By Rich Palzewic
Sports Editor
GREEN BAY – Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Lynn Dickey is perhaps best known for his part in the team’s 48-47 victory over Washington on Monday Night Football on Oct. 17, 1983, but he had many other memorable moments in his 10-year career with Green Bay.
Dickey, who now lives in Kansas City, was in Wisconsin and took part in the Packers Hall of Fame Golf Classic at the Bull at Pinehurst Farms in Sheboygan Falls July 15.
“I’m not much of a golfer, but it’s fun to come back and see the guys,” said Dickey, who played for the Packers from 1976-1985. “To be a part of the Green Bay Packers, it’s the neatest fraternity in the world. I was lucky enough to get into the Packers Hall of Fame.”
Dickey has an interesting story on how he landed in Green Bay from Houston.
“Bum Phillips was the head coach at Houston in 1975,” Dickey said. “Dan Pastorini and I were the two quarterbacks, but it seemed like whatever I did, I wasn’t going to get a fair shot. I asked Bum after the ’75 season what I had to do to get a fair shot, and he said, ‘You can’t do anything – I want Dan to play.’ I said to Bum, ‘If I throw 20 touchdowns, throw no interceptions and win all the games in the preseason next year, it won’t matter?’ After he told me no, I told him he needed to trade me. What coaches want when they are coach, that is their decision, but I wasn’t being given a fair chance to play.”
Dickey said coming to Green Bay was the best thing that ever happened to him.
“I came from a team in Houston that had no history, tradition or class, to a team that is the complete opposite,” he said.
Dickey’s best season was in 1983, the same year as the memorable MNF game with the Redskins.
He was named All-Pro after throwing for 4,458 yards and a career-best 32 touchdown passes in helping the team score 429 points.
“During the game, I didn’t think much about it having the potential to be one of the greatest games ever,” he said. “I do remember stepping into the huddle and looking at all the guys and saying, ‘I wish I was in the stands watching this.’ You could tell the fans were really into it. It was a fun night. After Jan Stenerud put us ahead 48-47 with a field goal late in the game, I remember standing on the sideline – Washington went right down the field, we were not very good defensively – saying to myself, ‘I put up 48 points and we’re going to lose.’”
Mark Moseley, who Dickey said he knew pretty well at the time from their days playing together in Houston, missed a 39-yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining to give the Packers the win.
“Moseley was 4-of-4 during the game up until that point,” said Dickey. “After the game, I went up to him and said, ‘I can’t believe you missed that.’ Moseley said, ‘I can’t, either. I would have lost my house, my boat and everything that I would have bet I’d make it.’”
Dickey, who retired from the NFL prior to the 1986 season, moved to Kansas City after his playing career ended and said he “didn’t do much of anything for about three years.”
“I had set up my salary to continue to flow after I was finished playing, but then I made a huge mistake in getting into the restaurant business,” said Dickey. “That bombed – bad. I learned some valuable lessons not to trust certain people.”
He also tried his hand at coaching, but that wasn’t in his blood.
“I coached for three weeks with the Detroit Lions at the end of the ’88 season,” Dickey said. “That was enough to know I didn’t want to do that.”
Dickey also led Osawatomie High School to a state championship in 1966 before Kansas had a playoff system.
“My high school coach [Bill Freeman] was tough,” he said. “He got to the school during my junior year. We thought we knew what tough was, but we were sadly mistaken. They took the ratings from the Kansas City, Topeka and Wichita papers and they awarded us the championship in our division because we were rated No. 1 in all of the papers.”
He went on to play at Kansas State University before being drafted by Houston in the third round in 1971.
Dickey said he still follows the Packers and gets to Green Bay for about three games a year.
“If you look back from the time I played starting in ’76 and going to today, relatively speaking, there haven’t been too many guys that have played quarterback for the team,” he said. “That’s pretty crazy if you think about it.”