A moment frozen in time: “Ice Bowl” turns 50 today
Ex-Lobo Don Perkins played prominent role in famous title game
There have been many NFL games in which the temperatures hovered at or a little below zero. Today, in fact, it’s supposed to be around 8 degrees at kickoff for the JetsPatriots game in Foxborough, Mass., with a wind chill of minus 6. That’s must-see TV.
But it was exactly 50 years ago, also on a New Year’s Eve, that the mother of all crushingcold games took place when the Green Bay Packers played host to the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL title game at Lambeau Field. It’s best known as the “Ice Bowl.”
The temperature at kickoff was a record 13 degrees below zero with a wind chill of 48 below, if indeed “chill” would be the right term. The game, played before more than 50,000 fans, eventually ended in dramatic fashion with Packers QB Bart Starr skating 1 yard to a TD on a sneak with 16 seconds left to give the home team a 21-17 victory and a berth in Super Bowl II.
That game not only is seared into the memories of old-time fans and but also members of the under-50 crowd who have no doubt sat spellbound when watching highlights. For sure, the players haven’t forgotten.
“I think I can remember every play since I get to talk about the game so much,” said Cowboys Hall of Fame defensive tackle Bob Lilly in a phone interview Friday. He lived in Las Cruces from 1984-89 and now in Georgetown, Texas.
He was one of 12 future Hall of Famers who suffered
through the elements that day, not to mention legendary coaches Vince Lombardi of the Packers and Tom Landry of the Cowboys. Another future Hall of Famer working as a sideline reporter had a quote for the ages when Frank Gifford said, “I just took a bite out of my coffee.”
Ex-UNM running back Don Perkins of Albuquerque, a member of the Rings of Honor for the Lobos and Cowboys, was Dallas’ main running back in the 1960s.
Less than three weeks ago, he also was in the news here when the Bernalillo County commissioners proclaimed 2018 as the “Year of Don Perkins.” He was recognized for his values of determination, humility and teamwork he demonstrated for 60 years, beginning when he was with the Lobos from 1957-59. His son, Randy Perkins, spoke for his father at the ceremony.
Randy said his father never shared any horror stories from the Ice Bowl, or any games for that matter: “He didn’t talk anything about football with us. That’s just the way he was.”
Randy, in a phone interview Friday, said that his father is doing OK “for a guy who’s almost 80” but does have some ailments, including those that resulted from head trauma during his football career.
Don wasn’t available to comment for this story. But in a 2006 interview with the Journal, he shared his recollections of that long-ago day.
“Mel Renfro was my roommate,” Perkins said of game-day morning in nearby Appleton, “and he pulled the curtains back and saw solid frost. We couldn’t see a thing. I said ‘Oh, my God.’”
A day earlier the temperatures had been much milder with no hint there would be such a precipitous drop. Dallas quarterback Don Meredith, who eventually retired to Santa Fe before dying in 2010 at age 72, didn’t seem to be the least bit concerned with the elements the morning of the game, Lilly said.
“When we were readying to get on the bus to the game, the hotel blocked the wind and guys were throwing snowballs and hamming it up. Don was saying, ‘Easy money. Easy money.’”
Of course, Meredith’s tune changed once he arrived at the stadium and faced the stinging cold and unabated wind.
“We were kind of petrified by the cold,” Lilly said. “But what went through my mind was remembering how the GIs in Korea made it through cold worse than that. I figured if they could do it, so could I. That was my motivation.”
On the Dallas offense’s first play from scrimmage, Packer Willie Davis tackled Perkins.
“I met him head on in the hole and thought the rest of my day was over,” Davis said for that 2006 story. “Everything in my body seemed to be hurting.”
Perkins, who led all rushers with 51 yards on 17 carries, said that his running style had been limited because of the conditions:
“Everyone ran straight ahead because no one could cut. There was a lot of numbness and you couldn’t feel anything, so you couldn’t tell if you were picking up bruises. Fortunately, other than frostbite, there weren’t any serious injuries. I don’t think anyone got moving real fast.”
Except maybe to the sideline heaters.
“When we came off of the field,” Perkins said, “the first thing we wanted to do was thaw out our hands and feet. But those who weren’t playing were very reluctant to move out of the way of the heaters.”
And they weren’t the only ones elbowing their way to warmth.
Added Lilly: “We also had to fight the photographers who were standing in front of the heaters so that their film wouldn’t freeze.”
Fast-forwarding to game action, the Packers took a 14-0 lead in the second quarter on two Starr to Boyd Dowler TDs before the Cowboys cut it to 14-10 by halftime on fumble return by defensive end George Andrie and a 21-yard field goal by New Mexico State alum Danny Villanueva.
Dallas took a 17-14 lead midway in the fourth quarter on a 50-yard option pass from RB Dan Reeves to Lance Rentzel, which set the stage for the Packers’ winning 68-yard TD drive.
With 16 seconds left and the ball at the 1, the Packers used their last timeout. During the delay, Lilly was seen pawing at the ground with his feet to attempt to gain traction.
“All we had on were soccer shoes, and what we needed was a screwdriver out there to dig into the turf,” he said. “That quadrant of the field was just ice.”
On the winning play, Starr skirted to his right between center Ken Bowman and guard Jerry Kramer.
Two weeks later, in balmy Miami, the Packers won their third straight world title, 33-14 over AFL champ Oakland in Lombardi’s last game as Green Bay coach. As for Dallas, it would be four more years before Lilly and Landry would win a title.
That was three seasons too late for Perkins, though, who retired after the 1968 season with 6,501 career rushing yards, including those in the Ice Bowl.