Those Lombardi-era babies were born with a silver rattle in their hands

My sister Kathy was born with a silver rattle in her hands — all the players’ babies born during those first Packer Super Bowl years were.

Packer legend Vince Lombardi and his wife Marie visited the wives in the hospital and gifted their newborns a sterling silver rattle. (Back then, ladies stayed in the hospital much longer following a birth. My mom reports that she stayed in the hospital a whole week after my sister Kathy was born. She said she would have stayed longer but a nurse caught her dancing to the radio one afternoon and the jig was up.)

Phil Bengtson, who was the Packer’s head coach that year, and his wife Kay also visited my mom during her residency in the hospital and they gave baby Kathy a cute little terry cloth Packer outfit.

Kay spells her name Kathryn, so that’s how my mom spelled Kathy’s name too.

Yesterday, Kathy celebrated her 58th birthday and she still has that tiny, beautiful rattle. She gave it a good polish and posed with it for this post. They’ve both held up quite well over the years.

She does not still have the terry cloth onesie. Fortunately, though, my dad took a lot of pictures and we have plenty of baby Kathy’s debut. She managed to make her way into this old world at the height of our dad’s professional football career.

My mom was pregnant with Kathy and battling morning sickness at the second Super Bowl. Whether the Lombardis knew this and took pity on her, or whether they were just being generally kind, Coach and Mrs. Lombardi offered the Kostelniks their hotel suite when they left Miami after the game and, according to my mom, the Kostelniks gladly accepted. We hung around Miami a few extra days, apparently in the lap of luxury.

Upon our return, two veteran Packer wives, Olive Jordan and Ruth Ann Skoronski, threw an elaborate baby shower for Kathy, who must have made a favorable impression on Packer defensive tackle Jim Weatherwax and his wife Jo Ann Weatherwax because, nine months later, Jimmy Weatherwax was born.

He received a silver rattle too.

Several of the women we interviewed for our book, Lambeau Ladies: The Boundary-Breaking Women Behind Lombardi’s Packers, mentioned the silver rattles the Lombardis gave their babies.

Most of them still have the rattles, tokens of an era gone by and of an elegant couple who took the time to welcome newborns to the Packer family.