Bart Starr and the Green Bay Packers

My first new book of 2012

For Christmas I got what I get just about every year, a couple of gift cards for Barnes and Noble.  These are always my favorite gifts.  For one thing, they make Christmas last a bit longer.  For another, I have never had to take one back to the store and return it or exchange it for something else.  Of course, the best reason is that they afford the opportunity to read something new without splurging.

Today I found this book about one of my childhood heroes, Bart Starr, who once quarterbacked the Green Bay Packers, back in the day when I was actually a fan of professional football.  Since I just got the book, all I've had time to read of it, so far, has been the cover flaps and the introduction.  What's interesting is all the memories that have come flooding back just from this one little stimulus.

My first memory of football was when I was in first grade.  We lived in a duplex on Poindexter Drive in Charlotte, NC.  My brother, Greg was still just a toddler so I spent a lot of time playing by myself.  I don't know what sparked my interest, but I remember that I really wanted to play football.  I got my parents to buy me a complete football uniform, complete with pads and helmet.  The jersey and helmet were a dark blue and the pants were white.  This was great, except for the fact that I didn't own a football.

Since I didn't have a football I improvised.  I used a plastic shampoo bottle shaped like Mickey Mouse.  For hours I would kick that shampoo bottle back and forth across the front yard.  I did kick-offs, extra points, field goals ... I had nothing to aim at for goal posts, so I just used my imagination.  I remember seeing pictures Mom took of me in my uniform kicking that silly shampoo bottle.  I think I got my first football that Christmas.

I remember watching football on Sunday afternoons when we lived on Firwood Lane, also in Charlotte.  I was in the second and third grades at Collinswood Elementary School then.  I loved the Pat Summerall narrated highlight reels of the previous week's games.  And it was always a big day if the Packers were on.  The season when they won their second Super Bowl was really the first season I watched football as a kid.  I was always wishing I was a year or two older so I could have seen more of the Packers' games.

I distinctly remember three games that season, before they reached the playoffs.  There was their 55-7 thrashing of the Cleveland Browns.  Packer kickoff returner, Travis Williams returned two kickoffs for touchdowns.  The highlight reel the next Sunday was really neat.  Then there were two heartbreaking losses, one to the Baltimore Colts, 13-10, and another to the Los Angeles Rams by a score of 27-24.  In that one, Travis Williams returned a kickoff for a touchdown but it was called back because of a penalty.  So they kicked over again, and again Williams took it all the way back for the score.  The Rams blocked a Donny Anderson punt late in the fourth quarter which set up a short Roman Gabriel touchdown pass which beat them.  I was so glad when they were rematched in the playoffs and the Packers stomped them 28-0.

In elementary and junior high school, one of my favorite things was once a week when the class went to the library.  I loved to browse and look for books.  Among my early favorites were The Three Investigators, featuring Jupiter Jones.  But, as I got just a little older, I discovered sports books.  Packer great, Jerry Kramer wrote a book called Instant Replay that read sometime when I was in junior high.  There were some real heroes back then.  I read about Johnny Unitas, about Fran Tarkenton, Red Grange, Bronco Nagurski, Jim Thorpe, Gayle Sayers, and Brian Piccolo.  But Bart Starr was always #1 with me.