In 1923, my grandfather Richard “Jab” Murray, was traded to Racine Legion in exchange for a rookie that Lambeau coveted. After the trade my grandfather, who was a lawyer, convinced Racine that he may quit because travel between Marinette, WI and Racine was a very long commute via train— so they made an arrangement with Lambeau to allow him to return to the Packers and work his day job as an attorney— but Racine retained the right to have my grandfather play two games (other choosing) a season for Racine. Basically they didn’t want him playing g for the Packers when they played each other, but they also wanted him for potential big games.
Here is a link to the video that explains the background to the mailgram from Lambeau
5 comments
Hahaha
Not gonna lie, Green Bay FC from 1923 onwards would’ve been a bad ass team name.
I think they were called the “Indian River Packers” after the local packing company by that name.
This is amazing! What an awesome piece of history!!!
This also appears in Cliff Christi’s definitive history of the Packers, “The Greatest Story in Sports,” volume 1. Note “(Formerly Packers)”! The team was trying to distance themselves from the debt-ridden Acme Packing company. It didn’t take— people continued to refer to the team as the Packers.
Just two weeks later, the insolvent Green Bay Football Club was succeeded by the Green Bay Football Corporation, marking the transition to the publicly owned non-profit structure we all know and love.
What’s interesting to me is “Since 1917.” Maybe a bit of hyperbole? There had been various semi-pro teams active in Green Bay, but today’s team marks August 11, 1919 as the birth date, the day the team was organized in the offices of the Green Bay Press Gazette.