Continued from previous week
In the late 1950s, Purdue’s Adelaide Darling was firing up crowds and causing controversy as the college’s chief majorette performed for football matchups around the country.
Accused of “excessive wiggling” and making a “disgusting exhibition,” Darling made headlines across the country as the school’s “Golden Girl.”
Similar to Darling, Green Bay’s Mary Jane Van Duyse was young, blonde and often seen in gold sequins.
“After I did a solo routine at a Packers-Bears game at Wrigley Field, a sports writer from the Chicago Tribune called me the Green Bay Packers Golden Girl because I had on a gold-sequined outfit,” Van Duyse Sorgel told Voyageur magazine in 2004. “Then in Green Bay, the nickname caught on.”
That Wrigley Field game — held Sept. 27, 1959 — was also Packers Head Coach Vince Lombardi’s first game.
“When Lombardi arrived in Green Bay in 1959, the Packers were coming off their worst season ever, a 1-10-1 finish, and hadn’t had a winning record in 11 years. His first year, the Packers finished 7-5, and he was named NFL Coach of the Year,” Packers Historian Cliff Christl stated.
“When Coach Lombardi came to town, he asked me if I’d form a group of cheerleaders. So we had an audition,” Van Duyse Sorgel recalled to the Door County Advocate in 2007.
“When we started out, we had 16 girls from Sturgeon Bay and four from Green Bay. I always had rehearsals on Michigan Street in front of our house.”
Their first full season on the field was in 1961 and every year after that, Van Duyse held tryouts before the Packers even started training camp.
“Most of our girls (had been taking) dancing and baton lessons,” Mary Jane told Press-Gazette Staff Writer Judy St. John in 1966.
Vince Lombardi’s wife, Marie, designed the uniforms in green, gold and white, with modest skirts included in the uniform, per Vince’s request.
The 20-person squad was augmented by four extras, should anyone be unable to perform.
Most of the squad was high school age.
“We practice our popular dance routines twice a week — once in Green Bay and once in Sturgeon Bay,” Van Duyse explained.
The girls were also subject to fines if they missed a session.
In 1966, Mary Jane opened a dance and baton studio in Green Bay, where she taught tap, acrobatics, ballet, modern jazz and modeling.
She called it the “Golden Girl Studio.”
To be continued
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