On August 11, 1919, A company named, “Indian Meat Packing Co.,” provided $500 to sponsor a local football team in Green Bay. That team happens to be the longest-continuously running football team in NFL history: The Green Bay Packers.

The Packers found arguably one of the greatest coaches, Curley Lambeau, who has a stadium named after him still to this day. Two years later, the Green Bay team found themselves competing in a ten-team football league known as the American Professional Football (APFA) Association. The APFA struggled to find new teams and player health and morale were not at all-time highs. The Packers finished their first season at 3-2-1. Yes, that season there were so few teams that there were only six games hosted for each team. The Packers played at a stadium known as Hage Meister Park for the next 4 years.

On December seventh, 1941, when Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was under attack, there were three scheduled NFL games underway. In one game, between the Brooklyn Dodgers (the NFL team) and the New York Giants, the announcer instructed referees to end the game and for all the servicemen on the field to report to their units. The same was done in Chicago, and at a matchup in Washington. Due to many NFL players being eligible for the draft, many teams “disbanded” or “terminated” temporarily, and some even permanently disbanded until 1945 when the United States won World War ll. The Packers were not one of those teams. Yes, the Packers may have had some players serve for the U.S., but not enough to temporarily “terminate services.” The NFL Continued to host games for teams who did not have to stop playing and at the time the amount of teams dropped from 12 to 6.

In 1956, seven years after Curley Lambeau stopped coaching the Packers, they needed a new stadium. They were playing at City Field, which is now a high school for teens in the area. The Packers had a stadium built which had a capacity of over 30,000 people. They named it New City Stadium. Years later in 1965, Curly Lambeau passed away at 67 years of age, they renamed the stadium “Lambeau Field.”.

Just two years later, the NFL would never host a “league championship” again. It would now be named the Super Bowl. And somehow the Packers just so happened to have made it to the newly renamed “Super Bowl” versus the big underdog, the Kansas City Chiefs. The Packers won the first Super Bowl ever by a margin of 25 points. All Chiefs fans, plug your ears. The Packers won 35 to 10. The Packers continued to dominate and won a second straight Super Bowl to the Oakland Raiders 33 to 14. The Packers had to wait another 29 years for a shot at the triple crown, but in 1997, the Packers defeated the Patriots by a score of 35 to 21. They would win it again in 2011.

Through the ages of Curly Lambeau, Brett Favre, and Aaron Rodgers, the Packers have asserted themselves as one of the greatest football teams of all time. I hope you enjoyed reading about the history of the longest franchise in the NFL, The packers have been around for 104 years. Just to put that into perspective, the Packers are older than my grandmother, and my great-grandmother was 3 when Indian Meat Packing Co. sponsored a small football team in Green Bay.