Continued from previous week
Bart Starr was hired by the Packers as head coach and general manager on Christmas Eve 1974.
After retiring as a player in 1972, he served as the Packers’ quarterback coach for one season under Dan Devine.
He spent two years as a broadcaster with CBS before getting the head coach/general manager position with the Packers.
Under Starr, the Packers went 52-76-3 and made one playoff appearance in his nine seasons at the helm.
“I can tell you that of all of the coaches I’ve watched here through 36 years, I don’t know of anybody who worked harder or any longer than Bart Starr. He was so proud to be coming back to this franchise and taking over as the coach, and he was probably devoting 20 hours a day to coaching,” Bob Harlan said in his book with Dale Hofmann, Green and Gold Moments.
“But things just never fell into place. It’s a shame that they didn’t, but they just never did.”
Starr left on Dec. 19, 1983, and Forrest Gregg was hired five days later — on Christmas Eve.
But, that doesn’t end the list of similarities between Starr and Gregg.
Gregg had also played for the Packers during the Lombardi years, but he was now working with the Cincinnati Bengals.
“It took only 10 minutes for the Cincinnati Bengals to give the Packers permission to talk to Forrest Gregg. When Judge Parins called them, Paul Brown called back almost immediately, which surprised everyone. We didn’t expect it to be that easy,” Harlan said.
“Forrest had been Coach of the Year when he was with the Cleveland Browns in 1976, and he’d taken the Bengals to the Super Bowl in 1981, so we thought it would be much tougher to get him.”
During his time as head coach, 1984-87, the Packers went 25-37-1.
Lindy Infante was hired by the Packers as Gregg’s successor in February 1988.
“Tom Braatz, executive vice president of football operations, conducted a three-week search, interviewing numerous candidates and first offered the job to Michigan State Coach George Perles. Perles accepted, then changed his mind,” wrote Packers Historian Cliff Christl.
When Perles backed out, Infante was hired.
“Infante had been offensive coordinator in Cleveland. Over the next four years, the Packers went 24-40 under Infante with nearly half of those wins coming in 1989,” Christl added.
To be continued
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