The Green Bay Packers have an illustrious history of greatness at the quarterback position. Of course, the argument always is, who is the greatest among those signal callers? If you’re inclined, can reach back to the beginnings of the NFL and find Arnie Herber, who loved to throw the rounded football of the time, especially to wide receiver Don Hutson.
If you’re looking to argue for a Green Bay great of a more recent vintage you can sing the praises of Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre. He revived the Packers as a perennial playoff contender. Favre led the Packers to 10 playoff appearances in 16 seasons, including three conference championships and two Super Bowls with one Lombardi Trophy.
You can also celebrate the achievements of Favre’s successor with the green and gold, Aaron Rodgers. He led Green Bay to 11 postseason appearances in 15 seasons as the starter. The Packers played in five conference championship games and one Super Bowl, a win, in those appearances.
Bart Starr - The GOAT Packers Quarterback?
If you want to look at winning though, there’s one that stands head and shoulders over anyone else the Packers have lined up with at quarterback. The interesting thing is, he was not considered mentally tough, even by his father. He was overlooked in college and nobody thought he would amount to anything as an NFL quarterback.
Well, one coach came to Green Bay with an offense and saw in this quarterback, all the skills needed to be successful in running it. Together, they won five NFL championships and two Super Bowls in eight seasons. That coach is Hall of Famer Vince Lombardi. The quarterback, who was named the MVP in both of his Super Bowl appearances, is Bart Starr.
Starr never threw over 300 passes in a season his entire career but the Green Bay offense didn’t rest on his right arm like it did for Favre and Rodgers. Vince Lombardi’s offense was built around the power running of Jim Taylor and Paul Hornung. What he needed out of Starr was his leadership in the huddle and his ability as a precision passer when he did want to move the ball through the air.
What Lombardi received was a quarterback who executed his offense to perfection and played big when championships were on the line.
Starr’s Road to the NFL
Bart Starr grew up in Montgomery, Alabama and was the older of two boys. His father was a World War II veteran and a master sergeant in the Army Air Corps after the war and carried that military discipline home to his sons.
Bart was skinny and introverted as a child. Because of that, Hilton, his younger brother, was his father’s favorite. The first tragedy of Starr’s life came when his brother stepped on a dog bone while playing in the yard. Three days later he died of tetanus. From that point on, his father turned his attentions to Bart, pushing him to be tougher and more disciplined.
Starr became a quarterback at Sidney Lanier High School, one of the top football programs in Alabama as a junior in 1950. Before his senior season, Starr spent some time working with University of Kentucky quarterback Babe Parilli. That work led to Starr earning all-state honors at quarterback and punter and brought scholarship offers from schools across the south.
Starr accepted a scholarship from the University of Alabama and made the team as the third-string quarterback as a freshman, in an era when freshmen in the Southeastern Conference were allowed to play on the varsity.
As a sophomore, Starr became the starting quarterback at Alabama, also started in the secondary and split the punting duties. As the quarterback, he completed 59 passes in 119 attempts for 870 yards, 8 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. Even with the interceptions, Starr finished the season with a 123.1 passer rating. That was for a team that ran the ball over 400 times that season.
In May of 1954, Before Starr’s junior season, he married Cherry Morton, his high school sweetheart. They kept the marriage a secret due to colleges often revoking the scholarships of married athletes because they wanted the athlete’s full focus on their sport.
That summer, Starr suffered a serious back injury in a hazing incident for initiation into the prestigious A Club. To cover it up, Starr said that he hurt his back while punting. He rarely played in his junior season because of it and the injury bothered him his entire career.
In 1955, Starr’s senior year, new head coach Jennings Whitworth benched all but two of the seniors. Starr still threw 96 passes with 55 completions for 587 yards but with only one touchdown against nine interceptions. Overall, Alabama finished the season with an 0-11 record.
Alabama basketball coach Johnny Dee believed Starr had the ability to make it as an NFL quarterback. He contacted his friend Jack Vainisi, the personnel director for the Green Bay Packers and impressed him with Starr’s ability to learn and work. As a result, Green Bay decided to select Starr in the 17th round, 200th overall in the 1956 NFL Draft.
The Struggles of a Young Quarterback
That summer, Starr moved in with his wife and in-laws in Jackson, Alabama and worked every day by throwing a football through an A-frame that he constructed in their backyard while his wife retrieved them. The work paid off when Starr made the roster for the 1956 season.
In 1956, Starr joined a Packers team that was enduring the longest stretch of futility in franchise history. Green Bay hadn’t won an NFL championship since 1944 and hadn’t finished a season over .500 since 1947.
Starr spent his rookie season sitting and learning behind veteran Tobin Rote. In 1957, Starr started 11 games, with his old mentor Babe Parilli starting one. It did not go well. The Packers only won three of those 11 starts with Starr throwing for eight touchdowns against 10 interceptions.
Starr split starting duties with Parilli in 1958. The team was 0-6-1 with Starr throwing for only three touchdowns against 12 interceptions.
Green Bay finished that season with a 1-11-1 record and fired coach Ray McClean after one season. To replace him, Green Bay reached out to the New York Giants for Jim Lee Howell’s assistant coach – offense, Vince Lombardi.
Lombardi arrived in Green Bay with a working impression of Starr. He felt that Starr had the physical tools and intelligence to be an NFL quarterback but that he lacked the confidence to be a winner. That was painfully obvious while watching Starr brood over every interception or failed play.
What Lombardi found as he began working with the quarterback was that there was a toughness under his quiet exterior. The discipline and work ethic that Starr learned from his father meshed perfectly with Lombardi’s coaching style.
In 1959, Lamar McHan began the season as Green Bay’s starting quarterback. The Packers opened the with three straight victories, then lost their next four games.
In Week 8, Lombardi turned to Starr as the starter. After falling behind 21-3 against the Baltimore Colts in the first half. Starr led Green Bay on a comeback that ultimately fell short, 28-21, but it was enough for Lombardi to keep him in the starting job.
That decision paid off with four straight victories. The Green Bay team that had finished the 1958 season 1-10-1 ended 1959 with a 7-5 record and s third place finish in the West Division.
Starr opened the 1960 season as the Packers starting quarterback but fell flat on his face in the team’s opener against the Chicago Bears. He threw 22 passes, completing eight for 68 yards and two interceptions for a 7.2 passer rating.
Lombardi went back to McHan as starter for the next three games, all dominant wins. In his fourth straight start, against the Pittsburgh Steelers, McHan went 4 for 16 for 51 yards when Lombardi had seen enough. Starr took over and engineered a fourth quarter touchdown drive to lead the Packers to a 19-13 win.
Starr started the following week and never looked back. From that point on, there was no question about who was Vince Lombardi’s quarterback. As long as Starr was healthy, he was at the controls of the Packers offense.
The Rise of the Lombardi Dynasty
Green Bay finished the season with an 8-4 record, one game ahead of the Detroit Lions and San Francisco 49ers for first place in the West Division.
The Packers travelled to Philadelphia to face the Eagles in the NFL Championship Game. Green Bay took the lead 13-10 in the fourth quarter on a seven-yard touchdown pass from Starr to Max McGee.
That only lasted temporarily though. Ted Dean of the Eagles returned the Green Bay kickoff from the three to the Packers 39-yard line. Dean finished the drive with a five-yard touchdown run to take a 17-13 lead.
Green Bay wasn’t finished though. On their final drive, the Packers drove to the Philadelphia 22. On third down, Starr hit Jim Taylor with a pass at the 17. Taylor rumbled to the nine, breaking two tackles on the way before running into Chuck Bednarik. Concrete Charlie brought down Taylor and sat on him until the clock struck zeroes.
Surprisingly, this loss, the first and only championship loss in Lombardi’s career, galvanized the Packers behind their demanding coach. Early in the game, Lombardi regretted his decision to go for it on a couple of fourth downs earlier in the game. After the game he said, “When you get down there, come out with something. I lost the game, not my players.”
His players, led by quarterback Bart Starr, made sure he never lost another Championship game.
In 1961 and 1962, The Packers offense, guided by Starr and running Lombardi’s smash mouth offense, led the NFL in scoring. Green Bay finished at the top of the West Division both seasons and, once in Green Bay and once in New York’s Yankee Stadium, defeated quarterback Y.A. Tittle and the New York Giants for the NFL Championship.
In 1963, Packers running back Paul Hornung was suspended indefinitely, along with Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras, for betting on NFL games and associating with known gamblers. Green Bay still rolled to an 11-2-1 record but finished second behind the Chicago Bears in the West Division.
Hornung returned for the 1964 season but that didn’t keep the Packers from struggling to an 8-5-1 record and a tie for second in the West Division.
Green Bay returned to glory in 1965, winning their third NFL Championship in five seasons.
The Dawn of the Super Bowl Era
On June 8, 1966, the NFL reached agreement with the American Football League to merge. Teams would play schedules within their own leagues until 1970, when the official merger would take place. The part of the merger agreement that would have the biggest immediate impact on the leagues was the creation of the AFL-NFL Championship Game, later renamed the Super Bowl.
The Packers started the 1966 season right where they left off 1965. They blasted through their schedule, finishing 12-2. Their two losses, to the San Francisco 49ers and Minnesota Vikings were by a total of four points.
Starr led all NFL quarterbacks with a completion percentage of 62.2, a 7.5 net yards per attempt average and a passer rating of 105.0.
For his excellence, Starr was named a First Team All-Pro at quarterback and overwhelmingly won the NFL MVP award.
Green Bay opened the postseason by facing the East Division Champion Dallas Cowboys in the first of their two epic NFL Championship Game matchups.
In a back and forth game that the Packers won 34-27, Green Bay safety Tom Brown sealed the victory when he intercepted a Don Meridith pass in the Packers end zone.
Starr completed 19 of 28 passes in that game for 304 yards and four touchdowns for a 143.5 quarterback rating.
Instead of celebrating their fourth NFL Championship in six years though, Starr and the Packers had to go back to work to prepare for the AFL-NFL Championship Game, Super Bowl I, two weeks later against the AFL Champions, the Kansas City Chiefs.
Behind the scenes, the pressure was on Green Bay from the rest of the NFL to make short work of the Chiefs when it came time to take the field. Even though the AFL and NFL had agreed to merge, there was still a lot of animosity boiling under the surface between the principals of both leagues.
By the end of the first half, stellar passing by Starr had staked the Packers to a 14-10 lead, although nobody in Green Bay’s halftime locker room was happy about it, especially Lombardi.
Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson was moving the ball successfully through the air and on the ground against Green Bay’s defense, The Chiefs were playing so well that some thought they actually had a shot to win the game. Not a position that anybody in the old school NFL thought Green Bay would be in.
That thought ended on Kansas City’s first drive of the second half when Willie Wood intercepted Dawson and returned it to the Chiefs’ five-yard line. One play later, Elijah Pitts ran the ball in to give Green Bay a 21-10 lead.
The Packers defense made Dawson miserable the rest of the afternoon while Starr added a second-half touchdown pass to steer the Packers to a 35-10 victory.
Starr completed 16 passes in 23 attempts for 250 yards and two touchdowns, both to Max McGee, for a 116.2 passer rating. That performance earned Starr the first Super Bowl MVP award.
The Ice Bowl
In 1967, the 33 year old Starr struggled in a Packers offense that had lost both of its Hall of Fame running backs. Paul Hornung had been claimed by the New Orleans Saints in the expansion draft but ended up retiring due to a pinched nerve in his neck while Jim Taylor had been traded to the Saints for the 1967 season, his last in the NFL.
Green Bay struggled but still managed to finish first in the newly created NFL Central Division with a 9-4-1 record. Next, they defeated the Coastal Division champion Los Angeles Rams in the Divisional Round of the playoffs to set up an NFL Championship Game rematch with the Dallas Cowboys, this time at Lambeau Field.
Both teams practiced on Saturday and had no problems in the practically balmy 20 degree temperatures. What nobody on either team realized when they woke up on Sunday morning was that a polar vortex had swung down from Canada and the temperature had plummeted to -16.
The game kicked off at -13 degrees, -23 with the wind chill. It still holds the record for the coldest game in NFL history. The heating system that the Packers had installed under the field had malfunctioned and ice began to form on the turf after the tarp had been removed. The officials found their whistles useless. They called the game with voice and hand signals.
The game opened with two Green Bay touchdowns in their first three possessions. Starr connected with Boyd Dowler from 8-yards and 46-yards to open up a 14-0 lead over the warm weather Dallas squad.
The Cowboys fought back in the second quarter. Willie Townes sacked Starr and returned the resulting fumble 7-yards for the first Dallas score. Later in the quarter, Willie Wood fumbled a punt that Dallas recovered at the Packers 17. Green Bay’s defense held but a field goal cut their lead to 14-10 at the half.
Dallas opened the fourth quarter with a touchdown on an option pass from running back Dan Reeves to wide receiver Lantz Rentzel to take a 17-14 lead. Missed field goals by both teams kept the score the same, then with 4:05 left, the Packers took over at their 32-yard line after a Dallas punt.
Starr drove his offense until they had reached the Cowboys one-yard line. On first and second down, Starr handed off to running back Donny Anderson but he slipped both times before taking the handoff and couldn’t get to the end zone.
The ball was at the two-foot line with 16 seconds left when Starr called the Packers last timeout. Starr had asked right guard Jerry Kramer whether he could get enough footing to run a wedge play. On the sidelines, Starr said to Lombardi, “Coach, the linemen can get their footing for the wedge, but the backs are slipping. I’m right there, I can just shuffle my feet and lunge in.” Lombardi replied, “Run it, and let’s get the hell out of here!”
Kramer and center Ken Bowman drove hard into Dallas defensive tackle Jethro Pugh and moved him back. Starr lunged across the goal line to give Green Bay a 21-17 win and their third straight NFL Championship, the only team to accomplish that feat in the league’s playoff era.
In the second AFL-NFL World Championship Game, or Super Bowl II, the Packers dominated the Oakland Raiders from beginning to end, winning 33-14. Starr completed 13 passes in 24 attempts for 202 yards and one touchdown. Afterwards, he was presented with his second straight Super Bowl MVP award.
After the win, Vince Lombardi retired as head coach of the Green Bay Packers. As for Starr, age began catching up to him.
The End of the Line
In 1968, Starr only started nine games because of a torn bicep but he still led the NFL in completion percentage and passer rating. In 1969, Starr led the league again in both categories while only starting nine games while suffering with an elbow injury. Starr started 13 games in 1970 but only threw for 1,645 yards, the fewest of his career as a full time starter.
That offseason, Starr checked into the Mayo Clinic to have a biceps tendon transplant. Doctors botched the first attempt and Starr nearly bled to death. After the second surgery, the nerves in Starr’s arm were damaged to the point where he could barely grip a football.
He started three games in 1971 but only threw 45 passes. Finally, in July of 1972, Starr retired as a player.
Starr’s second career, nine seasons as Green Bay’s head coach is best left to the dustbin of history.
During Starr’s prime as a quarterback, from the start of the Packers dynasty in 1960 through the 1967 season, his record as a starter was 73-29-4 a .708 winning percentage. In the playoffs Starr’s numbers are phenomenal.
In 10 games, Starr completed 130 passes in 213 attempts for 1,753 yards with 15 touchdowns against only three interceptions. His postseason passer rating was 104.8. His 9-1 record includes five NFL Championship Game wins. Starr also took home the Most Valuable Player award for his performances in the first two Super Bowls.
Starr held the record for Championship Game wins by a quarterback until the 2024 season when Patrick Mahomes tied it with his fifth AFC Championship Game win, a 32-29 victory over the Buffalo Bills. Mahomes also has three Super Bowl wins and three Super Bowl MVP trophies.
Bart Starr’s career can’t be summed up in gaudy stats like others of more recent vintage but look at how his record stacks up against, arguably the greatest quarterbacks in the modern NFL. Starr’s standard was winning, being the best on the biggest stages when his team was looking to him for his leadership.
Jerry Kramer, the right guard on those championship Green Bay teams summed up what it meant to have Starr at quarterback. “Bart was rarely the best quarterback in the league on a statistical basis,” said Kramer. “But for three hours each Sunday, he was, almost always, the best quarterback in the game in which he was playing.”
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