In marked contrast to all the hoopla surrounding the modern NFL draft, Herb Adderley signed his first NFL contract on the hood of a car in an unfamiliar parking lot. The Packers' No. 1 pick in the 1961 draft, Adderley, then 21-years old, negotiated his contract alone. Though the draft took place in Philadelphia, Adderley's [...]
In what turned out to be one of the NFL's strongest classes ever, my dad, Ron Kostelnik, was chosen 26th overall and, at the time, he didn't even know he'd been drafted. In December of 1960, my dad's mind was on other things. A defensive tackle for the University of Cincinnati, he had just played [...]
On a Sunday afternoon in 1961, Gene Chu adjusted the rabbit ears on his family's TV and became a lifelong Packer fan. For most of his childhood, he was the only Packer fan he knew. Chu, then a young boy living in Espanola, a small paper mill town located in Northern Ontario, picked a good [...]
Yesterday, Jerry Kramer turned 82 and here's hoping 10 days from now he can finally pop some champagne to toast his spot in Canton. With 10 days to go until the announcement, here are 10 reasons Jerry Kramer deserves a spot in the NFL Hall of Fame. His legacy. As the pulling guard, Jerry Kramer [...]
Shortly after she completed five straight twice-a-day radiation treatments, my sister Kathy jumped on a plane and headed to Dallas for Super Bowl XLV. "I bonded with my nurses about it," she said. "I sent them a Super Bowl basket of fruit." That weekend, Kathy pulled on her Packers jersey (No. 77, of course) and [...]
