Date Posted:15:49:15 03/11/12 Sun Author: Milwaukee T Author Host/IP: 174.103.183.1 Subject: Re: Paging Milwaukee T - Packer Question In reply to:
JC
's message, "Paging Milwaukee T - Packer Question" on 10:40:20 03/09/12 Fri
I guess the first thing is to mention that the changes in the logos on the field were gradual transitions. The only time there was an all in one change was when the team added the G in 61.
In 61 the team added the Football G. That season the logo was actually two seperate stickers. There was a white football as well as the green G. As such, you can look at hundreds of photos and never see the exact same design. So it is generally depicted as the traditional Football G. One issue with that though as every G was a touch smaller that the white background which leaves a small white outline to the G no matter where the G was placed. It is pretty easy to find photos of Bart Starr so all you need to do is find on of him that season to see a great example of it.
From then on there was never a case where all the players had the exact same helmet on until 1983.
1962 the logo was changed to standard one decal with the white G and a small outline in green and all in the football shape. These were introduced as helmets were replaced. So the rookies and new members of the team had those while the players returning from 61 had the white outline. That proceedure continued with each change.
After that original G was added, the green outline saw a slow increase. Nothing major, but if you seen a 62 G versus one of let's say 68, then you can notice it.
There wasn't any sort of official announcement nor observation of the change like what would be done now. Having looked through tons of the photos (and in no way would I claim to have seen as many nor more than a lot of the fans of this team); the earliest rounded G that I have seen was from a photo that was labled as 1968 in a game against the Vikings in Milwaukee. Now those two played in Milwaukee a lot then so I won't bet my life on the validity of that lable, but there also doesn't seem to be anything that would say it was incorrect.
Having talked to some, it has been explained that this could very well be when the change happened. It has been explained as the time change after Coach Lambardi left, it was the time that there was a change in the manufacturer of the Packer equipment, and it has been said that this was also when the large scale production of NFL items started taking place and with the popularity of the two Super Bowl champions so high that manufacturers complained that the football shape was too hard to reproduce quickly and cheeply. Go with whatever theory one might like, but it does seem as if the 1968 would be the start of the switch over.
Now remember that the switch came as logos needed replacing by new players or damaged equipment so there still no unified look to the team. There have been some photos of a player having the football one season, the oval the next, and back to the football the next year. The latest that I have seen any football shape was 1974 and that was in the preseaon. Again, not saying that one may not have been used later, but that is the last that I have seen so far.
So if that was 1974 and the statement above said that the logos were not unified until 1983, what then? One thing that I have seen in photos from the mid and late 70s that I am still trying to figure out is that it seems as if some logos from 75-79 were larger. I'm not sure if big linemen with big heads had bigger logos to try and keep the yellow space the same or there were larger logos made, but you can see the differance as you look through some newspaper photos from County Stadium as well as from games in Detroit through that time frame. It always seems to be linemen or it is just noticable then as you see photos down the line with them all in position.
One last thing to add variety is the introduction of the green masks. I had always thought that a team would switch out all the masks at one time, but there are some players that had retained the grey masks. Now some are much better know as all Packer fans have seen the blocked kick by Chester Marcol in 80. Two others that I seen on the sidelines in games although never in the game was #83 and #87. They can been seen in multiple photos although it does look like the colour might switch to green and then back to grey for one. I will say that it does look like #87 may have been two differant people and that would explain why it went to green and then back to grey. I can never find a photo of any of the three in question with names nor of a face which is what leaves the questions in my mind as to who these guys are and why still the grey.
After the 82 strike it has always looked like all the helmets have been unified.
I'm still trying to see about the mask colours though. Those things seem to have been way darker right after going to green. It's always hard to tell though as weather and lighting and the camera can play tricks on the perceived colour just as it sometimes look like the shells go from pastel yellow to almost mustard seed yellow.
And when did the glitter start showing up in the yellow?
>What was the first year that the Packers switched from
>the "60s football-shaped" G to the current more oval
>shaped helmet logo? It was the late 70s, but not sure
>of the specific year.
>Thanks in advance.
>
>jc
First of all Milwaukee T...Thanks so much for the details. It follows much of what I've discovered too!
Secondly, don't know why the Packers decided to airbrush the face masks from the 1961 Championship game yellow for some of their 1962 publicity shots but this color video from the 1961 title game against New York clearly shows they were gray.
Link: http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-videos/09000d5d8060ece8/1961-NFL-Championship-Game
Go to the 24:10 minute mark...especially where Hornung leaves the game and puts his hat back on while sitting on the bench.
You can also see the video of Lombardi being carried off of the field at 24:50. This is the same scene as the yearbook photo. The video again shows the grills were gray.
The yellow masks were coulored that way into the photos after the fact. I have still never found out who nor why, but it is the same things that Topps was very bad at in the baseball sets of the 70s and especially the 80s.
For two cents I will also toss out there that I feel the entire NFCN should go back to the grey masks full time. I like colour in a lot of teams, but that division just screams cld, grey, metal masks to me.
