Packers legends Starr, Kramer remember legendary coach Lombardi
GREEN BAY -- Following a legend is one of the toughest things to do in sports, and doing that in Green Bay can be particularly daunting!
Legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi left the sidelines following the Packers third straight title in 1968. He didn't leave for Washington -- as coach and general manager of the Redskins until a year later.
Lombardi stayed in Titletown as GM. He gave the coaching reins to trusted defensive coordinator Phil Bengtson.
"He's been a very loyal assistant to me. He deserved the chance that he got, and he's a good football coach and has good football knowledge," Bengtson said.
When Lombardi announced he was leaving, sportscaster Earl Gillespie -- a legend in his own right, talked with Bart Starr and Jerry Kramer.
"Perhaps we'll realize, well, this person who placed us where we were for so many years is no longer here, and are we gonna be big enough to do it now with somebody else at the helm or not?" Starr said.
"The emotional advantage he gave us from time to time -- I think we felt the loss of that last year, from time to time," Kramer said.
Before the Lombardi Golf Classic in June, FOX6's Tom Pipines talked with Starr and Kramer, to get their takes with the benefit of over 40 years of hindsight.
"The difference, of course, began with the leadership, because even though we had good leadership with the coach who took over, it would be very difficult to replace Coach Lombardi and quickly just make it be the same," Starr said.
"Coach Bengtson was a wonderful coach -- unquestionably. If you look at our defense over the championship years, Coach Bengtson was responsible for that. Coach Bengtson was more of a Tom Landry kind of coach. He was not an emotional coach," Kramer said.
In the end, Starr and Kramer say it wasn't so much a condemnation of Bengtson, but rather a tribute to Lombardi. Over four decades later, his spirit resonates in the lives of the two legendary ex-Packers players.
"Next to the word 'God,' I think 'attitude' is the strongest word we have in our vocabulary. His attitude was always such that you couldn't wait until the next meeting to be with him," Starr said.
"When he became general manager, we missed him. We missed his fire on Sunday. We missed his burn, his drive, his push, his sharp tongue or his pat on the back," Kramer said.
Cancer took Lombardi at the age of 57 -- but his players sensed something wasn't right with their Rock of Gibraltar in his last seasons as coach.
"He seemed to be aging -- that the game was wearing on him -- more than as a younger man," Kramer said.
Starr -- an extension of Lombardi on the field, once had the nerve to challenge the coach not to criticize him in front of the other players if he wanted him to be his leader. Fitting that Starr would have a chance to say goodbye to his father-figure in those final days before his death.
"It was very difficult because he was literally in his hospital bed. I don't know when I've ever teared up so fast walking into someone as I did that day, but it was so emotional, I couldn't control myself. He was very gracious, very kind and very direct, but I could tell that he was also hurting and was concerned about being in that presence with me. After we chatted -- and it was rather brief, he said 'thank you for coming. You take good care of yourself.' I knew he was asking me to leave," Starr said.
Bengtson definitely had it tough taking over for Vince Lombardi. More recently, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers took the baton from Brett Favre pretty well in Green Bay.