The birth of the Packers Hall of Fame

GREEN BAY – During the 1966 Packers football season, the Green Bay Area Visitor and Convention Bureau (VCB) surveyed tourists, convention visitors and area residents on the hotels, restaurants and amenities that the city had to offer.

While the organization received feedback on ways to alleviate parking issues and compliments city businesses and services, the results also offered feedback on the city and its Packers.

“Almost as frequent were the usual requests for Packers tickets… A Stanford, Conn., agent inquired, ‘Your city needs more polish. Are you possibly too imbued with your importance as a football town?’” Sarah Alden wrote in a Press-Gazette article.

But, overwhelmingly visitors wanted to see more of the history-entrenched Packers.

In 1967, a seasonal display opened on the concourse of the Brown County Veterans Memorial Arena.

In 1969, Bill Brault, VCB manager, approached VCB Bard Member/WLUK Manager Tom Hutchison about starting a Packers Hall of Fame induction ceremony, similar to the Pro Football Hall of Fame event which was started five years before.

“With all the enthusiasm for the Packers at the time, such an event would attract a ton of publicity for his exhibit,” Hutchison wrote in The Land of Milk & Money.

“I enlisted the help of local business executive Al Schneider and the enthusiastic support of Chuck Lane, the young man Vince Lombardi had named publicity director for the Packers.”

And things took off from there.

The first meeting of the Hall of Fame Association held their first meeting in February 1970 and the organization honored their first inductees that fall.

“The idea for a permanent Packers hall of fame was hatched by Bill Brault before we even had the first induction banquet. Brault had opened his Packers exhibit beneath the stands of the arena in 1967, but could only run it during summer. Because of hockey games played by the Green Bay Bobcats, plus many other events held at the arena. Brault had to take his exhibit down in October and not set up again until May,” Hutchison recalled.

“Whatever is constructed should be in the area of Lambeau Field because of a great many of our visitors do it in connection with Packers practice,” Brault told Press-Gazette Sports Writer Lee Remmel in January 1972.

Proceeds from that year’s induction banquet were to be earmarked for such a project.

Packers President Dominic Olejniczak expressed his support in the Press-Gazette article.

“Certainly a hall of fame would be of great value to the city. And, if and when the bureau has something specific to offer, I’m sure the Packers executive committee would seriously consider a proposal for some type of participation (presumably financial) by the Packers corporation,” Olejniczak stated.

And the organization had a lot to showcase.

“Dick Bourguinon, the Packers vice president and a confidant of the Lombardis, convinced (Vince’s wife) Marie to contribute the bulk of Vince’s memorabilia after his sudden death from cancer in 1970. In the days before the hall was constructed, Marie had 17 crates of material sent to Kellogg Citizens National Bank where it was stored until it could be accepted, photographed and formally inventoried,” Hutchison explained.

“The Packers not only had a film library going back to the beginnings of the team, they had radio broadcasts dating to the 1930s.”

In May 1975, the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame. Inc. was formed as a nonprofit.

After much organizational equity, construction began that spring, with $100,000 from the Packers, $20,000 from the Hall of Fame organization and matching funds from Brown County.

The county also provided $55,000 to construct a basement to store the basketball floor, chairs and other arena supplies.

A permanent home for the Packers Hall of Fame was dedicated in April 1976, with President Gerald Ford — who was offered a contract to play with the Packers in 1935 — on hand.

In July 1976, what was deemed as a “million dollar Packer scrapbook” opened adjoined to the Brown County Arena.

“[The] facility at nearly $1 million and places the value of the exhibits it houses at approximately $300,000. But the sentimental value of irreplaceable items from the Packers’ storied past do not have a price tag,” Don Langenkamp wrote in the Press-Gazette.

The original Packers Hall of Fame — the first of its kind for a National Football League — offered several rooms of team memorabilia.

The “Locker Room” was a two-part area offering reproductions of former players’ lockers in one half and a projector showing training room activities.

A separate room hosted a mini-theater offering seating for 70 new people every 30 minutes for a Packers history film.

The “Playing Field” offered 14 exhibits of photos, memorabilia and Packers memories in what was considered the main hall.

In 2003, the hall of fame was granted a new home in the Lambeau Field Atrium.

For more on the Packers Hall of Fame, visit www.packershofandtours.com/explore/hall-of-fame.