The fabled ‘Ice Bowl’ turns 50

said. “I just wish Bart had slipped or something.”

*** The old 8 millimeter footage taken in the end zone shows fans half delirious from the cold and the dramatic finish storming the field and tearing down the metal goal posts. Green Bay would go on to beat Oakland, 33-14, in the second Super Bowl, but at the time the NFL championship seemed like a bigger win.

The Packers went off to celebrate their 21-17 win, partying at Fuzzy’s, a bar near Lambeau Field owned by lineman Fuzzy Thurston. “The celebration went on for most of the night,” Kramer said. “All of Green Bay and all of Wisconsin was having a good time. But Fuzzy’s heating system in the room he had reserved for us didn’t work, and it was so cold inside we could see our breath in the party room.”

TheCowboyswastednotime heading for the airport. On the team plane, players scavenged for blankets and drinks to keep warm. “They heated the plane up pretty good. We got warmed up,” Lilly said. “But for years, when it would get cold, my hands would hurt so bad. And it affected our lungs, too. We had about half the team that smoked back then. As far as I can remember, about half of them quit.”

Barely a word was spoken the entire flight home.

“The happiest part of the whole deal was when we got on the airplane and took off and the red afterglow, wasn’t quite dark, it was still glowing red,” Lilly said. “And we were alive and we were frozen, trying to thaw out.”

“And we were looking out and saying — all of us, I think — we were being thankful that we got out of there alive.”