Nearly 50 years ago, the Dallas Cowboys traveled to Green Bay in the dead of winter and died a frigid death in the Ice Bowl game.
It’s a National Football League playoff contest Alby Zellner and John “Sox” Jung will always remember. It’s a game that Ray Brown would like to forget.
All three live in The Villages and are haunted by the ghost of 1967’s playoff past. Dallas plays at Green Bay this Sunday at 1:05 p.m. on the Fox Network. The old rivals will be butting heads once more on Lambeau Field’s frozen tundra for their first playoff game there since that historic contest.
Green Bay won that classic 1967 battle, 21-17, with the wind chill reportedly down to 48 degrees below zero. Packers’ quarterback Bart Starr, with help from a block by guard Jerry Kramer, scored the winning touchdown from inside the 1-yard line in the final seconds.
And the Ice Bowl legend was born.
“It was cold, real cold but when you live in Green Bay, you get used to it,” said Jung, who lived in nearby Menasha, Wis. back in ’67. He had a $10 ticket and a good view of Starr’s touchdown.
“What a play, I’ll never forget it,” he said. Jung and his pals brought some beer to the game. But it nearly froze and you practically needed an ice pick to poke through the foam.
It didn’t matter because the game was more important.
“When you live in Green Bay, football is everything,” Jung said. “People in Wisconsin don’t give a damn about being cold, they want to see the Packers. There’s nothing else in Green Bay. I’m just happy the Packers beat the Cowboys that day. I think they will beat Dallas on Sunday”
Humbug, says Cowboy fan Ray Brown.
Brown grew up in Philadelphia but despite rampant Eagles’ fever among his friends and family, Brown turned into a Cowboys fan.
“I can’t help it, when I was a kid I used to watch the Cowboys every week on television,” Brown said. “Yea, I remember 1967 and Bart Starr but that’s an old story — let’s not talk about it. This Sunday, the Cowboys are going to beat the Packers.”
Brown sees Cowboy quarterback Tony Romo as the key to the game along with running back DeMarco Murray. He likes the Dallas wide receivers – Dez Bryant and Terrance Williams – but believes that tight end Jason Witten could be the difference in the game.
“I hope they throw to Witten,” Brown said. “They don’t throw to him enough and in this game he could make the big play.”
Roger Staubach, the Cowboys Hall of Fame quarterback, is Brown’s all-time favorite Dallas player, with wide-receiver Bob Hayes close behind.
“Staubach could throw and Hayes could run,” said Brown, who proudly displays a Staubach No. 12 jersey in his house, among other Cowboys’ memorabilia.
Rooting for the Cowboys, “is fun because they are always interesting, even when they lose,” Brown said. He talked about such characters as Dallas Owner Jerry Jones, Dez Bryant and even New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who was hugging Jones in the owners’ box after last week’s triumph over the Detroit Lions.
“I’m from Philadelphia and I can’t figure out why the governor of New Jersey roots for the Cowboys. Christie must drive the New York Giants’ fans nuts. But, maybe he’s just like me: you grow up following a team and you keep doing it the rest of your life.”
Such was the case for Alby Zellner who used to sell beer at Lambeau Field in the late 50s’ and never missed a Packers’ game from 1960-’72. Those were the glory years for Coach Vince Lombardi and such Packers’ legends as Bart Starr, Jim Taylor, Paul Hornung, Ray Nitschke and Willie Davis.
“Bart Starr is my all-time favorite Packer, I love the way he played,” Zellner said. “He was smart and he could pick apart a defense.”
Zellner was at the Ice Bowl dressed in a snowsuit and he just about turned into an ice cube. “But I was ready. I had some beer. I had some schnapps and I had some brandy. That keeps you warm.”
Maybe that sums up the attitude of the Green Bay fans: it doesn’t matter what the thermometer reads. A Packer game in January is a big party and time to all join in and root for the home team. They are truly the frozen chosen.
“Green Bay is a small town,” Zellner said. “There’s no basketball team. There’s no hockey team. And the Brewers are a hundred miles away. You live and die with football.”
Zellner thinks the Packers will win because of quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
“I like Rodgers, he reminds me of Bart Starr,” Zellner said. “Rodgers is smart and if the line protects him, he will kill you. I also think the Packers have a better defense than Dallas. Plus, the cold weather has to help the Packers.”
Zellner spoke to his brother back in Wisconsin who said the game time temperature is supposed to be around 15 degrees and maybe close to zero with a wind chill.
“Dallas is a good team, but I think being on the road and playing in the cold is just too much for them. The Packers will win, 27-21.”