Who Are the Forgotten Greats in Packers History?

We all know the big names in Packers history, but who has spent a century flying under the radar? We were fortunate to have the opportunity to interview Cliff Christl prior to the release of his monumental work on the history of the Green Bay Packers and asked him just that question.

Below is a transcript of his answer, edited lightly for clarity. For more, check out the full interview here or click the embedded player below. Don’t forget to subscribe to Blue 58 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or on your podcast app of choice.

The Power Sweep: With a history as extensive as the Packers have, it’s inevitable that some people are going to fall through the cracks, especially when there are big names like Lambeau and Lombardi and Favre and Starr populating the story of the team. Is there a person or player in Packers history that you think still needs more credit or attention?

Cliff Christl: There's a couple in there that were involved at the beginning. One was John Kittle, an attorney who really played a lead role with Andrew Turnbull, one of the owners of the Press Gazette, in creating the Green Bay Football Corporation in 1923 that saved the franchise, and that stock sale to reach out to the fans. For five bucks, fans could purchase stock and tickets to the game, season tickets. And Kittle was the one who wrote the original articles of incorporation that were really very similar to what the articles were for the Green Bay Packers Corporation 12 years later in 1935. Most history books had given Gerald Clifford credit for that and talked about how he was a member of the Hungry Five who drafted the original articles of the team. 

Well, he did do that for the Green Bay Packers corporation in 1935, but he didn't in 1923. That was John Kittle and he had played a lead role in creating interest among the local people of Green Bay to get behind the football team and save it after a disastrous 1922 season, when Curly Lambeau was the president of the Green Bay Football Club and the team was broke. As soon as the '22 season was over, the NFL took the franchise away from Lambeau and put it in the name of the proposed public corporation, which had not yet even been formed.

And then there's Cornelius Murphy. He was an Underwood typewriter salesman in Green Bay in 1920, the first year the Packers had played on an open field, no fence, no bleachers, couldn't charge admission. And Murphy realized before the 1920 season that without a fence, the Packers wouldn't be able to make money and survive. He became manager of the team in 1920. He proposed building a fence, got the Hagemeister Realty Company on board, which owned the property behind it, and got the city to approve it, and had this ingenious idea of asking the fans to build it because the team had no money. So we got the fans to build it so he could charge them admission to watch the games, and that was critical to the Packers' survival. 

As far as players, there are a lot of them. Larry Craig is a prime example. He joined the Packers in 1939 and was instrumental in them winning the championship that year. 

Larry Craig was a blocking back. When Lambeau signed him, that allowed him to move Don Hutson to defensive back from defensive end in 1939, which played a big part in the Packers winning what would've been their fifth NFL championship that year. Interestingly, Larry Craig never made an All-Pro team. He played 11 years. His nickname was Superman. He was the toughest, strongest of the Packers during the 1940s probably. It’s probably because he was listed as a quarterback, the blocking back position in Lambeau's Notre Dame box offense at the time, so he never threw a pass. He played quarterback through 1946, so that's eight years, and never threw a single pass. So he never got any votes in All-Pro. Yet Sammy Baugh, the Hall of Fame quarterback, said Larry Craig was the best pass rusher he faced in his 16 years in the NFL. Bob Waterfield, another Hall of Fame quarterback, said Craig was one of the two best defensive ends in the league when he played, and the other being a teammate of Waterfield's.

Baugh also said that Craig was the best blocking back during those 16 years he played. You could probably make a case that Larry Craig deserves consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame and yet never made an All-Pro team. 

Then there's Verne Lewellen, the key to the '29 to '31 championships. I think you could argue that Verne Lewellen might have been the greatest player in Packers history, and yet he's not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame either. Johnny Blood, when the first class was announced that included Lambeau, Blood, Don Hutson, and Cal Hubbard, Johnny Blood said that Lewellen should have been in before him and Hubbard.

Finally, Charlie Mathys a native of Green Bay who played quarterback for the Packers then sat on the board of directors until around 1980 — didn't miss a game for 50 years — claimed Lewellen was the best of the old-time Packers. So there were others who felt that way with a lot more credibility and who were eyewitnesses.