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Does anybody have a picture of the old Packers Band.....
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<blockquote data-quote="wpr" data-source="post: 20766" data-attributes="member: 198"><p>i like this one better. both of these stories are by cliff christl. this one back in 1997 before Super Bowl XXXI in N.O. <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/PACKER/arc/13097/fans121.html" target="_blank">http://www.jsonline.com/PACKER/arc/13097/fans121.html</a></p><p></p><p>I edited this story to the part about the band only.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Packers fans have been a devoted and frenzied lot since the dawn of the National Football League.</p><p></p><p>"To me, there is no other story in sports like this," said Lee Remmel, the Packers' director of public relations and foremost historian. "Little Green Bay surviving against all these megalopolises, these population giants; in large measure, it's due to the support of the fans. This support has been going on for 50, 60 years, even before that."</p><p></p><p>The support has been vocal, unbridled, financial, raucous, moral, you name it.</p><p></p><p>Long before the jet age, thousands of Packers fans would ride the train with the team to games in Chicago and Milwaukee. Back in the days when pro football franchises were owned by men of modest means who depended solely on gate receipts to survive, the fans in Wisconsin kept the Packers afloat by buying thousands of dollars of non-profit stock. When the Packers were winning championships in the 1920s and '30s and even when they were playing losing football in the late '40s and '50s, the fans showed their appreciation by staging mammoth pep rallies and welcome-home celebrations before and after games.</p><p></p><p>The Packers fans of old derived just as much enjoyment from their team as the fans of today. They never had the opportunity to patrol Bourbon Street the week before a Super Bowl but they may have had more wholesome, less commercialized and more spontaneous fun. They, too, knew how to have a rip-roaring time.</p><p></p><p>The first city they took by storm was Chicago in 1921, the first year of the National Football League and the first time the Packers ever played there. On consecutive Sundays, the Packers played the Chicago Cardinals and the Chicago Staleys, who became the hated Bears the next season.</p><p></p><p>Even then, Green Bay was the smallest city in the NFL, with a population of 31,017, and its home field was essentially a vacant lot that accommodated only a few thousand fans. But several hundred people from Green Bay, as well as a 22-piece Lumberjack Band, took a midnight train to Chicago on the eve of the Cardinals game to cheer for their fledgling team. The band members were dressed in attire that anybody who has ever watched a game in Lambeau Field could relate to today. They wore corduroy pants, lumberjack shirts, mackinaws and high boots. </p><p></p><p>"The gang hit Chicago with a bang early in the morning of that 1921 Cardinal game," noted a story in the game program the day that Lambeau Field was dedicated. "They practically took over The Loop, invading every hotel lobby they could find and generally making good-natured nuisances of themselves."</p><p></p><p>The fans and the band members had so much fun, in fact, they organized another trip the next weekend for the game against the Staleys. </p><p></p><p>This time, however, they ran into a few problems as they were singing "On Wisconsin" and "How Dry I Am," blowing their horns and marching through the streets of Chicago.</p><p></p><p>"The band ran afoul of the law because they did not have a parade permit," George Calhoun, longtime sportswriter with the Green Bay Press-Gazette and co-founder of the Packers, wrote years later. "However, Nick Ryan, then the Brown County sheriff, who happened to be along, pulled some strings and the 'Jacks' finally got out to the hotel where the team was staying."</p><p></p><p>The band also was stopped at the gate at Wrigley Field, where the Staleys played, by Frank Halas, brother of the team's founder, George Halas.</p><p></p><p>"What the devil is going on here?" Frank Halas asked Calhoun. </p><p></p><p>"I told him it was the Packer Lumberjack Band," Calhoun later wrote. "He was dumbfounded for a minute and then mournfully said, 'Holy cow, there can't be anybody left in Green Bay.' "</p><p></p><p>From that day, through the 1950s, the train rides to Chicago became an annual pilgrimage. The railroads converted freight cars and later baggage cars into huge bar cars. And the trips were sponsored by local taverns.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="wpr, post: 20766, member: 198"] i like this one better. both of these stories are by cliff christl. this one back in 1997 before Super Bowl XXXI in N.O. [url="http://www.jsonline.com/PACKER/arc/13097/fans121.html"]http://www.jsonline.com/PACKER/arc/13097/fans121.html[/url] I edited this story to the part about the band only. Packers fans have been a devoted and frenzied lot since the dawn of the National Football League. "To me, there is no other story in sports like this," said Lee Remmel, the Packers' director of public relations and foremost historian. "Little Green Bay surviving against all these megalopolises, these population giants; in large measure, it's due to the support of the fans. This support has been going on for 50, 60 years, even before that." The support has been vocal, unbridled, financial, raucous, moral, you name it. Long before the jet age, thousands of Packers fans would ride the train with the team to games in Chicago and Milwaukee. Back in the days when pro football franchises were owned by men of modest means who depended solely on gate receipts to survive, the fans in Wisconsin kept the Packers afloat by buying thousands of dollars of non-profit stock. When the Packers were winning championships in the 1920s and '30s and even when they were playing losing football in the late '40s and '50s, the fans showed their appreciation by staging mammoth pep rallies and welcome-home celebrations before and after games. The Packers fans of old derived just as much enjoyment from their team as the fans of today. They never had the opportunity to patrol Bourbon Street the week before a Super Bowl but they may have had more wholesome, less commercialized and more spontaneous fun. They, too, knew how to have a rip-roaring time. The first city they took by storm was Chicago in 1921, the first year of the National Football League and the first time the Packers ever played there. On consecutive Sundays, the Packers played the Chicago Cardinals and the Chicago Staleys, who became the hated Bears the next season. Even then, Green Bay was the smallest city in the NFL, with a population of 31,017, and its home field was essentially a vacant lot that accommodated only a few thousand fans. But several hundred people from Green Bay, as well as a 22-piece Lumberjack Band, took a midnight train to Chicago on the eve of the Cardinals game to cheer for their fledgling team. The band members were dressed in attire that anybody who has ever watched a game in Lambeau Field could relate to today. They wore corduroy pants, lumberjack shirts, mackinaws and high boots. "The gang hit Chicago with a bang early in the morning of that 1921 Cardinal game," noted a story in the game program the day that Lambeau Field was dedicated. "They practically took over The Loop, invading every hotel lobby they could find and generally making good-natured nuisances of themselves." The fans and the band members had so much fun, in fact, they organized another trip the next weekend for the game against the Staleys. This time, however, they ran into a few problems as they were singing "On Wisconsin" and "How Dry I Am," blowing their horns and marching through the streets of Chicago. "The band ran afoul of the law because they did not have a parade permit," George Calhoun, longtime sportswriter with the Green Bay Press-Gazette and co-founder of the Packers, wrote years later. "However, Nick Ryan, then the Brown County sheriff, who happened to be along, pulled some strings and the 'Jacks' finally got out to the hotel where the team was staying." The band also was stopped at the gate at Wrigley Field, where the Staleys played, by Frank Halas, brother of the team's founder, George Halas. "What the devil is going on here?" Frank Halas asked Calhoun. "I told him it was the Packer Lumberjack Band," Calhoun later wrote. "He was dumbfounded for a minute and then mournfully said, 'Holy cow, there can't be anybody left in Green Bay.' " From that day, through the 1950s, the train rides to Chicago became an annual pilgrimage. The railroads converted freight cars and later baggage cars into huge bar cars. And the trips were sponsored by local taverns. [/QUOTE]
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