Wisconsin Magazine of History
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(ISSN 0043-6534) WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY The State Historical Society ofWisconsin • Vol. 7 f No. 1 • Autumn, 1987 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF WISCONSIN H. NICHOLAS MULLER III, Director Officers MRS. L. PRENTICE EAGER, JR., Pr«!c(«n( GERALD D. VISTE, Treasurer WILSON B. THIEDE, First Vice-President H. NICHOLAS MULLER III, Secretary GEORGE H. MILLER, Second Vice-President THE SrATE HtsroRicAL SOCIETY OF WiscoNstN is both a state agency and a private member ship organization. Founded in 1846—two years before statehood—and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest American historical society to receive continuous public funding. By statute, it is charged with collecting, advancing, and disseminating knowledge of Wisconsin and of the trans-Allegheny West. The Society serves as the archive oi the State of Wisconsin; it collects all manner of books, periodicals, maps, manuscripts, relics, newspapers, and aural and graphic materials as they relate to North America; it maintains a museum, library, and research facility in Madison as well as a statewide system of historic sites, schofjl services, area research centers, and affiliated local societies; it administers a broad program of his toric preservation; and publishes a wide variety of historical materials, both scholarly and popular. MEMBERSHtPin the Society is open to the public. Individual membership is $15, or $12.50 for persons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Family membership is $20, or $15 for per sons over 65 or members of affiliated societies. Contributing membership is $50; supporting, $100; .sustaining, $200-500; patron, $500 or more. [A new fee schedule approved by the Board of Curators at its November meeting will go into effect on January 1, 1988.] THE SociErv is governed by a Board of Curators which includes twenty-four elected mem bers, the Governor or designee, three appointees of the Governor, a legislator from the majority and minority from each house, and ex officio, the President of the University of Wisconsin System, the designee ofthe Friends Coordinating Council, the President ofthe Wisconsin History Foundation, Inc., and the President ofthe Administrative Committee ofthe Wisconsin Council for Local History. A complete listing ofthe Curators appears in side the back cover. The Society is headquartered at 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin 53706, at the juncture of State ancl Park streets on the University of Wisconsin campus. The State Historical Museum is located at 30 North Carroll Street. A partial lisung of phone numbers (Area Code 608) follows: General Administrauon 262-3266 Maps 262-5867 Affiliated local societies 262-2316 Membership 262-9613 Archives reading room 262-3338 Microforms reading room 262-9621 Contribution of manuscript materials 262-3248 Museum tours 262-7700 Editorial offices 262-9603 Newspapers reference 262-9584 Film collections 262-0.58,5 Picture and sound collections 262-9581 Genealogical and general reference inquiries . 262-9.590 Public informauon office 262-9606 Government publications and reference 262-2781 Sales desk 262-8000 Historic preservation 262-1339 School services 262-7539 Historic sites 262-9606 Speakers bureau 262-9606 Library circulation desk 262-3421 ON IHE COVER: Bart Starr and Carroll Dale on the sidelines with Vince Lombardi during a Green Bay Packer football game. An article hy Lombardi's biographer begins on page 3. Photograph courtesy Vernon J. Biever, Port Washington. Volume 71, Number 1 / Autumn, 1987 WISCONSIN MAGAZINE OF HISTORY Published quarterly by the State Historical Society ofWisconsin, 816 State Street, Madison, In Search of Vince Lombardi: Wisconsin 53706. Distributed A Historian's Memoir to members as part of their dues. (Individual membership, Michael O'Brien 115, or $12.50 for those over 65 or members of affiliated societies; family membership, $20,or$15for those over 65 or The Establishment of Wisconsin's members of affiliated societies; Income Tax 27 contributing, $50; suppordng, $100; sustaining, $200-500; ' John O. Stark patron, $500 or more.) Single numbers from Volume 57 forward are $2. Microfilmed copies available through Good Oak 46 University Microfilms, 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Aldo Leopold Michigan 48106; reprints of Volumes 1 through 20 and most issues of Volumes 21 through 56 are available from Kraus Reprint Company, Book Reviews 55 Route 100, Millwood, New York 10546. Book Review Index 67 Communications should be addressed to the editor. The Wisccjnsin History Checklist Society does not assume 68 responsibility for statements made by contributors. Accessions 71 Second-class postage paid at .Madison, Wisconsin. Proceedings ofthe Orre Hundred and posi'MAsrER: Send address Forty-First Annual Meeting ofthe changes to Wisconsin Magazine State Historical Society of History, Madison, Wisconsin 74 53706. Copyright © 1987 by the State Historical Society of Contributors 80 Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Magazine of History is indexed annually by Editor the editors; cumulative indexes PAUL H. HASS are assembled decennially. In addition, articles are abstracted Associate Editors and indexed in America: History and Life, Historical A bstracts. WILLIAM C. MARTEN Index to Literature on the American JortN C). Hor.ZHUETER Indian, and the (Combined Retrospective Index to Journals in History, 1838-1974. A Loss: Vince Lombardi watching the Green Bay Packers against the Detroit Lions. Photograph courtesy Vernon J. Biever, Port Washington. In Search of Vince Lombardi: A Historian's Memoir By Michael O'Brien |N September 20, 1985, while been written about Lombardi, did the world o eating breakfast at Donut really need another one? World in Menasha, Wisconsin, my heart sud My rejoinder was—and is—that all pre denly fluttered as I read Bud Lea's column in vious studies had been written by contempo- the sports pages of the Milwaukee Sentinel. raryjournalists (principally sportswriters) and "Last Sunday," Lea began, "in the press box of by men who had played under Lombardi. Lambeau Field, Dick Schaap passed out Jerry Most were superficial, and tended to perpetu Kramer's newest book. Distant Replay." Then ate inaccuracies and misconceptions; many came the ominous sentence: "The immediate dealt only with brief periods of Lombardi's reaction among those receiving copies was, life. There was no full-dress biography based 'Oh no, not another book about Lombardi's upon painstaking research and written by a Packers.' " By then, I was concluding my sev trained historian. enth year of research and writing on "another The two best books about Lombardi were book" about Lombardi and the Green Bay both memoirs and bestsellers, but they were Packers. I believed that my book was much dif not biographies. Vince's book Run to Daylight ferent from all the others, arrd in many re (1963), written with the collaboration of W. C. spects much better—but would anyone take Heinz, chronicled Vince's thoughts and the time to notice? I vividly imagined the actions during a single week—Monday crotchety sportswriters in the press box atop through Sunday—during the championship Lambeau Field throwing my book out the back season of 1962. It provided a unique inside window and into the parkiirg lot. look at the way Vince prepared his players for I had heard the old canard many times: a game. Because of Heinz's lucid style and the "We-kno w-e very thing-w-e-need-to-kno w- book's fresh, intimate perspective on profes about-Vince-Lombardi-so-why-are-you- sional football, reviewers lavished praise on studying-him?" Indeed, Bud Lea himself had Run to Daylight. Similarly, Jerry Kramer's In expressed that viewpoint to me two years ear stant Replay (1968) furnished a candid behind- lier when I requested an interview with him. the-scenes glimpse of Lombardi's Packers Initially he had resisted, assuming that I was written by a star lineman of another champi merely rehashing tired old material. (Never onship team. Kramer, who played right theless, Lea gave an excellent interview and guard, kept a diary of the 1967 season and re provided new insights, especially on Lombar corded his feelings from training camp to Su di's tense relationship with the media.) Fhe at per Bowl II as his coach bullied, maligned, titude Lea and his peers reflected was widely mothered, and inspired the players. Neither held. Since so many books and articles had of these outstanding books was a biography of Copyright ©1987 try The State Historical Society oj Wucimsin All rights of reproduction in any form reserved .1 I icioiy: Lombardi gets good news from the playing peld. Photograph courtesy Vernon J. Biever, Port Washington. Vince Lombardi. Rather, they were raw mate oirs, they are valuable sources for the biogra rial for the biographer, in the same sense that pher but little more. Finally, the lives of play Frnest Herningw-ay's novels are raw material ers on the Packers' Super Bowl team of 1966 for Hemingway's biographer. were updated byjerrv Kramer's Distant Replay The only rroteworthy biography of Lom (1985), a congenial, nostalgic book which re bardi is Robert W. Wells's Vince Lombardi: His vealed nothing new- abotrt Vince Lombardi. Life and Times (1971). Wells, a reporter and Thus, it seemed to me, all the books written later book editor for the Milwaukee J ournal, has about Lombardi fell far short of conrprehen- written many books in a line journalistic style; siveness. Fhey failed to place the man in the but his biography of Lombardi is brief, super full context of his times; they were weak in re ficially researched, and badly outdated. Three search; they lacked the historian's thorough similar books pt-ovide edited excerpts of inter ness, his skepticism, his ability to make cotrnec- views w-ith persons who knew Lombardi at first tions. 'Fhere was plenty of room for "another" hand: Jerry Kramer, Lombardi: Winning Is the book about Lombardi.