nagurski, who was much bigger (about 6-feet-2 and 225 pounds, to Hinkle's 5-11 and 205) was named to five official NFL first-team (11-man) All-Pro teams to Hinkle's four, and is one of the biggest names from the NFL's first 20 years. But Hinkle probably was at least his equal and might even have been better.
“Nagurski was a great player,” Christl said, “but when you read the quotes from the players of that time, Hinkle played with more leverage and was more explosive.”
Hinkle's profile just might get an unexpected boost this fall when the NFL announces the 100 greatest players in its history. He probably would have stood little chance of making that list except that New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick was on the 26-person “blue-ribbon” selection committee.
According to a report in the Boston Globe, Belichick lobbied hard for Hinkle's inclusion. The league will unveil the list on its TV network over several episodes this fall.
“(Belichick) can tell you about coaches and players back in the '30s and '40s without any problem at all,” said former Dallas Cowboys executive Gil Brandt, who's also a member of the committee. “And I mean, he can tell you Clarke Hinkle, what he did, how he was a fullback but when they were going to pass they moved him to tailback.”
Belichick's credibility just might be enough to get Hinkle on the NFL's top-100 list.
Either way, though, Hinkle warrants inclusion among the greatest players in Packers history. He was as good and tough a player as this franchise has produced, and a role model for all the players and coaches who for years to come will step onto the practice field that bears his name.