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RIP Bart Starr

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Michael_ Gee, May 26, 2019.

  1. Slacker

    Slacker Well-Known Member

     
  2. Baron Scicluna

    Baron Scicluna Well-Known Member

    Yeah, that was after his first meeting with the team, which Maraniss also quoted.
     
  3. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    As a youngster in the late 60’s early 70s he was the epitome of a classy great QB. I read about the great Packers dynasty and relived Start’s Greatness in the books. May he RIP. Thanks for the thrills.
     
  4. Slacker

    Slacker Well-Known Member

    Unitas (and others) were better pure quarterbacks, but Starr was the toast of the nation when he was leading Lombardi's Packers to all those titles. And the Packers were "America's Team" in the '60s, long before the Cowboys could make that claim.
     
  5. Michael_ Gee

    Michael_ Gee Well-Known Member

    It is so interesting to me that back in the '60s, while Starr was admired as a top QB, nobody but nobody thought he was as good as Unitas. I'd wager that nowadays in our "measure stars only by rings" era, it'd be the opposite.
     
  6. OscarMadison

    OscarMadison Well-Known Member

    My parents, especially my Dad, thought Unitas could walk on water. He still had a lot of affection for the Starr/Lombardi era Packers. I looked at old footage on Youtube to get a handle on the contrast between the two. Both QBs played the game like it was high stakes cul-de-sac pickup, only with better toys. From my vantage point as a tourist from 2019, it looked brutal, beautiful, and more joyful than the football I finally started watchng on my own in college.

    If my Dad could wait with other fans for players to arrive at the afterlife the way people greet pro team charters, I'm sure he would be there to cheer for Mr. Starr's entrance.
     
    garrow likes this.
  7. garrow

    garrow Well-Known Member

    I imagined John Facenda reading your words;

    "It was high stakes cul-de-sac pickup, only with better toys on that afternoon in December of 1966 at Baltimore's Memorial Stadium when Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas, number 19, faced Bart Starr and the visiting Green Bay Packers in front of 60,238 spellbound fans."

    [​IMG]
     
  8. Jake from State Farm

    Jake from State Farm Well-Known Member

    My dad took me to see the Lions and the Packers in 1965, when I was 10. The Lions led 21-3 at halftime, but on a 3rd-and-1 Starr threw a slant over the middle to Bob Fucking Long that went for a 62-yard TD pass. Starr three two more TD passes in the third quarter, including a 77-yarder to Carroll Dale, and the Lions lost 31-21
     
    maumann likes this.
  9. qtlaw

    qtlaw Well-Known Member

    I read about the greatness of Johnny U but Starr was the glamorous guy because he had the titles.
     
  10. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    Johnny U was the glamorous gunslinger with all the stats, plus he'd won back to back titles in the prehistoric era of 1958-59, but Starr was the fundamentally sound game manager supreme at the controls of Lombardi's Packer bulldozer.

    When Unitas's arm tailed off in his late-career period of 1964 and afterward, then when the Packers faded from the scene in 1968, Unitas became the crafty gritty old veteran.

    My NFL Tudor Electric Football game I got in 1968 features the Unitas Colts vs the Starr Packers.
     
  11. Twirling Time

    Twirling Time Well-Known Member

    Trust me, a lot of negative-14-year-olds south of the Red are still crying about that. Never mind the Cowboys won 5 trophies after that with Lombardi's name on it.
     
  12. Jake from State Farm

    Jake from State Farm Well-Known Member

    I was in Marquette when Starr was the Packers coach. Nice man but he had no idea what he was doing. He owned a big Ford dealership in Birmingham, Ala., and did very well.
     
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